The Nets paved the way for a potential trade for Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony by acquiring two more first-round draft picks in the Nets-Rockets-Lakers deal yesterday and by doing so signaled that they are still very serious about acquiring Anthony regardless of whether he plans on signing an extension with New Jersey or not.

The three-team trade apparently caused overreaction or let something slip that shouldn’t have, as a message was posted on the twitter account of the ABC affiliate in Denver (KGMH) stating that Carmelo had been traded to Nets for Troy Murphy, Derrick Favors, and two future first-round picks.

Hold your horses on that one, folks!

Apparently this was an extremely premature posting as both Denver officials and Carmelo himself have completely denied that a trade has or will occur soon.

So much for getting to thoroughly enjoy their 111-94 spanking of the Magic last night! According to ProBasketballTalk.com:

At this point, this is just a report: trade rumor guru Adrian Wojnarowski tweeted that a high-ranking executive told him that any report that New Jersey and Denver have completed a trade is “completely and utterly false” just minutes after KGMH reported that the deal was going down.

Chris Tomasson of NBA Fanhouse has just refuted the rumors tweeting, “A Nuggets official said rumor is false. I just talked to Melo and he said, ‘It’s terrible. There’s no truth to it.’”

Even the folks at The Bleacher Report prematurely stated that the trade had happened in a matter-of-fact style - I assumed it might be true by reading their column just twenty minutes ago.

It has since been fixed, of course.

Ahhh… life in the sports world is always so exciting - you never know what’s true from minute to minute!

That being said I would not be surprised to hear this rumor become fact over the next 24-48 hours as the Nets can now put together a pretty enticing package of picks and young players - all that would hold this trade up is whether Carmelo would sign an extension in NJ.

This option is clearly more appealing than anything the Knicks will likely present to Denver over the next couple of weeks - even if they manage to trade Anthony Randolph for a first-rounder any package they put together will not be quite as impactful as the New Jersey offer.

More Carmelo drama is on the horizon.

UPDATE: Carmelo has apparently warmed to the idea of signing an extension with New Jersey - according to Benjamin Hochman of the Denver Post the Nets are still a viable option for Carmelo.

Stay tuned.