Fallout of the Melo trade

In the end, the Knicks amended their "final" offer from last weekend and included Mozgov, the NBA rookie (he played six seasons overseas before coming over this year) center. Having a young big man to potentially replace either Kenyon Martin, a free agent after this season, or starting center Nene, who's also up after this season, was crucial for Denver.

Moving Gallinari, a favorite of team president Donnie Walsh, indicates the level in which owner Jim Dolan took control of the process.

But numerous reports indicated that both Walsh and D'Antoni were reluctant to move so many players for Anthony, forcing the Knicks to issue a statement Sunday claiming Dolan, Walsh and D'Antoni were all on the same page and agreed with the pursuit.

The Nuggets view the 23-year-old Chandler as one of the league's better young small forwards, superior to any that they would have been able to get on the open market in free agency or in the next couple of drafts. They had better, as they just traded away a franchise level player in Anthony to get him. Felton, 26, in his first season in New York after playing his first five seasons in Charlotte, played extremely well the first half of the season for the Knicks after signing a three-year deal, and will challenge Denver's young backup point Ty Lawson for the starting job. Gallinari is a "stretch" four who can spread the floor, and the 24-year-old Mozgov is a physical, hard-playing big man.

Denver is now likely to move forward Al Harrington, whom it signed to a five-year, $33 million free agent deal last summer. The Nuggets may also move Nene, who's likely to receive significant free agent offers next summer. The Rockets, looking for a long-term replacement for Yao Ming, are one potential landing place for Nene.

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The Nets, the source said, will proceed with trading starting point guard Devin Harris and forward Troy Murphy, who has not been with the team for weeks while it tried to arrange to deal him. Murphy could go to Golden State, but potential deals with Cleveland and New Orleans, and possibly Denver, are still possible. Harris has long been rumored to be going to Portland in a deal that would bring Andre Miller from the Trail Blazers, but that deal may be on the back burner while New Jersey explores other possible deals.

The Nuggets decided that the combination of young players coming from New York would be just as good as the draft picks they would have gotten from New Jersey. With the protections on some of those first-round picks -- one was protected through the seventh pick overall the next two years, and then converted into two second-round picks -- Denver preferred Chandler, Gallinari and Mozgov. Once the Knicks agreed to include Mozgov in the deal, the trade was finalized.

"I don't know if I can say we wouldn't have done it" without Mozgov, the team source said. "But we got him."