Addition of selfish 'Melo makes Knicks good, not special

Posted Feb 22 2011 1:05AM

He'll be hailed a hero Wednesday at the Garden, which happens when a city that was subjected to a decade of basketball purgatory finally sees the light, in the form of a star who shoots lights out. But the Knicks won't be anything special on the court anytime soon, because Carmelo Anthony, more than looking out for the Knicks, was looking out for himself.

He could've told the Knicks to skip the major trade late Monday night that cost them Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler. This was a deal made with the Nuggets because 'Melo craved his money more than those teammates.

He wanted the cash he possibly stood to lose -- $15 million, perhaps? -- under the next labor agreement if he waited and signed with the Knicks as a free agent this summer or whenever the NBA re-opens for business. That would've allowed the Knicks to keep three young and talented players and, along with Melo and Amar'e Stoudemire and Landry Fields, New York would upgrade to contender status almost instantly.

But in order to receive a contract extension that will pay him the max, roughly $20 million-plus a season, 'Melo had to join the Knicks now. Which means those players, and any thoughts of the Knicks causing a shiver in Boston or Chicago or Miami anytime soon, had to be sacrificed.

So while there is salvation in New York today, it will surely be tempered by reality tomorrow. And that will last at least until the Knicks bear down on their next target in two years: Deron Williams or Chris Paul, whoever whines the loudest. Maybe Dwight Howard if they're extremely fortunate.

Yes, what the 'Melo deal means is that the rebuilding of the Knicks isn't complete; it merely continues. They're hardly a polished product, not with 'Melo, Stoudemire, an aging Chauncey Billups, an underachieving Corey Brewer and assorted misfits. If anything, the Knicks right now are what the Nuggets were before the trade. Very good, but not special. That's why coach Mike D'Antoni and general manager Donnie Walsh were lukewarm about giving up so many assets, especially for a one-dimensional player. If nothing else, the Knicks could've dealt Gallinari and a throw-in for a rebounding center, allowing Stoudemire to stick permanently at his natural power forward spot. But 'Melo wanted his money, and strictly from a financial standpoint, could you blame him? Many players in the prime of their careers would've done the same.

The Nets were never in the picture. Not really. Anthony's heart was set on the Knicks from the start. The Nets were strung along for months and used as leverage. They finally reached the conclusion that 'Melo would never agree to a contract extension and therefore it made no sense to make a trade just to rent him for two months. Their last-minute posturing with the Nuggets last weekend was only done to weaken the Knicks. Mission accomplished.

At least New York can boast of having a star, or actually two, with Stoudemire. Assuming Stoudemire is cool with being in Melo's shadow -- remember, Stoudemire wasn't so comfortable with the perception of him carrying Steve Nash's bags in Phoenix -- the two should complement each other very well on offense. Neither is much on defense, and that's why the Knicks can't be taken seriously as a championship contender. Yes, even with two players on the floor who started in Sunday's All-Star Game, the Knicks need more help.

And help is coming in 2012. Neither Williams nor Paul are passing the ball to this kind of talent in Utah and New Orleans. The pull of the big city, plus the promise of multiple assist titles, should be enough for the Knicks to steal one of those point guards. As for Howard, he'd have to shrink his considerable ego to make it work in New York, which might be doable by then. In any event, that would give the Knicks the three elite players needed to think in championship terms, if only because by then, the Celtics will be chugging Geritol on the bench.

For sure, this isn't a day of celebration for small-market teams, and the recent wave of player movement to exotic and glamour cities is a cause for the owners to adopt this summer at the negotiating table. It is, however, a basketball milestone of sorts in New York, a place that hasn't made the playoffs in six years, nor advanced beyond the first round in 10 years. The Knicks now have an exciting player, someone cut in the Bernard King mold. 'Melo Madness is upon the city.

Championship fever, though, must wait.

good luck in denver, gallo, chandler and felton, along with moz.. I will be watching every damn game..

tkf wrote:great post.. melo wanted his money, and that was it.. He had to have it, so the knicks had to say bye to gallo, moz and felton, along with chandler... this guy better be all of that and then some, because I will be booing like crazy!!

good luck in denver, gallo, chandler and felton, along with moz.. I will be watching every damn game..

I said all along no matter what happened I would welcome him. He's our guy. He's 26. He wanted to be a Knick. He forced his team to trade him here (and got our team fleeced along the way). The bad trade isnt Melo's fault. Its the Knicks. I dont hold him accountable for that. You cant.. its not fair.

