By Matt Moore


Pacers guard George Hill suffered a chip fracture in his ankle Tuesday night against the New Jersey Nets, the team announced following the game. He is listed as out indefinitely.

The injury occurred in the third quarter Tuesday night when George shot a pull-up jumper from inside the key and Nets center Johan Petro undercut him coming down.  

Hill has had an up and down season for the Pacers, and hasn't kept up with the level of production he showed in San Antonio. Still, it's a loss of a veteran to help calm the Pacers' waters with fidgety Darren Collison alternating between brilliant and confusing. The Pacers will have to turn to terribly inconsistent Lance Stephenson with some spot minutes from A.J. Price to fill in the gap, but at least Paul George is having an incredible season. 

We'll keep you updated on Hill's prognosis and estimated recovery time.

The Denver Nuggets, Detroit Pistons, and New Jersey Nets are reportedly advancing on a three-team that would include Nuggets All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony. Posted by Ben Golliver.

Multiple outlets are reporting Sunday that a three-team trade scenario involving the Denver Nuggets, New Jersey Nets and Detroit Pistons that would send All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony to the New Jersey Nets is edging closer to fruition.  The initial trade talks were discussed here on Saturday.

Yahoo! Sports reported that talks were "progressing" and the Bergen Record reported that "things definitely are moving forward" and that a trade could take place "within the next 48 hours." Sports Illustrated added later Sunday that the deal is "as close as it's ever been.

ESPNNY.com recapped the trade specifics as they stood later Sunday. 

A three-team deal involving the Detroit Pistons that would include at least 15 players -- with Rip Hamilton and Chauncey Billups winding up in New Jersey with Anthony -- could be completed as soon as this week, sources said.

The primary elements of the scenario currently on the table, sources said, call for New Jersey to acquire Anthony, Billups and Hamilton; Denver to land Devin Harris, Derrick Favors, Anthony Morrow and at least two first-round picks; and Detroit to acquire Troy Murphy and Johan Petro.

The Pistons do not want to take back Petro, even though shedding Hamilton's contract in exchange for Murphy and the Nets' center would represent an overall savings of roughly $17 million.

This version is slightly tweaked from the original trade scenario laid out on Saturday.

The Nets would send Derrick Favors, Devin Harris and at least two first-round picks to Denver and Troy Murphy and his expiring contract to the Pistons. On top of that, ESPN.com reports the Pistons would have to take on Johan Petro's contract as well as send the Nets a first-round pick.

The Nets would of course get Anthony, but also a couple of surprise pieces. In addition to Carmelo, New Jersey would bring in Chauncey Billups from Denver and Richard Hamilton from Detroit. The Pistons have been shopping Hamilton and his remaining two-year, $25 million contract pretty hard this season.

Of every Carmelo Anthony trade proposal to hit the internet, this version is by far the most plausible, and it represents about as close to a win/win/win as you're going to find when a superstar of this magnitude trades teams. Here's a brief rundown.

For Denver, they get exactly what we've been saying they should want all along in an Anthony deal: younger talent, draft picks and some salary cap flexibility by moving Billups' contract.

For New Jersey, they get Anthony at a fairly reasonable price and get to surround him with another solid starting piece (Hamilton), and also potentially undo one of the worst signings of the 2010 summer, Johan Petro.

For Detroit, they get great value in dumping the unhappy Hamilton and saving big-time dollars down the road, and would get to enjoy the financial relief provided by Murphy's large expiring contract at the end of the season.

This one likely comes down to the last big hurdle: Whether Anthony will agree to sign a contract extension with the Nets, and whether he will agree to it now or decide he wants to wait longer. Yahoo! Sports reports that it "seems unlikely" Anthony wouldn't agree to a three-year contract extension with New Jersey now that Hamilton is in play, but Anthony has held his cards very close to his vest, so it's difficult to be sure.

Stay tuned.
UPDATE 8:32 p.m. ET: Chris Mannix of SI reports that New Jersey is "convinced" Melo will sign the extension. Meanwhile Yahoo! Sports reports the following players are also involved in the deal, in addition to those previously discussed: Ben Uzoh, Stephen Graham, and Quinton Ross will go to Denver in the proposed deal, while Anthony Carter and Shelden Williams will go to New Jersey. Detroit is still only slated to get Troy Murphy and the point of contention that's holding the deal up: Johan Petro. 

New Jersey Nets forward Troy Murphy will not play during the rest of the preseason due to injury. Posted by Ben Golliver. 

Back in August, the New Jersey Nets traded for Indiana Pacers power forward Troy Murphy in part of a massive four-team trade . Murphy is in the final year of a large contract so it made sense financially for the Nets, who also could use his offensive versatility and scoring ability to ease first-round draft pick Derrick Favors into their rotation. Unfortunately, Murphy has been dogged by a back injury during the preseason. The Nets report on Twitter today that Murphy "has made considerable progress, but will not play in either of the remaining preseason games. Murphy is expected to resume practice with the team this weekend."  In Murphy's absence, the Nets will likely continue a frontcourt by committee approach. Centers Brook Lopez and Joe Smith, along with Favors and fellow forwards Travis Outlaw, Johan Petro, Kris Humphries, have all seen double-digit minutes per game during the exhibition season.

A lot happened over the weekend, so we want to catch you up quickly. We'll have more on each of these stories in a bit. But while you're waiting, here's a little poem for you to get caught up.

The Mavs are chasing Haslem to make them seem bigger .

While the Nets are tapping Morrow to pull the big trigger .

The Pistons and Ben Wallace wed for two more years .

While Nellie brought in DWright as the latest wing he'll bring to tears.

The Nets brought in Petro to perplex us much more .

Then they tagged Jordan Farmar after Phil showed him the door.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas misses the King .

And Matt Barnes at this point is just chasing a ring .

The Baby Bears added a stopper in Allen.

And then the Suns traded Leandro Barbosa and some trade exceptions for Hedo Turkoglu and Josh Childress, while Toronto then swapped out the trade exception they got from the Suns who got it from New York for Boris Diaw in exchange for almost nothing.

That last one doesn't rhyme because it doesn't make any sense, whatsoever.

Oh, and Jesse Jackson compared Dan Gilbert to a slave owner . You may have heard about that one already.