The Knicks have already paid half of Eddy Curry's 2010-11 salary, a fact that could provide a team acquiring him significant savings and greatly boost his contract's trade value.

The Knicks are certain to offer Curry in a bid to land Carmelo Anthony at any time between now and the NBA's trade deadline.

If traded today, Curry would be owed a little over $7 million by the team acquiring him, after adding in a trade kicker.

If Curry was traded just before the February deadline, the unpaid compensation on his contract would decline to about $2.4 million and his trade kicker would decline to about $600,000.

The Knicks have reportedly found a pick they can use to trade for Carmelo Anthony.  

A source says the team has lined up a trade to acquire a 2011 first-round pick that can be sent to the Nuggets in a trade for Anthony.

New York would presumably only make the trade for the pick if and when a deal with Denver is ready to move forward.

A Knicks official said Isiah Thomas has assured James Dolan that Carmelo Anthony will sign with the Knicks if he becomes a free agent next summer.

"Isiah told Jim that before Carmelo's wedding and before all the talk about him coming to New York," the official said.

Chris Mullin may still be on Donnie Walsh's radar to fill the Knicks' vacant general manager position.

There has been some speculation that James Dolan prefers to keep that spot available for Isiah Thomas.  But Walsh would rather hire Mullin or Allan Houston for the job.

Dolan believes that Walsh currently has enough support in the front office with Glen Grunwald and John Gabriel working under him.

Walsh is in the final season of his contract.

Carmelo Anthony said nobody approached him about being traded to New Jersey and that he'd address playing for another team if and when the Nuggets want to trade him.

Anthony said he's content starting the season with the Nuggets and that his primary objective is to keep his options open for the 2011-2012 season.

"Not at all," Anthony said about anybody approaching him about being dealt to New Jersey and signing a contract extension with the Nets.

"I would love to," he said about being on Denver's roster on opening night.

"Not at all, why would I," he said about whether he'd have a problem starting the season as a Nugget.  "I?m keeping my options open."

"If [the Nuggets] come to me and say they want to trade me to a team, then we?ll discuss that when that time comes," Anthony said.

While the Knicks have seemingly made Carmelo Anthony their primary target, they are also monitoring the situation of Tony Parker, who will also be a free agent in 2011.

Parker is interested in signing an extension with the Spurs.

Chris Tomasson reports from Denver's first day of training camp where Carmelo Anthony spoke to the media.

While acknowledging that the specter of a new collective bargaining agreement is intimidating, Anthony seemed to indicate that any concern about salary will not dictate his decision-making.

"Money is money.  Money's going to be there," Anthony said. "It's about basketball."

"It's a big risk," Anthony said about the new CBA.  "At the end of the day, it's about basketball."

"It?s scary," he said about CBA negotiations.  "Of course, it's scary. There's a lot of anxiety to see what's going to happen."

Donnie Walsh said the reason the Nuggets are reluctant to make a trade with the Knicks is they don't covet the players on New York's roster, not because Denver thinks the Knicks used back-channels to recruit Carmelo Anthony.

"Oh no. I don't think that's true," Walsh said. "My understanding is they don't want to deal with us because they don't think we have the players that fit their team."

"That's today and yesterday it was a done deal," Walsh said about the trade that would have sent Anthony to New Jersey but fell apart on Tuesday.  "I think there's a lot of posturing going on out there."

"We don't know the value of these players and the league doesn't know the value of these players," Walsh said, in speaking generally on the subject of Denver's lack of interest in New York's trade pieces. "I feel if we get into the season, the value of the players will go up."

"In general, I've heard that New York just doesn't have the pieces. We have the pieces, you just don't know it," Walsh said.

With the trade that would have sent Anthony to New Jersey now dead, Amar'e Stoudemire has renewed optimism about the prospect of his friend joining him in New York.

"That would be great," Stoudemire said. "But right now, we have to focus on what we have here.  We can't have any distractions."

Landing with the Knicks may be Carmelo Anthony's first choice but the Nuggets view trading with New York as their least-preferred outcome.

According to ESPN, the Nuggets believe the Knicks may have gone through back channels to recruit Anthony over the summer and are determined to avoid sending him to New York unless they have no other choice.

An MRI Monday afternoon revealed that Eddy Curry has a strained right hamstring that will sideline him for the next 4-6 weeks, according to Knicks' estimates.