Carmelo Anthony to the New York Knicks Heating Up? Knicks, Nuggets Owners Discuss Trade

If they're looking at Melo for veteran leadership, they're looking at the wrong guy. Melo is about Melo.

The Knicks simply aren't offering enough: Wilson Chandler, Corey Brewer and an number 1 is just not sufficient.

I think Gallinari is going to have to be included for the deal to go down, maybe even Landry Fields.

I agree that Melo leaves much to be desired when it comes to leadership. He's no Garnett or Kobe. I do think he could be a better leader than Amare though.

I don't know, Ryan. I'm out here in Melo country. I've been a Nuggets fan since they were the Rockets in the ABA days. I think Melo is the second best player as a Nuggets/Rocket I've ever seen, after the heyday of David Thompson.

Melo is a lot of things, but he doesn't like to be a leader. He totally abdicated that role on the team to Chauncey Billups. He's a GREAT player, I'll miss him though. He does need to get out of town, everyone here is sick of his act.

Maybe it's more wishful thinking than anything on my part. I love to see the star players lead their teams. Paul Pierce was a terrible leader early in his Celtics career until he was forced to step up. He's still not extremely vocal, but he leads by example. I hate using that phrase, but oh well.

Anyway, I guess that's what I'm thinking he might be on the court. I would love to see Carmelo get to the Garden and take control of that team. Time will tell.

I think Carmelo Anthony is very overrated. If the Knicks included both Landry Fields and Dino Gallinari in a trade to get Anthony, they would be making a mistake. Anthony is a tremendous scorer, but I've never seen him play any real defense. I also don't consider him to be a real good passer.

The Pierce comparison is not a good one because Paul played for some really bad teams and coaches who certainly were not among the league's best (M. L. Carr, Rick Pitino, Jim O'Brien). Anthony has played for some fairly decent teams and a good, although somewhat overrated, coach (George Karl).

Also, even when Pierce was not a good leader he did not come across as a me-first type of guy. I don't remember him ever demanding a trade to a big media center. If he ever did harbor a desire to be traded, I am sure he wished to go to a team that had a shot at the title. I don't feel Anthony's primary desire is to play for a winner. After all, Denver is much closer to being a title contender than New Jersey and, possibly, the Knicks. If he were about winning, he would have teams like Orlando and Utah on his list. The only team on his last that has any chance of getting to the finals is Chicago.

The smartest person in this Carmelo Anthony soap opera appears to be Tom Thibodeau. The fact that he is completely unwilling to give up Noah to get Anthony indicates that he is a lot wiser than many of the analysts working for TNT, ESPN, and NBA TV. For some reason many of the analysts seem to put Anthony up there close to Lebron James and Kobe Bryant. He is not even remotely close to being a player of that caliber. He is an excellent scorer but not much else.

Dave;

I've seen a lot more of Melo than you have. No, he doesn't play much D, but he can be unstoppable as a scorer when he's inspired. He's too strong for small forwards, and too quick for power forwards.

Carmelo hasn't demanded a trade: what he's done is looked at the Nuggets, and seen a team that still has serious flaws that can't be fixed this season. They've got a center who should be a power forward, a power forward who is gimpy, a rapidly aging point guard and a shooting guard who is still developing his game. Their bench is ok, but not great. And I'm a HUGE Nuggets fan. This team needs to be rebuilt.

This isn't a team that's going to get past the Thunder, the Jazz or the Lakers in the playoffs. And while Melo is only 26, he's got 7 NBA years on his body. He's also got a wife with higher aspirations than what she can attain in Denver. I don't blame him for exploring his options.

Again, the DEMAND part of this equation is entirely media created. People make this stuff up for the "melo rumour of the day". It's a hot topic, but until I see or hear Melo say anything himself, it' all conjecture.

I stand corrected on the demand portion of my comments, Ali.

I agree with you about him being unstoppable, but I still believe he is overrated. If you look at players like Lebron, Kobe, Duncan and Garnett when they were younger, ... they are/were sometimes able to dominate games even when they are/were shooting miserably from the field. I do not see Carmelo Anthony as a player who has many dimensions to his game. Has he ever dished out 10 assists in a game, pulled down 15 boards, or locked down an excellent offensive small forward (i.e. Joe Johnson, a younger Pierce, Kobe, Lebron, a young Vince Carter)? I don't think you give up two very good - excellent YOUNG players and a fairly high number one for Anthony unless there are other issues (i.e. one of the young players has shown himself to be prone to injuries or is likely to leave his team and become a free agent within a couple years). From what I have seen, Gallinari and Fields are very good young players. If they were just very good PROSPECTS, I would say, "Make the trade." I would say the same if the Knicks were a very deep team. But those two players have shown enough to be called more than prospects and the Knicks are definitely not a deep team.

