I think the Knicks were thinking of either dealing Melo or trying to win with him in 2016. They had just come off a third consecutive lottery season with Melo, in which they also lost their draft pick. With massive capspace and a glaring need for point guard, a Melo on his last few years of high level play, Phil went for it. Thought, why not, give it a go. They brought in some players who should have atleast made the team a playoff team. Rose, Noah, Lee, Jennings. However the players never meshed, and players never played together as a team. Phil made a tweet that I remember really well before the season began. About players needing to make a sacrifice and playing hard together. It just didn't happen with these guys. They prefer to play too much isolation basketball, prefer to play lax on defense. Maybe a different coaching staff would have gotten more. But Melo has had many coaching staffs and Rose has also been with Thibs. The common thing about our two top stars is they both like to isolate, and alot.
The good thing about PJ's plan to win now with Melo/Rose was there are easy opt outs or escape plans. Rose is a last year contract. Melo is hard to trade, but as you see the amount of media pressure and pressure Phil is putting on Melo, I can't see Melo stay a Knick next year. Noah and Lee are on longterm deals, but in today's capspace era, those contracts won't stop you from being a player in free agency. If Knicks even make a Melo for Rivers/expiring contracts/draft pick deal, they'll have over 40 million in capspace next summer.
The plan was what it was, to take a chance with Melo and do that by adding Rose. It hasn't worked out. Now it's clear the Knicks are shifting towards rebuilding around KP. People can be upset with Phil about bad management, but he got Melo talent. Rose, KP, Lee, Noah, Jennings. Give Lebron a top 10 player in the league that talent and they'll make the playoffs. Now that it didn't work out, the smart thing is to rebuild. Melo even knows this is a possibility. The thing that makes it a circus, is Phil refuses to talk straight to Melo. Mind games. He's shopping him, yet telling him nothing. I think Melo deserved better than that, but it could also be that Phil thinks that if he told Melo his play would sink and also that in the end the large possibility is that Melo will not be traded anyway till the summer. So why tell Melo you are being traded when you likely won't be until the summer.
2/6/2017 1:24 PM