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https://twitter.com/KnicksMuse/status/1660776848182108164

Much love to Melo. I get why he's a lightning rod for a lot - iso, plus lazy defense will do that (unless you win MIP ), but he gave us good years, handled the media like a professional, and carried us just as far into the post season as our current Knicks.

Do wish we had him on a minimum contract on the way out, but respect on a good career. HOF for sure.

Nalod wrote:

Swishfm3 wrote:

KnickDanger wrote:

Knixkik wrote:The longest running argument and I’ll say when you look at the cost of stars now, the Knicks really made out like thieves getting a top 10 player in his mid 20s via trade. Today it’s totally different. What happened after the Knicks got melo is a different story. I don’t blame him. It was a great run he had. I remember really looking forward to him coming out of high school. I remember him being compared to Antoine Walker, which wasn’t so much a bad thing back them. I thought his offensive game at Cuse was ahead of its time. Times like this make me feel old. He was part of my era. Only Lebron and CP3 left.

You're right, asset wise it would be a hell of a lot more for him now. Anyway, what we wanted was a Lebron level game changer. What we got was...well Melo. Great offensive player not surrounded with enough talent. Nothing against the guy at all but not putting his poster on my wall.

“Lebron level game changer” always consisted of Lebron and another “superstar”. Carmelo closest superstar, with the Knicks, was oft-injured Stoudamire.

I’ve wondered how things would have gone for the Knicks if they amnestied STAT instead of Billups.

Might want to review the timeline. Trade for Melo was in Amare's first year here. Billups was with us the end of that year. We'd have had 4 years still of amare's contract I believe. even spread over 7 years it was a big number.

I have a feeling that I may be misunderstanding you but, in any case, I did a quick internet dive and found this article from that time….

Grunwald, recently promoted to full-time GM, will now have to deal with the decision to amnesty Billups, instead of Stoudemire, who has three years and $60 million left on his contract. Stoudemire’s struggles this season makes the future murky for the Knicks trying to build around Carmelo Anthony with little money to spend under the salary cap. Billups was in the final year of his contract, and using the amnesty on him prevents them from doing the same to Stoudemire under the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement.

https://nypost.com/2012/05/03/four-corners-saving-stoudemire-over-billups-might-have-been-mistake-for-knicks/

If I recall..Knicks traded for Melo (and Billups) a year AFTER STAT signed to NY. Could be wrong.

As someone else said above, in the end the trade didn't much change the fortunes of either team. Neither really went anywhere.

In retrospect, Swish's idea of letting Amare go and keeping Billups might have been the better idea.

Swishfm3 wrote:Ok…so Nalod was right on the timeline but regardless, my point was that they used the amnesty on the wrong player. The Knicks would have been much better off keeping Billups and letting go of STAT.

I always suspected MDA had something to do with that but who knows…as Markvmc mentioned, trade didn’t change much for either team

In retrospect you have the benefit of hindsight. I mention the time line s Amares first season he played really well. So at that moment its not as apparent to what to do. One in hindsight has to have precision when making these prognostications. Otherwise you look stupid:

Of course they should have amnestied Amare instead of Billups. They didn’t because they thought Amare/Melo was going to be the foundation of a superteam similar to what was in Miami

Remember Walsh as still GM during this time. Also in wake of Isiah it is thought Walsh was forced upon Dolan and my guess is no GM can make an owner sign that 100m check unless there is harmony and mutual respect. Months later when Dolan stepped over Walsh to get the deal doe with Kroenke it was thought Walsh was done. Soon enough he was.

I argue over the years you have go to the moment the decision was made and what information was available at that time. Again, PHX offered 3 years to Amare. I have read that Amare would not have come of it was just going to be 4 years. We had to blow him away. Who makes that call? The disrespected GM the owner does not like? or the Starphuch stubborn owner?

One more thing. Cap rules were different and this was 13 year ago. We amnestied 14 mil and right away was able to sign Tyson chandler for 14mil. Basically he costed Knicks 28mil that first year! Few teams had that kind of cheddar to pull that off THEN. In a way you add Tyson, who just won a chip with Dallas and was an important piece to the Melo trade. It looks different when you do that? Yes. Did it turn out like hoped? Nope, but again, Tyson was DPOY season before. Felton was not chubby and JR smith perhaps was ready to grow the **** up.
Dolan, in a Fuck YOU to the league **** cans Donnie and brings Grunwald up from assistant and we know was a proxy for Isiah who was still in Dolans ear.