Knicks Land Carmelo Anthony

Long Awaited Trade

It’s been a long first half of the season for the Denver Nuggets but they have finally traded Carmelo Anthony. After much drama over the past months, it’s finally over. The Nets gave a hard push in attempting to get Carmelo Anthony, as well as teams such as the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets, but he has finally found a team, the New York Knicks. The Knicks, Nuggets, and Minnesota Timberwolves have completed a trade that sends F Carmelo Anthony, G Chauncey Billups, F Renaldo Balkman, F Sheldon Williams, and G Anthony Carter from the Nuggets as well as F Corey Brewer from the Timberwolves to the Knicks. The Nuggets get F Danilo Gallinari, F Wilson Chandler, G Raymond Felton, C Timofey Mozgov, a 2014 1st round pick, two 2nd round picks, and $3 million all from the Knicks. Finally, the Timberwolves receive from the Knicks both C Eddy Curry and F Anthony Randolph.

Melo’s Perfect Situation

This was exactly what Carmelo Anthony wanted to have happen. Not only is he playing in New York, where he has wanted to play all along, but he also gets to sign his 3 years, $65 million extension. If he had decided to go into free agency, Melo would have risked losing at least half of that because of the new collective bargaining agreement that will be discussed and argued over this off season. This money was so important to him that it seemed like he would have been willing to accept a trade with the Nets or sign the extension with the Nuggets in order to guarantee himself that money.

Knicks’ Tough Situation

On the other hand, the Knicks gave up a lot in completing this deal to get Anthony and now see themselves with a limited bench. They gave up 3 starters in Gallinari, Felton, and Chandler as well as a young, budding center in Mozgov. When you break the trade down piece by piece it doesn’t seem like that much was given up for Melo. Trading Felton for Billups is pretty much a wash considering that when 2012 comes around, neither would have been in the picture for the team because that is the year Chris Paul, Deron Williams, and Dwight Howard all become free agents and the year the Knicks try to create their own Big 3. Giving up Curry and Randolph doesn’t change the team considering both were riding the bench. When it comes to Chandler, if the Knicks wanted to get Carmelo in the offseason they would have had to let Chandler go as a free agent anyway. Plus, Brewer is, in a sense, a poor man’s Chandler and should be able to fill part of the hole left by Chandler. So when it comes down to it, the Knicks essentially gave up Gallinari, Mozgov, a 1st round pick, 2 second round picks, and cash for Carmelo Anthony and Corey Brewer. 

That does not seem like a bad trade and it isn’t, but Knicks fans need to be aware that unless the Knicks get some much needed help from unlikely guys like Brewer and Toney Douglas, then the team might have its rough patches. As of now, the starting lineup of Billups, Fields, Melo, Stoudemire, and Turiaf is very strong and can definitely compete in the East, but the thin bench needs to step up. When the Celtics won the championship in 2007-2008, the first year of their Big 3, they never would have won without the role players who stepped up in the playoffs such as Glen Davis, Eddie House, and James Posey as well as at the time unknown starter Rajon Rondo. If the Knicks plan to contend in the next few years, we know that Amar’e and Melo will do their job, but will the roles players step up and do what needs to be done?

Puppet Masters

There are two reasons as to why this trade could be potentially horrible for the New York Knicks organization and both involve the manipulation of Knicks’ owner James Dolan. The first is it showed how much control New Jersey Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov could have over what the Knicks decide to do. With the Nets throwing their nams into the Carmleo trade talks, the Knicks had to offer as much as they did in order to prevent Anthony from joining the cross-river rival Nets. Although it was well known that Anthony preferred the Knicks over the Nets, that didn’t stop the Nets organization from getting under the skin of Dolan and forcing him to trade much of their key young players for Carmelo. This worries me as a Knicks fan because it shows that Dolan is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure the Nets don’t get what they want in a ‘cutting off his nose to spite his face’ kind of way.

The second reason keeps me up late, late at night. If the rumors are true, then Isiah Thomas had a lot to do with this trade in telling Dolan what to do. Apparently Dolan took over trade negotiations for Carmelo which may mean that Isiah took over negotiations. As of now, Donnie Walsh’s contract expires after this season. The Knicks have until April to pick up a one year option but they haven’t done that yet for some reason. What worries me is that Dolan hasn’t picked up his option because he hopes to bring back Thomas for a second stint as team destroyer. Apparently during the talks, it was Donnie Walsh and Mike D’Antoni v. James Dolan (with Isiah behind the scenes). If this is true then this could be a problem for the future. I just hope that Donnie was the main driver behind this trade and not the man behind the curtain.

What’s Done is Done
          As for whether or not the Nuggets made the right trade, just ask Cleveland what they got for LeBron James, or what Toronto got for Chris Bosh.

          For those people who say that the Knicks should have waited until free agency need not think too hard to remember what happened last time a New York team did that. All was set this baseball offseason for the Yankees to sign star pitcher Cliff Lee. They waited on trading for him to instead try and get him in free agency. How did that work out? Lee ended up signing for less money with the Philadelphia Phillies and is now a part of a rotation that could one of the best in history. So what happens if the Knicks wait until free egency to sign Melo? Maybe he signs somehwhere else. It was time for the Knicks to pull the trigger on the trade, and they did.

All in all, I am cautiously optimistic about this trade. I love the idea of superstars Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony running the offense together. It’s going to bring that much more to Madison Square Garden. Defense is going to be nonexistent, but under the D’Antoni system it pretty much was anyway. Thinking positively and not about the future of the GM position and what might go on behind the scenes of James Dolan, I am very excited. If role/bench players such as Corey Brewer, Toney Douglas, Shawne Williams, and maybe even surprises such as Roger Mason Jr. can step up then you can definitely see the Knicks worrying some teams come playoff time and in the the future.