Nuggets coach George Karl hasn't yet spoken to Carmelo Anthony formally, but when he does he will have a message to convey.

"To me, my job is to, anytime I talk to Melo ... it's to convince him that we won 53 games last year and I think we're very capable of being a lot better than we were last year," Karl said.

"Some of the bombs that hit our team injury-wise and my situation, I think we kind of need to stay together, in my opinion. It's pretty easy: Stay together and figure it out. Right now, I don't think Melo is going to be calling me for advice. Fortunately, it's not my job to probably call him to talk about that situation. My job is to talk about basketball."

Denver is trying to convince Anthony to sign a contract extension, while trade rumors have swirled over the last month.