Michael Wilbon, ESPN: Even with all the analysis of the Knicks we’ll be indulging in for the next few weeks, the club is so much better off post-Carmelo than pre-Carmelo. Goodness, if anything the Knicks should probably be criticized for not simply getting down to business and making this deal six or eight weeks ago. The team could have played 20 games with Billups-Fields-Anthony-Stoudemire already. If the Knicks hadn’t goofed around until nearly the trade deadline, they probably could have made a deal that excluded Mozgov. But they let the New Jersey Nets set the terms, which likely pushed Denver’s price higher. Still, after a lot of false starts the Knicks appear to be actually on the road to contention — how serious we’ll find out soon enough. Miami’s all-new cast needed close to 30 games to figure out how to play with one another. Stoudemire, Anthony and Billups do have different skill sets and don’t have to examine everything they’ve done for years the way LeBron James and Dwyane Wade had to do. Then again, James and Wade are adept passers; Stoudemire and Anthony are not, which is why Billups, intimidated by nothing and calm in the face of all kinds of NBA drama, is better off running the point with this group than Felton, whose shoulders have no stripes.

Dave Krieger, Denver Post: As excited as NBA officials may be about the resurrection of the Knicks in the league’s biggest market, they cannot ignore the dire straits in which smaller-market teams find themselves as the old labor agreement expires. Denver joins an unfortunate club that already included Cleveland and Toronto. Three of the game’s biggest stars — Anthony, LeBron James and Chris Bosh — abandoned these markets for brighter lights in the last eight months.

Mike Lupica, New York Daily News: The Knicks get Carmelo Anthony even after giving away all the leverage they had in this thing, and what feels like half their roster. The player only wanted to come to New York, only wanted to get his huge contract extension here, didn’t want to go to Jersey or anywhere else. The Knicks – meaning Walsh – always had the Nuggets where they wanted them, and should have been able to make this deal with Wilson Chandler and Eddy Curry’s big, fat expiring contract and some other junk thrown in. Instead they give up Raymond Felton and Danilo Gallinari and Chandler and Timofey Mozgov, too. If the trade deadline were next Thursday instead of this Thursday, Denver could have gotten James Dolan to throw in Mike Breen and Clyde Frazier, too. Clearly Dolan still has Isiah Thomas as his muse, apparently because all the good ones were taken.

William C. Rhoden, New York Times: Nearly all of the burden of proof rests on Anthony’s shoulders. He asked for this situation and now he has it. If he knows the Knicks’ history, Anthony knows that with the possible exception of Bernard King, no New York City player has ever come back as a Knick and turned the place upside down — in a positive way. He will have something to prove to the legions of fans who consider him a one-dimensional player who lacks the skills and the drive to play defense or make his teammates better. Anthony is not the answer, but he is unquestionably a building block. He led Syracuse to a national championship and was a vital component for the United States when it won an Olympic gold medal in Beijing. He could be a winner on a properly outfitted team, something the Knicks, with Stoudemire, are becoming. And now that the Knicks have two star players in place, a player like Chris Paul is much more likely to leave cash-strapped New Orleans for well-heeled New York.

J.A. Adande, ESPN: The Nuggets did well for themselves … which is more than the Cleveland Cavaliers or Toronto Raptors could say when LeBron James and Chris Bosh bolted for South Beach. The Cavs and Raptors made last-minute sign-and-trade deals for picks and trade exceptions, but those are just possibilities and cap space. The Nuggets have more tangible assets. They have three players averaging at least 16 points per game in Raymond Felton, Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari and a 7-footer in Timofey Mozgov. They got a first-round pick and two second-round picks. I know the Nuggets were attracted to all of the first-round picks the New Jersey Nets offered, but I’d rather have the known in proven players than the unknown in picks of undetermined order. Plus that $3 million, in addition to the $13.2 million in luxury tax payments they’re no longer on the hook for, plus whatever cut they’ll receive from the taxpaying teams. This is the reward the Nuggets get for holding out until the end, for refusing to yield to pressure from around the league and a weary NBA media and fandom to just put this to a halt. This whole process dragged on longer and had more false endings than “The Return of the King.” But the Nuggets benefited from the early start, getting the initial lowball offers out of the way before Thanksgiving, learning what the minimum was and working from there.

