Carmelo Anthony to Houston? Three Reasons Why Nene Should Be Targeted Instead

Only one thing is clear in Denver at this point in the season. Carmelo Anthony wants out. But, while the list of possible destinations continues to shrink, the repercussions for the rest of the Nuggets' roster has seemed to go unnoticed.

However, that's where the Rockets should be focusing.

Yao Ming's season-ending injury pushed the Rockets' chances to land Anthony from highly unlikely to, "Melo would probably prefer playing with Stephon Marbury in China to joining the Rockets." It also left a glaring hole in the middle of a defense manned by legendary perimeter stoppers like Kevin Martin, Chase Budinger and Aaron Brooks.

But Melo may inadvertently have given Houston reason to hope.

Chauncey Billups has already made it clear that he will demand to be moved if Anthony is traded and that could be the beginning of a fire sale by a team that will no longer have the talent to compete in the West. It would then make sense for them to turn their to the future.

And you know what that means: cap room, draft picks and young talent.

The Rockets have plenty of young talent in the form of: the aforementioned Budinger, Jordan Hill, Patrick Patterson, Jermaine Taylor, Ish Smith, Terrance Williams and Jeff Adrien. They can also make a deal that will clear cap room for the Nuggets because they were granted the trade exception on Yao Ming's contract earlier this week.

The exception allows the Rockets to take an roughly the mid-level exception of $5.765 million, assuming they choose to use it before it expires on January 31st.

That is the perfect amount of money for them to ship off someone like Kyle Lowry, who is making $5.75 million, in exchange for Nene and his $11.36 million contract. I chose Lowry because the Nuggets may want to replace Billups, unless they are ready to hand Ty Lawson the keys to the franchise.

Lowry would have to be joined by one of the expiring contracts of Shane Battier or Chuck Hayes and possibly even a Second Round draft pick. It sounds like a lot to give up but Nene is a legitimate center and he can move to power forward if Yao is miraculously able to make a return to the court next season.

I have no reason to think that the Rockets would actually pursue this deal, I am simply stating that they should be looking into it.

It has become blatantly obvious that this roster that's two- or three-deep at every position is not good enough. Depth only helps if your starters can compete. A healthy Aaron Brooks and the addition of Nene would make that happen.

But, hey, "In Morey we trust," right? I guess we'll just have to see what happens.