That being said....

Lets see Diva go play defense like Lebron does every night and he will become the star he thinks he is. I dont see Amare and Melo as the caliber of player that can take mediocre role players to a conference finals. Diva/STAT are NOT as good as KG/Pierce/Rondo, Kobe/Gasol, Wade/Lebron. They *might* be as good as Howard/Richardson, Rose/Boozer/Knoa, JJ/Horford/Smith but their supporting cast is by FAR inferior to all those other teams, who have just as many options to improve that the Knicks have.

vmart, tms, isergio... all these guys have repeatedly said you can just go out and get good role players. Well... lets see (may the excuses for poor GMing, coaching begin now and continue for 4 years)

fishmike wrote:you have to give LBJ, Wade and bosh credit. They all took the paycuts to win that Diva wasnt willing to take.

It will be interesting to see if any international players or up coming FA types sign here after seeing Felton and Mosgov get shipped out.

This was really the wrong way to do this. With Chandler, Gallo, Mos, AR... we had a group of cheap players with upside, size, skill and the ability to add a max lever FA. Now we dont have any depth or youth to this roster, we are missing picks and have no cap space and Diva's extentension will ensure we dont get CP3 or any other max type guy.

Having Amare and Melo is nice, but when you look at what was given up and the other options available this isnt a great situation. This is a first round exit waiting to happen this year and are 4th or 5th in terms of talent in our conference for the next few years.

Hey.... Maybe Toney Douglas becomes the next Gary Payton. It could happen

good points, and here is another thing.. we all know that if you are a knicks lottery pick and you are not a star from day one.. YOU WILL BE TRADED... PERIOD!!!

fishmike wrote:

tkf wrote:great post.. melo wanted his money, and that was it.. He had to have it, so the knicks had to say bye to gallo, moz and felton, along with chandler... this guy better be all of that and then some, because I will be booing like crazy!!

good luck in denver, gallo, chandler and felton, along with moz.. I will be watching every damn game..

I dont have a problem with guys wanting their cash, or wanting to play in a certain city, but its clear Diva isnt about winning titles.

I said all along no matter what happened I would welcome him. He's our guy. He's 26. He wanted to be a Knick. He forced his team to trade him here (and got our team fleeced along the way). The bad trade isnt Melo's fault. Its the Knicks. I dont hold him accountable for that. You cant.. its not fair.

That being said....

Lets see Diva go play defense like Lebron does every night and he will become the star he thinks he is. I dont see Amare and Melo as the caliber of player that can take mediocre role players to a conference finals. Diva/STAT are NOT as good as KG/Pierce/Rondo, Kobe/Gasol, Wade/Lebron. They *might* be as good as Howard/Richardson, Rose/Boozer/Knoa, JJ/Horford/Smith but their supporting cast is by FAR inferior to all those other teams, who have just as many options to improve that the Knicks have.

vmart, tms, isergio... all these guys have repeatedly said you can just go out and get good role players. Well... lets see (may the excuses for poor GMing, coaching begin now and continue for 4 years)

You will get role players they are everywhere. The Knicks are better today then they were yesterday.

fishmike wrote:Lets see Diva go play defense like Lebron does every night and he will become the star he thinks he is.

This is the key. It's true our team is not as strong as the elites, but we all saw what Lebron did with far less in Cleveland. The Knicks have done their part to bring in guys who say it's all about winning, now it's up to them to play like they mean it. If they do we have a chance.

Vmart wrote:

fishmike wrote:

tkf wrote:great post.. melo wanted his money, and that was it.. He had to have it, so the knicks had to say bye to gallo, moz and felton, along with chandler... this guy better be all of that and then some, because I will be booing like crazy!!

good luck in denver, gallo, chandler and felton, along with moz.. I will be watching every damn game..

I dont have a problem with guys wanting their cash, or wanting to play in a certain city, but its clear Diva isnt about winning titles.

I said all along no matter what happened I would welcome him. He's our guy. He's 26. He wanted to be a Knick. He forced his team to trade him here (and got our team fleeced along the way). The bad trade isnt Melo's fault. Its the Knicks. I dont hold him accountable for that. You cant.. its not fair.

That being said....

