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Naturally, Carmelo’s visit to Houston last night, where the Rockets beat the Nuggets for the second time in a week, was the perfect opportunity for the Houston media to get their crack at the player their team covets most. Carmelo even took a minute to address the possibility of playing for Houston.

"They’ve always been a play-hard team, but as far as coming here or anything like that, I don’t control that," Anthony said in an interview with Clutch Fans, which you can see here. "It would be interesting, that’s all I can say. The Rockets are a good team, they’re an up and coming team right now. They miss Yao. They’re a play-hard team. I’m pretty sure anybody would like to play for that team. Now don’t take that the wrong… don’t spin that tonight.”

All spin aside, this is the first time Anthony has had anything at all to say about Houston as a potential landing spot. Like most NBA players, he recognizes the Rockets as a team that comes to play every night, though this season their efforts have not been as fruitful as last year. This season they’ve been so inconsistent and have acquired so many redundant pieces that head coach Rick Adelman has begun to mull retirement at season’s end. HOOPSWORLD’s Alex Raskin wrote extensively about that situation in yesterday’s NBA PM.

If the Rockets were able to add Carmelo to the mix it would no doubt serve as a strong incentive for Adelman to postpone retirement, and it would also very likely mean a return to the playoffs for Houston. But it would be serious spin to say, at this point, that Houston is a likely destination for Carmelo. Sure, he gave the cameras a nice, PC answer, but Carmelo really has no desire to leave Denver, and if he does, according to scores of people around him who claim to be in the know, he would prefer to be in the vicinity of New York.

The reason the rumor mill is so stirred up about Carmelo is because many of the people around him are the same people who were around LeBron James. LeBron was telling people he was going to stay in Cleveland, but the decision was not ultimately his to make, one-hour special or not. The same is true of Carmelo, who is telling friends and the Nuggets organization that he prefers to stay in Denver, while the people around him envision the royalty checks if he were to be in the advertising capital of the world instead. 

Just today we have a source telling the New York Post that there is no way Carmelo will be a Nugget after the trade deadline, while other sources tell ESPN and HOOPSWORLD that the Nuggets simply don’t plan to trade him, especially since Carmelo said openly he would likely sign Denver’s extension if he is not traded.

The black fly in the Chardonnay here may be the Nuggets’ current trend, having lost four of their last five games. Denver management was said to be closely examining the last few games before the deadline before making a final decision, and this Nuggets team isn’t making a very good case for themselves at the present. 

As for the rest . . .let the endless speculation continue if it must.

Hakeem or Hasheem?

In a related story, the Memphis Grizzlies continue to aggressively shop second-year center Hasheem Thabeet, though the league-wide interest seems to be somewhere below tepid. Houston fans see his name and feel a sharp pang for something long gone, but let me assure you the Rockets front office does not confuse Hasheem with Hakeem. Not by a longshot. The name may be similar, but you only have to watch Thabeet play for a minute or two to understand that he is a totally different player.

Olajuwon was driven by his super-human desire to be the absolute best, the most dominant player on the court at all times. He willed the Rockets to wins on many nights, and it was his fire and passion that drove to them to be back-to-back NBA Champions in 1994 and 1995. Thabeet, on the other hand, looks like he can barely be bothered to run up and down the floor. When he is on the floor he doesn’t rebound, score, or even defend particularly well, and that’s unfortunate. He certainly has all of the physical gifts to be a dominant center, but he simply doesn’t have the drive.

The Rockets are desperately combing the league for center options, that’s certainly true. But taking on Thabeet would be beyond desperation. It would be an exercise in futility. By all indications, Thabeet simply doesn’t want to be a professional basketball player.

Kevin Durant Handicaps The Dunk Contest

Oklahoma City Thunder All-Star Kevin Durant loves the slam dunk competition, and in preparation for this weekend’s festivities in Los Angeles he talks with HOOPSWORLD about his favorite dunk of all-time, the best dunkers past and present, and what he likes best about the contest in this exclusive interview:

Blaming Chris Bosh
 
NBA Fans in Cleveland have every right to be upset over the exit of LeBron James. He led the franchise to believe he would be there long-term, they went out and got the supporting players he asked for, and with him as their centerpiece they were one of the dominant teams in the Eastern Conference. When he left them high and dry it was, in many ways, a betrayal of both the city and the franchise.

The situation in Toronto is entirely different, though fans appear to be set to give Bosh the cold (vocal) shoulder as he makes his first appearance in Toronto as a member of the Miami HEAT on Wednesday night. 

“(A hard foul on Bosh) would mean a great deal (to the fans),” Raptors swingman Sonny Weems told the Toronto Star. “It probably wouldn’t even be the fact that we fouled. It’s just Chris hitting the ground. That’d be the biggest thing about it.”

“As a player, you know what takes place in between the lines, and why people make decisions they make," said Raptors Director of Player Development Alvin Williams. "So that’s why it’s harder for a player to have those bitter, ill feelings toward another player. I understand the fans wholeheartedly. (But) if the fans knew everything that went on, they’d probably have a different outlook.”

Chris Bosh will probably have one of his best games of the season on Wednesday night. We all know how good he can be when he’s motivated and determined, and a return to Toronto should serve as plenty of motivation. And fans will want to make sure he hears their displeasure over the many disappointments of his time as a Raptor. They will likely stop short of burning mounds of Bosh jerseys in the parking lot, but there will be plenty of boos.