How the Nuggets cultivated the NBA's most dynamic duo

DENVER -- The summer of 2010 in the NBA is generally remembered as the year LeBron James left the small-market Cleveland Cavaliers to form a superteam in Miami with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. So much of the next decade in NBA history traces back to that event, whether it be small-market teams trying to protect themselves from losing a star of James' magnitude in free agency, or other teams trying to construct a superteam of their own.

For the Denver Nuggets, though, the summer of 2010 was the year their own star, Carmelo Anthony, told them he didn't intend to re-sign when his contract was up the following summer and wanted to be traded to the New York Knicks. It was a request more than a…