Lets see Diva go play defense like Lebron does every night and he will become the star he thinks he is. I dont see Amare and Melo as the caliber of player that can take mediocre role players to a conference finals. Diva/STAT are NOT as good as KG/Pierce/Rondo, Kobe/Gasol, Wade/Lebron. They *might* be as good as Howard/Richardson, Rose/Boozer/Knoa, JJ/Horford/Smith but their supporting cast is by FAR inferior to all those other teams, who have just as many options to improve that the Knicks have.

vmart, tms, isergio... all these guys have repeatedly said you can just go out and get good role players. Well... lets see (may the excuses for poor GMing, coaching begin now and continue for 4 years)

You will get role players they are everywhere. The Knicks are better today then they were yesterday.

Hopefully the Diva becomes half the superstar he thinks he is, because when the Knicks dont rebound and defend its going to translate into a lot of losses.

Good thing is (at least until he's fired) vmart you can blame the Diva's lack of defense on MDA because we all know thats why Melo wont bother. Dude cant guard Gallo. zzzzZZZZzzzz

2. This team is actually setup to be a better rebounding team than we had before. Melo is better than Gallo and off the bench we have Shelden who is better than Timo. If we do add Barron that could further enhance the rebounding.

There are some big questions tho. How will Mike run the offense now with an ISO guy on the roster? For the most part he really tries to avoid that style of play. The only reason STAT does it so much now is cuz Felton couldn't really run the PnR at a high enough level. If we had Nash, STAT would go ISO a lot less. So now we have 2 guys that could look to stop the ball and go ISO. Mike will have to work hard to break that tendency.

Billups would have to change up a bit too, cuz he hasn't been running PnR as much as we do here. How well he handles distributing the ball to STAT and Melo is going to be key. My guess is that we'll try to get Melo the ball in motion. Off curls and back cuts etc. This should allow us to keep the offense moving fast and he can catch and shoot a bit more as well as get it going to the basket like STAT does. I trust Mike to eventually get these guys running his offense to get the Max out of their talents. The ISO should be a last resort not the 1st look.

I don't know what's going to happen on D. We hardly stopped teams before, so we still be looking to outscore people at this point. I don't see how any kind of defensive chemistry will be developed in such a short time. Maybe next year they can really address it. This year it's gonna be tough with all the new guys. The rotations will be shot to hell.

fishmike wrote:1) Billups may not play. Assuming he gives you anything is an assumption. He does NOT want to be hear and now he's playing with the guy who forced him here. Not a good experiment in chermistry
2) Diva/stat are NOT the Heat. Lebron and Wade are masters of creating easy offense and getting tons of assists for other players. That has NEVER been a part of Melo's game (part of why he's regarded as 2nd tier)
3) Diva/stat dont defend. Even if Billups decides to play with effort he's over 35. Wade and Lebron are excellent defensive player. Diva cant stop Gallo from dropping 30. When Diva starts to defend and create easy shots for other players I will change my tune. He hasnt done that in 7 years

Where has there been any indication Billups doesn't want to be here? You think he'd rather be rebuilding in Denver? He asked if the Knicks would pick his option, they said they would and he seems happy about that and ready to come here.

He wants to work in Denver's front office some day, but that doesn't mean he can't play here now. Starks went away and came back to NY's front office when he retired.

fishmike wrote:

tkf wrote:great post.. melo wanted his money, and that was it.. He had to have it, so the knicks had to say bye to gallo, moz and felton, along with chandler... this guy better be all of that and then some, because I will be booing like crazy!!

good luck in denver, gallo, chandler and felton, along with moz.. I will be watching every damn game..

I dont have a problem with guys wanting their cash, or wanting to play in a certain city, but its clear Diva isnt about winning titles.

I said all along no matter what happened I would welcome him. He's our guy. He's 26. He wanted to be a Knick. He forced his team to trade him here (and got our team fleeced along the way). The bad trade isnt Melo's fault. Its the Knicks. I dont hold him accountable for that. You cant.. its not fair.

That being said....

Lets see Diva go play defense like Lebron does every night and he will become the star he thinks he is. I dont see Amare and Melo as the caliber of player that can take mediocre role players to a conference finals. Diva/STAT are NOT as good as KG/Pierce/Rondo, Kobe/Gasol, Wade/Lebron. They *might* be as good as Howard/Richardson, Rose/Boozer/Knoa, JJ/Horford/Smith but their supporting cast is by FAR inferior to all those other teams, who have just as many options to improve that the Knicks have.

vmart, tms, isergio... all these guys have repeatedly said you can just go out and get good role players. Well... lets see (may the excuses for poor GMing, coaching begin now and continue for 4 years)

i AGREE and although I don't like how lebron handles his business, the guy is a superb ball player, and in the end, one of the few, if only guys, you can justify gutting your team for...