Melo Yellow?

So after two months of trade rumors and six months of spec-ulation... Carmelo Anthony says he's thinking about just signing in Denver. For a mere 3 years and $65 million, to stay in the only franchise he's ever known, for an also-ran Western Conference team.

And, um, this:

> They've made one decent playoff run in his entire time there

> They have an aging coach that's had to fight off cancer, who could decide that enough is enough at any time, and the club more or less collapsed without him last year

> They have an aging point guard that isn't nearly as good as he thinks he is anymore, but still demands the ball in crunch time

> Their prime bench scorer may be clinically insane, and their prime bench rebounder is a recovering addict who could also be out of the league at any time, and

> Their best big man is also having his contract end at the close of the year, and seems to want out with speed

So either Melo is tiring of the speculation and just wants to play ball for the rest of the year to see what happens in the playoffs (Denver should make it, and the ugly little fact about the West this year is that the top teams are all looking a little shaky, since they are close together and fairly fragile on the injury front). He's also playing some pretty great ball for all of the turmoil, with one of the the highest rebound rates in his career, and all of his other numbers trending just around his career average. There's also the possibility that he's taking the Durant route, which is where you get scared by a lockout and just sign with your original club while reaping the PR reward.

Personally, I think he's still going to wind up in the East. But I also think that by the time it happens, we're going to need a good half-season to care. Just too long of a drama, for a league that got well and truly tired the first time this happened (i.e., LeBron), with a superior player.