Felton vs. Billups
i hope everyone agrees that this is a slight to major plus short term with slight to major negative long term. Billups is clearly better than Felton right now offensively. they both have same length in contracts but the downside is that it would be harder to bring back Felton now that he's on another team now as opposed to extending him if we lose out on Paul or DWill. with new cba it's tough to say if this would have been possible at all even if Felton was still here. as long as billups doesn't fall off a cliff it's a clear win for us.

Mozgov + two 2nd rounders for Shelden Williams, Anthony Carter, Balkman
this is a wash and i could argue it's a slight gain for us. it's not a deal we wanted to do but in the end it's not going to matter at all short term with a very little chance of hurting us long term. Mozgov is a project and showed very little. Shelden Williams is almost as bad except he has proven that he has a consistent skill in rebounding the basketball which Mozgov has yet to show and may never show. The only deal that goes past 2012 is Balkman who can be a rotation player if he ever got his head on straight and made an effort. Frankly i think he has a better shot of making it than Mozgov. The two 2nd rounders hurt a bit as i thought that was totally unnecessary. We're talking about scrubs anyway so it doesn't really matter in the end. And before you cry bloody murder over including Mozgov, you should ask yourself what separates him from someone like Johan Petro or Hasheem Thabeet or other project centers past and current.

AR for Brewer
i would classify this as a major loss but if we weren't going to play AR anyway then it's only a slight loss. Brewer may or may not be useful but he doesn't have anywhere near the talent that AR has but they might end up playing the same amount in the end. which is not at all.

Chandler + Gallo + 2014 first for Melo

First, if we were to get Melo there was no realistic scenario for us to keep Chandler. Everybody is aware of this. We would have had to throw in some other pieces and extend them both which i hope everyone agrees would have been a real bad idea.

That brings us to Gallo who seems to be the main gripe from everyone or at least he should be. Gallo was going to be a RFA next year as well. So unless he made a major leap we weren't going to resign him either. As it stands now, if Gallo remained the way he was, he would've been a bench player and either traded for someone or as a larger package for someone like Paul or Deron. All of this is speculation of course. Speculating if:
a)NO or Utah would have accepted a deal revolving around Fields+Gallo.
b)Denver would have accepted the deal without Gallo and
c)whether or not Melo really would have resigned with Denver or the Nets if there was no trade with the Knicks.

Everyone is assuming B and C are true, which i think is wrong but ok, let's assume it's right. A trade of Billups+Fields+Gallo probably does not get a deal done unless Paul or Deron pull a Melo. Gallo if he remained a knick would have his touches and minutes go considerably down and his trade value would not be that high where he would clinch a deal of superstars. If either pg pulls a Melo then we are in the same situation we are in now and it's up to NOH/Utah to take a deal involving something instead of nothing. Gallo would not be a clincher here.

We also can afford to hold strong because the list of strong contenders who need a pg who will have cap room or have assets to trade is smaller. it comes down to the hawks, Orlando, the clippers, dallas and that's it and there are larger issues with those other teams in pulling a deal off and/or signing either pg. All those teams have issues where Paul/Deron would be hesitant to sign or don't have an asset better than Fields. I could go one by one with each team but suffice to say the only real concern would be LAC and i highly doubt either pg would choose to go there Blake or no Blake. We also do not know what the structure of the new CBA would be like to make this even feasible for us and for those other teams.

So then after weighing all those unknowns could you really object to putting in Gallo in the deal if he was the clincher to get this deal done? That's also assuming that there's a season next year which there may not be which would mean dealing for Melo now and putting him in there was definitely the right move.

The 2014 pick hurts but if everything works out it's a late first rounder anyway which we can buy.

All-in all, i'm probably more pissed about those 2nd rounders that were thrown in than Gallo. In the grand scheme of things he would be marginalized with Melo coming here. Being mad at this trade, really comes down to whether or not you wanted Melo here to begin because if you did want him here it was eventually going to come at the expense of most the players shipped out. Being totally ripped off would have been including all 3 of Fields/Gallo/Chandler. 2 out of the 3 wouldn't have been a big deal and i think they picked the right 2.

BasketballJones wrote:Wow, 998 words.

hehe, I see the beginnings of a new trend...

In BRIGGS "Any of the top 3 seeds will detroy us in the playoffs" thread I had one post of 350 words and another of 140. I think I can make one that tops 1000 boys.

P.S. Fist of Oakley..Timo Mozgov will come back to haunt us like the decision not to finish off the Cold War and clean out the KGB that is now ruling mother russia.

I'm encouraged more and more by actual basketball experts that are applauding...especially my boys on Pardon the Interuption (PTI), they tell it like it is.

Amare and melo are both young and have 5 good years in them...I'll take that.

Great post...worst case it's a wash, but we all know the reality...we are a much better team than last week, and will always be a much better team going forward (barring injury)

Time to embrace and celebrate...melo is a knick...eff the heat!

Paladin55 wrote:I've watched him at different periods throughout the year, folks are(of course) going to love his offensive skills, but immediately notice, especially after a few games and the early energy wears off, that he is an indifferent player in many areas of his game, not only on D, but also on offense.

I've seen that from Anthony across his career, but I'd be leery of making strong conclusions based on this year. Lets face it, he checked out on Denver before the season began, he's been immensely distracted by the trade on-goings and his sister died around Christmas. So all told this has not been the best year for Carmelo.