As for the Nuggets, I will say that you are probably correct. However, I don't think they will help the rebuilding process by trading Anthony unless they can find a way to get two very high number one picks (mid and late lottery picks certainly DON'T qualify as high number ones) and a hungry young player with enormous potential who has been sitting on the pine because his coach is unable to realize that he has a real talent on his team. If I were Denver's GM, I would probably look at free agents who might be underpriced and try to improve the team by going after them. The only name that comes to mind right now is Greg Oden. He has had many injuries but if he ever stays healthy, he will be among the best big men in the game.

I disagree, Dave. Galinari is an ok player, but inconsistent, with no defensive prowess at all. Fields is ok, but I wouldn't take him, from a scoring viewpoint, over J.R. Smith, or a defensive standpoint over Aaron Aroffalo . They're not prospects, but they're not guys who will be starters on a conference finalist. They're nice pieces, but hardly keepers if you can obtain an all-star forward. I'm not even sure that the Nuggets would want either one over Chandler.

The trade can be configured so the the Knicks could get some more depth, and free up some big money for next year. They can get Melo, Kenyon Martin's expiring 16 million dollar contract, and Chauncey, who can be bought out for 4 million this summer.

Those other guys you mention are great players, but those who have won a title haven't done it without major players beside them. Kobe won when he had Shaq or Gasol: Pierce never won until he had Garnett and Allen, and LeBron could only carry his teams so far on his back. A'Mare needs a sidekick, and the Knicks would be crazy to pass up this opportunity.

I think they are better than "ok." I think both are capable of starting for a conference finalist. I would be much more fearful of a Laker starting five of Gasol, Bynum, Fields or Galinari, Kobe, and Fisher than one with Gasol, Bynum, Artest, Kobe, and Fisher. Artest is now a mere shadow of what he once was. He gives you very little scoring, very few rebounds, and even fewer assists. Yes, he still is good on D, but not good enough to shut down the best small forwards game in and game out. I would also take either Galinari or Fields over Miami's Chalmers or Ilgauskas. Miami could move Lebron to the point and slide either Fields or Galinari into the small forward slot. Chicago probably would start Fields or Galinari over Keith Bogans, because Deng could play the shooting guard and one of those two Knicks could become the small forward. I am not saying that you can build a team around either Fields or Galinari. What I am saying is that they are very good YOUNG players capable of starting for a team that has the potential to reach the finals. I also suspect that neither player has a high salary, which means you can bring them in without causing salary cap problems.

If the Knicks brought in Carmelo Anthony, they would have to pay him well over $20,000,000 a year. His salary and Stoudamire's together would leave the Knicks with very little space under the salary cap. You might want to argue that many good role players would be willing to join the Knicks and play for less if the team had both Carmelo Anthony and Stoudamire, but I am not sure that would be the case. Playing with those two is not as attractive an option as playing with Dwayne Wade and Lebron James or joining Boston's big three and being part of the most historic franchise in NBA history. Wade and James are, in my opinion, two of the three best players in the NBA. Where do Anthony and Stoudamire rank? I do not think most GMs would rank either one of them among the top five. After Lebron, Wade, and Kobe, they would probably take Kevin Durant and Dwight Howard. Many of them, I think, would even take players like Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and Derrick Rose ahead of them. Also, if the Knicks want to bring in Anthony, they will have to part with any high draft picks they have. The addition of Anthony will then boost their win total and make it difficult to add quality through the draft because they will be picking very late.

A creative GM might be able to configure the trade to make it work, as you suggest, but dealing with salary caps is a real tricky matter.

I agree with everything you said about sidekicks (you could have added that Michael Jordan won no titles until Pippen came along, by the way), but I still don't think a duo of Stoudamire and Anthony would bring New York close to a title. Even if three good starters and four solid role players to come off the bench joined them, I think they would still come up short. I really think you have to have a franchise player and I don't see Carmelo Anthony and Stoudamire as such a player.

Dave;

We'll have to agree to disagree then.

We'll see what happens.

That's okay with me, Ali.