ESPN has the details of the trade.

As a part of the deal, the Knicks will send Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov, and a 2014 first-round draft pick to the Nuggets, who would get additional picks and cash, league sources told Broussard. Along with Anthony, New York would acquire Chauncey Billups, Shelden Williams, Anthony Carter and Renaldo Balkman, the sources said.

New York will send Anthony Randolph and Eddy Curry to Minnesota as part of the deal in exchange for Corey Brewer, a league source told Broussard.

As Chris Broussard noted earlier in the day, Wilson Chandler was set to become a restricted free agent this summer, and the Knicks would have had to give up their rights to the swingman if they were going to try to sign Anthony as a free agent. So if Chandler were expendable, and we count the swap of Billups and Felton as a wash (at least in the short term), then this becomes Carmelo Anthony and Denver’s spare parts for Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov, a (likely late) first round pick and a pair of second rounders. The Knicks were going to get the better end of the deal all along since Carmelo made it clear that he only wanted to sign the extension if it meant he could play in New York. Still, the Nuggets improved their position and turned a bad situation into at least three starter-caliber players.

Look for Denver to move Felton before Thursday’s deadline for another piece to the rebuilding puzzle, signifying a changing of the guard at the point. The electric Ty Lawson will take over. It would have been nice if Denver had been able to acquire Landry Fields, but Arron Afflalo is a very similar player, and Mozgov has some upside as a young big. There are already rumors swirling that one or more of these former Knicks may be headed to the Nets for picks.

New York will start Billups, Fields, Anthony, Stoudemire and probably Ronny Turiaf going forward. I don’t expect a deep playoff run in the stacked Eastern Conference as the players get acclimated to one another, but they could spring an upset in the first round.

Yahoo! Sports’ Marc J. Spears has a source that thinks the Carmelo deal is almost done.

Is this finally over?

Marc Stein reports that the Nuggets would trade Ray Felton if he’s acquired in the Carmelo trade.

Meanwhile, Chris Broussard is reporting that the Nets and Nuggets are working on a post-Carmelo deal for one or two (former) Knicks.

If the Nets and Nuggets are discussing a post-Carmelo deal, it seems like the writing is on the wall. Carmelo will become a Knick over the next few days, and it sounds like Timofey Mozgov, Ray Felton, Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler could all be included in the deal.

The New York Post has the story:

Carmelo Anthony is expected to inform the Nets by today at the latest whether or not he will accept a trade to New Jersey and sign an extension to play there, sources told The Post last night.

There were reports that the Nets’ meeting with Carmelo didn’t go all that well, but owner Mikhail Prokhorov called the meeting “fantastic” and thinks his team has a shot. (Doesn’t this sound like “The Decision: Carmelo Anthony” at this point?)

Per ESPN, Prokhorov seemed content with having driven up the price for the Knicks.

“I think we made a very good tactical decision to force [the] Knicks to pay as much as they can,” Prokhorov said. “So it’s very good, it’s very interesting, it’s very competitive.”

I mentioned that this might be his strategy in a post from last Thursday.

This could turn out to be a savvy move by Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov. He felt like his team was getting played by the Nuggets and/or Carmelo, and he ordered management to back off. Now that the trade deadline is quickly approaching, he sees that the Knicks may get Anthony for nearly nothing, and by reentering trade talks, at the very least he should be able to drive the price up on any forthcoming Knicks/Nuggets trade, hurting the rival Knicks long term.

At the very least, Prokhorov’s involvement upped the ante for the Knicks and hurt them long term by forcing New York to give up an extra starter or two.

The Nuggets have a game on Tuesday, and if Carmelo suits up and plays, it means that nothing is close to getting done. I’d expect the Nuggets to hold him out of Tuesday’s game just to be safe. After all, the trade deadline is on Thursday — why take on the injury risk?