Acclaimed director and longtime Knicks fan Spike Lee is certain that Carmelo Anthony will play for his team in the near future.

"I have just one sentence for you," Lee told The New York Post on Saturday night. "Carmelo Anthony will be with the Knicks if God is willing and the creek don't rise."

Lee attended Anthony's wedding in July and The Post reported earlier this month that Anthony has told Lee the Knicks are far and away his top choice.

Sources close to Carmelo Anthony tell Chris Broussard that he is reluctant to agree to a trade to the Nets, which he can essentially veto by refusing to sign a long-term contract extension with New Jersey.

Anthony, the sources say, is willing to hold out until the trade deadline in an attempt to force Denver to deal him to the Knicks. The thinking is that the Nuggets would accept New York's offer rather than risk losing Anthony for nothing in the summer.

A good start by the Nets, who are now 2-0 on the young season, might change Anthony's mind.

On Friday, Carmelo Anthony said his comments to Yahoo! Sports were not construed properly by those who read the statements as a public declaration of his intent to leave Denver.

Anthony said he wants to keep his options open and that this "doesn't mean anything else."

A source close to the situation tells ESPN that the Nuggets prefer not to trade Carmelo Anthony to the Knicks, who are presumed to be the superstar's preferred destination.

The Knicks continue to pursue Anthony and have tried to enlist the Blazers to facilitate a three-team trade.  So far Portland has made Nicolas Batum off limits in any scenario.

Denver feels that the Nets will keep their offer of Derrick Favors and draft picks on the table through the trade deadline in February.

The Nuggets remain likely to deal Anthony rather than face losing him to free agency in the off-season.

George Karl expects Kenyon Martin to return from injury by January 1st, but the veteran power forward prefers the advice of his doctor.

"George is not my doctor,'' Martin said Wednesday. "George is not a doctor. George is a great basketball coach. George is not my doctor ... The only person who knows when I'm coming back is Dr. (Richard) Steadman.''

Martin wouldn't speculate on a date he could return but he did offer a clue about when he expects to know more. Martin said he has an appointment scheduled shortly after Thanksgiving, which is Nov. 25, with Steadman, a Vail, Colo., specialist who operated on his torn left patella.

"Not at all until I see him,'' Martin said of a timetable being known. "That's up to (Steadman), man. I don't have a brain when it comes to it. I use his brain.''

Martin is seeking a contract extension.

Carmelo Anthony made perhaps his most revealing public comments to date concerning the stalemate between him and the Denver Nuggets.

"They [Nuggets management] want to sit down and talk, but my thing is it?s way beyond this year.  It ain?t got nothing to do with the new GM, Josh [Kroenke], the players. For me, I feel it?s a time for change," Anthony said.

"If I do nothing now, I?m never going to do anything. I feel like my time is now to make a decision if I want to leave or if I want to stay," he continued.

Sources say Anthony is worried about joining a team that has gutted its roster to acquire him, and one source doesn't think he has warmed much to the idea of playing for the Nets.

Anthony has the Knicks and Bulls at the top of his wish list.  Sources say the Knicks don't have the assets to make a credible offer and the Nuggets didn't have a lot of interest in acquiring Luol Deng and his large contract.

Yet the Nuggets are still expected to deal Anthony before the trade deadline rather than risk losing him without compensation next summer.

Anthony continues to maintain that he is not as concerned about money as he is in controlling his destiny.  And he says that he does not dwell on the maximum-salary extension offer from Denver that remains on the table.

"I can?t go out there playing and thinking like that. I won?t be able to be as effective as I can be out there thinking like that," he said.

The Nuggets are expected to extend the contract of coach George Karl in the near future.

Karl is in the final year of his deal with Denver.

He has battled cancer twice and told Yahoo! Sports that he hopes to coach for another five or six years.

"For me, going through what I've gone through, I look at this as a good thing," Karl said. "I look at this as a privilege."

Alan Hahn cites people with direct knowledge of the situation who insist that Denver still hopes to persuade Carmelo Anthony to sign a extension with the Nuggets.

Denver is reportedly not as high on the Nets' trade offer as some had believed.

"Despite the perceived value of the Nets' offer, I'm also told the Nuggets are not all that enamored with 19-year-old rookie Derrick Favors," writes Hahn.

Carmelo Anthony is ready to start the season with the Nuggets without accepting a three-year, $65 million extension.

"I always said I wanted to keep my options open," Anthony said Tuesday on "The Scott Van Pelt Show" on ESPN Radio.

"But as far as the money that's on the table, I understand the money that's on the table. I understand it's a lot. But it's more than the money. Right now I'm here, I'm with the Nuggets, and I'm ready for the season to start."

It has been reported that the Knicks and Nets are in serious pursuit of Anthony.

"Right now I'm here," Anthony said.

"As of right now I'm starting the game against Utah [on Wednesday] on our home court which I'm excited about. I can't predict the future so whatever is going to happen is going to happen. But right now I'm just focusing on the upcoming season."

George Karl is confident that if the Nuggets begins the season successfully, rumors of Carmelo Anthony being traded will begin to disappear.

"I think winning some games will help that and that's where we're at," said Karl. "It's time to prove to the world that we're OK and we're going to be a good team."

Karl added that his All-Star forward has remained focused.

"He's been extremely professional," Karl said. "I think because of our injuries we need our stud to be special and I think he knows that."