Good summation of where Walsh is at right now on the Melo trade. And despite people here saying there wouldn't be enough room to sign Melo in the off-season, Berger and NBA GMs think the Knicks can sign Melo in the off-season.
Good article.
Trade buzz: Swap not only way Melo may end up with Knicks
By Ken Berger
CBSSports.com Senior Writer
Feb. 16, 2011Tell Ken your opinion!In New York, a concrete jungle with no grip on sports reality, the common theme over the past few weeks has been that Knicks president Donnie Walsh must move heaven and Earth to get Carmelo Anthony by Feb. 24 or his regime will have been a failure.
That chuckling you hear in the background is coming from Walsh, who at almost 70 has been around too long to take note of such absurdities. Despite the incoherent reasoning of those who ascribe to the Melo-or-bust theory, Walsh knows you don't panic when you hold all the cards.
Walsh knows what I've told you for months, that the Nuggets essentially are negotiating with one team. Walsh is not budging in his refusal to gut his roster to acquire a player he can simply sign as a free agent after the season. And despite some hysterical calculations from amateur capologists everywhere, sources say it's inconceivable that the Knicks wouldn't have enough room for free-agent Melo regardless of how the collective bargaining agreement turns out.
"I don't care what the cap comes in at, they can get the guy," one rival executive said. "I've done the math a million times."
The Knicks have $44 million in salary committed for 2011-12, and that includes $8 million to $10 million in non-expiring contracts that would be going to Denver in an Anthony trade. It also includes Anthony Randolph ($2.9 million), who either will be going to Denver or Minnesota in the next week. If the Knicks get Anthony in an extend-and-trade before June 30, cap space for him is a non-issue; Anthony's $18.5 million salary for next season would kick in. The issue would be having flexibility to put more pieces around Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire -- which is yet another item the short-sighted Melo-now crowd ignores.
In many ways, it would be more advantageous to Anthony and the Knicks to unite via free agency. For one, Walsh wouldn't have to give up any pieces of a young nucleus that has shown promise at times this season. For another, a max free-agent deal that presumably will start a few million shy of the $18.5 million Anthony is on the books for next season would help the Knicks add to the roster over the next two years.
For illustrative purposes, I give the floor to Chris Paul, who recently explained how determined today's NBA stars are to follow the blueprint set forth by LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh last summer.
"Guys just want to try to win a championship," Paul said. "No reason more than that. In this league, a lot of times what people fail to realize is that, at times it's less about the money and more about winning. Sometimes it's overlooked. Those guys this summer gave up a lot of money to try to play together on the same team."
Which brings us to another fallacy in the Melo-mania that has engulfed New York. There are those blabbing on the radio, scribbling in print, and yakking away in taxicabs all over the city who believe the Knicks would be a championship-caliber team simply by pairing Anthony with Stoudemire -- regardless of how many players they had to give up. These people are beyond hope. Unfortunately for Walsh, Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan may be one of them.
There are those who fear that if Walsh "failed" to get Anthony by the deadline -- which, as we've just explained, actually could be considered a victory -- then Dolan might step in and go over his basketball man's head to cut a foolish deal with Denver. Dolan will be on the loose at All-Star festivities in Los Angeles later this week, and it's a safe bet he runs into someone named Kroenke -- be it Josh, the acting owner, or Stan, the guy many people believe still is calling the shots. Be very afraid, Knick fans.
Even if that doesn't work, others theorize that it will be former Knicks president Isiah Thomas -- and not Walsh -- who will get the credit when the Knicks finally get Anthony as a free agent over the summer. Thomas still has Dolan's ear, is as power-hungry as ever and would love nothing more than being able to paint himself as the savior in New York. Even if it meant undercutting the man who saved his career in Indiana and who treated him with dignity and respect upon replacing him with the Knicks.
"What'll happen is, Isiah will ride in and take credit for this due to his relationship with Carmelo, which is non-existent," a rival executive said. "It'll be, 'Donnie couldn't get it done, but thank God for Isiah and William Wesley and Carmelo!'"
Internal Garden politics notwithstanding, the upshot here is that the negotiating table is tilted decidedly in the Knicks' favor. Walsh isn't going to bow to Denver's demands because he knows he can get his guy in a way that will allow him to fill other more pressing needs on the roster -- such as a capable defensive center to protect the $100 million investment Walsh made last summer in Stoudemire. Yes, that's another item lost in all the Melo-centric hysteria. Anthony will take some of the scoring load away from Stoudemire, but won't help him in the paint on the defensive end.
In the meantime, Walsh gazes in amazement at the alternate reality around him, while the Nuggets continue to live in their own.
"Denver's got to be getting nervous here pretty soon," a rival executive said. "You can only play poker with [New York] so much before you become Toronto or Cleveland."
2/16/2011 1:02 PM LAST EDITED: 2/16/2011 1:03 PM
