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Should the Knicks attempt to move Carmelo Anthony?
As is often the case, even just two weeks removed from it, the NBA seems to have no clue as to how busy or impactful its trade deadline is going to be. We could have another deadline starring Anthony Johnson as its top transaction, or a February surprise that involves Deron Williams (then, a franchise player) being shipped unexpectedly to the Nets.
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All it takes is the first domino to fall, with the rest of the league reacting as they pursue their various motivations. A shot at the Warriors. Cap space for this summer. More draft picks for a brighter future. Team chemistry improvements. A bright, shining, star.
Could New York’s Carmelo Anthony act as that first domino? He isn’t struggling with the Knicks, and the team has acted as a pleasant surprise in 2015-16, but his presence does seem rather incongruous. This is why the New York Daily News’ Frank Isola is correct in wondering if there should be a parting of ways:
Phil Jackson’s plan conflicts with Anthony’s win-now plan. It always did. Kristaps Porzingis, the future of the franchise, is 20. Carmelo is 31 with 12 seasons under his belt and nearly 32,000 minutes on his legs.
“Why not trade him now when you could get something for him,” said one opposing team executive.
Isola, despite MSG’s best efforts, is as entrenched with the Knicks as any writer in the team’s history. He shares the beat with Marc Berman, who offered this suggestion via his, um, post at the New York Post in the wake of the team’s recent Jose Calderon-less swoon:
The domino effect of Calderon’s injury placed Langston Galloway as starting point guard. He wasn’t ready for it. Neither is rookie Jerian Grant, whose lack of an outside shot has hurt. The celebration of the Grant-for-Tim Hardaway Jr. draft-night trade is on hold. The Knicks’ 2013 first-round pick is back in the rotation in Atlanta.
Once considered an albatross because of defensive woes, Calderon could be sought by a playoff-bound team to be a backup and cool head on the court, and he’s a former Piston.
However, as one league executive said, “With everyone having a lot of cap space, maybe it won’t be as busy as past years.’’
The Knicks are competent and fun to watch this season, but they’re still 2.5 games behind the Detroit Pistons in the race for the final spot in the Eastern playoff bracket. The team has no first round draft pick this season and, as such, no real incentive to tank. This is part of the reason team president Phil Jackson decided to outfit his roster with in-prime vets like Robin Lopez, Arron Afflalo, and a reclamation project in Derrick Williams last summer via free agency.
The results, when healthy, have been satisfying. Lopez and Williams have been inconsistent, but Afflalo has played solid two-way basketball and Kristaps Porzingis has been able to contribute at an accelerated level that even his most ardent backers doubted he’d be able to this early on. Anthony, by and large, has bought in.
The uneasy and until-now unspoken half-empty side that Isola brings up, though, is fair. What’s the end game, in all of this? As it was last June and as it is now, do the Knicks see themselves as title contenders when Porzingis is 23 and Melo is working for over $27 million in the days before his 35th birthday in 2019?
Even then, Anthony’s contract will still count for a quarter of the NBA’s salary cap. And, for someone who entered the NBA at age 19 while working into the playoffs most years alongside significant international work during the summer, Carmelo’s “35” is going to be an old 35.
The kicker here is that Anthony owns a no-trade clause. He loves New York, like anyone with half a clue, and likes playing with this team despite its past struggles and middling presence in 2015-16.
More appealing to Jackson, it was said last year, is the idea that Anthony could adapt to the old-man game in ways that others of his era couldn’t. With Dwyane Wade too short and LeBron James too reliant on those otherworldly hops, Anthony could ease into NBA life as a hybrid forward that could rebound, shoot, and find cutters in Jackson’s preferred triple-post offense.
In short, he’s the dad that isn’t allowed to shoot in the lane playing with the neighborhood kids. In a much-publicized column from Posting and Toasting that surfaced earlier in 2016, Joe Flynn talked about as much. The Knicks have lost nine of 14 since its publication, though, needing overtime to beat the Sixers and Jazz to help break up that streak.
In any other world, this would seem a no-brainer. However, the Knicks (regardless of that year’s winning percentage or its draft prospects) exist in a different universe.
Phil Jackson would have to come up with an absolute slam dunk of a deal for Carmelo Anthony, by Anthony’s standards, and he’d have to convince another NBA team that it would want to pay Carmelo $27 million in 2019 – much in the same way Phil Jackson somehow convinced himself 19 months ago that he wanted to pay Carmelo Anthony $27 million in 2019.
Anthony would have to lock into his new club as the conquering hero, the missing championship piece, which would be tough to do for any swingman even if the Warriors and Spurs weren’t on pace for 70-some wins. The obvious predecessor would be Clyde Drexler’s move from Portland to Houston in 1995, but Portland botched that deal (trading for a 32-year old Otis Thorpe that would become a free agent a few months later alongside a draft pick that would turn out to be Randolph Childress) prior to Clyde (who still had a year left on his contract) going on to win a championship.
Carmelo Anthony is no dummy. He knows that if he has to join a team midseason it will take a quick and efficient melding of the minds with whatever star he lines up alongside to make hay in 2015-16 – and again, that’s pretending Golden State and San Antonio aren’t running away with things, and that LeBron James didn’t average 36 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists in last year’s Finals. He’s not being dealt from the Sheboygan Hawks, either: Carmelo may not have reality TV aspirations anymore, but NYC will always be a nice place to be, even if you just end up with 35 wins.
The easy answer here is the Los Angeles Clippers. Big city, 72 and sunny, a buddy in Chris Paul that managed to extend Peja Stojakovic’s career with that 1-3 screen and roll and a win-now situation as CP3 stares down 31 years of age.
Not to speculate, but we’ve absolutely no idea how Blake Griffin’s hand injury will heal. He’s about to deal with his longest time removed from shooting a basketball since he was a toddler. There’s not a lot of precedence when it comes to anticipating how effective a power forward is going to be after breaking his hand in a fight outside of a restaurant in Toronto. Especially one that has been so potent with his long jump shot this season.
We’re not demeaning Doc Rivers’ NBA know-how when we remind everyone that Doc the GM is also a coach. Coaches can be swayed. Coaches in February are like team owners and general managers in July – they think the team is one move away, and two practices can turn their crew into the ’27 Yankees.
Even if we have to remind the coaches that there are just five of them out there.
The issue with the Knicks is that the five is disparate. Carmelo Anthony’s old enough to have worked in cornrows because it was cool. Kristaps Porzingis is young enough that his dalliance with the hairstyle turned into an internet joke. If the NBA made sense, Carmelo would waive the no-trade clause and happily move on his way toward the next team.
Who wouldn’t want to make another $78.9 million playing in New York for the next three years, though?
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is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
