All long-suffering basketball fans of the New York Knickerbockers (aka: N.Y. Knicks), must be quite pleased with how the team has progressed this season: since the signing of free-agent forward/center Amare Stoudemire, in the off-season (last July). After all, it's over a decade since the Knicks last appeared in an NBA finals, and almost 38 years since the team last won the NBA title (1973).
The progress being made this season, has left many of us rather optimistic about the team's immediate future, since this is a very young team with a growth-potential way up in the clouds. Stoudemire is a bona fide star in this league, and currently holds second place in the league's scoring averages with 26.1 points per game. And yet, he alone is not enough to guarantee the Knickerbockers an NBA ring -this year or next.
The last time the Knicks got to the playoffs was in 2004; that's when they were swept in the first round by the New Jersey (soon moving to Brooklyn) Nets. At this year's All-Star Break (which usually comes just after the season's midpoint) the team had won 28 games against 26 losses. There are 28 games left in the regular season, and the hopes for playoff action are very very high amongst Knick fans, and this is why the organization is now faced with a dilemma named Carmelo Anthony.
Since the end of last season, NBA forward Carmelo Anthony, decided to leave a contract extension with his current team (Denver Nuggets) on the table. This three-year extension is worth roughly sixty- five million dollars (WOW!!). Speculation has been that he wants to return to New York -the city of his birth (Brooklyn to be exact). He has openly stated that he would love to come back home to either the Knicks or Nets -preferably the Knickerbockers. And since he is a free-agent after this season, the view is that Denver will have to trade him now, in order to get something in return, rather than lose him for nothing during his free agency. It makes sense.
Impatient Knick officials (and fans) have been trying their best to pry Carmelo from Denver, in order to have him join Stoudemire as the other forward in the Knicks starting rotation. Anthony presently has the sixth highest scoring average in the National Basketball Association (25.2 points per game). If he were to join Amare, then the knicks will have the second most potent scoring duo in the league; with a combined average slightly lower than that of Dwayne Wade (25.4) and Le Bron James (26.1) of the Miami Heat.
The dilemma for many is whether or not to let this young Knickerbocker team slowly develop, or to nervously and somewhat impetuously break up the team to trade for Anthony (“Melo”-as he is called). The suspicion (consensus) is that the Knicks in its present composition, is not good enough to get to the Eastern Conference finals, far less win the NBA title. What has happened for most of this season is the Denver Nuggets have been entertaining offers from most of the thirty teams in the league, hoping to score a home run by trading Melo. They may be close to doing that. Many teams (excluding the Lakers and a few others) have been overbidding for Carmelo Anthony's services from jump-street.
This season's trading deadline is Thursday 24th February; so with five days to go, Denver has got the Nets over a barrel, with a tentative deal that offers up Carmelo Anthony, veteran point-guard Chauncey Billups, and a few role players from Denver's bench. In return the Nets will give up a bunch of talented young players, plus three or four (yes!) first round draft picks. Some of these draft picks have been assiduously accumulated over the years, by an organization which has seen many key players depart for greener pastures. No need to tell you that I think the Nets are overplaying their hand, just to land a marquee name. But how many times haven't we seen marquee players without the supporting cast, waste their prime years struggling to just get their team to the playoff? Basketball is not a one-man game. It's all about the team. It's all about fitting the pieces together -especially role players and the supporting cast: including the right coaches and trainers.
The caveat in this tentative deal with the Nets, is that Carmelo and Denver has allowed the Knickerbockers a chance to make a deal happen before the deadline, prior to all parties signing on the dotted line. I will say this: always look a gift horse in the mouth; you may not like what you see there.
Word is that the Knicks have been told to put three of their five starters (excluding Stoudemire) in the package. Plus they are also supposed to give up the expiring contract of center Eddie Curry; plus a draft pick they could obtain from trading one of their young bench players (Randolph/a tremendous 22-year old prospect at six feet eleven inches); plus another bench player (Chandler). This is too much.
The Knicks need to pass on this. Even two starters, a bench player, plus Curry's contract, plus a first round draft pick, may be a draft pick and/or a bench-player too high; but it is by far the highest they should go. Trading the young point-guard Raymond Felton for an aging Billups is almost a no-brainer; especially when you trade away two other talented youngsters amongst Danilo Galinari, Timofey Mozgov and/or Landry Fields; plus maybe Wilson Chandler too; plus Curry's contract too; and a first round pick to booth: nah! Too much. Carmelo isn't worth all that. He is worth some good stuff; but not all that. He isn't a complete player. He is an offensive talent at best.
To put this in better perspective, remember that The L.A. Lakers once traded four players to get Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Carmelo Anthony is nowhere near to becoming the impact player that Jabbar was. Anthony is a decent passer, a great scorer, a fair rebounder, but he plays minimum defense. This is the Achilles heel of the Knicks: defense.
Getting Carmelo Anthony improves the team a bit, but it is still no guarantee that these two superstars can share the one basketball allowed on court. The supporting cast being slowly built up at present cannot withstand a decimating shake-up. The Knicks organization need to thread carefully on this trade. Trying to get Anthony is good; but getting him at all costs is not. If the Knick get Anthony by giving up Chandler, Galinari, Curry's contract, plus a first round draft pick, that will be good; and that's as far as they should go. To give up more that that will be to decimate your team (especially your bench-strength) and its enormous potential, for something risqué at best.
Personally, I hope they get Anthony in New York; Knicks or Nets is of no matter to me. It would liven up things a little more; and that will be fine. I just feel that the price will be too steep for both. The trades being proposed in their present structures need to be amended. Just my little two-cents as a frustrated and long-suffering Knick fan.
Stay tuned-in folks.