The headline says everything about why I follow college sports more than pro sports and why the pro sports covered on this blog on occasion are generally the ones where there is not a huge flowing trail of money and entitlement going along with it.
In this case, I will be skewering Carmelo Anthony about the way he got to the Knicks. The question all along with Carmelo was is this about the money or the winning? The question has been answered. It is about the money.
Carmelo playing with the Knicks is a great thing for the Knicks and should help bring even more energy to the revitalized franchise this season. Of course, Carmelo's need to get paid has caused the Knicks to mortgage the future for a now that won't produce a title.
In the here and now, the Knicks are the six seed in the east. Even with Carmelo, there is no way they get home court in the first round. Without that, the Knicks are looking at three road series to get to the finals. Lets say they finish where they are now (highly probable considering they are now better than Philadelphia who is two game behind and they are 5.5 behind the 5th place Hawks. That would mean road series against the Bulls, Heat and Celtics or Magic to make the NBA finals where the Knicks would meet a team from the West (whether it be San Antonio, the Lakers or Dallas) that has spent the last half decade beating up their core players. It will be the same next year and in future years because the Knicks have no first round picks because of mismanagement in the past and will have no cap space because Carmelo's huge contract combined with Amare Stoudemire's contract is eating it all.
What Carmelo should have done is just go in free agency after the season. The same money issues with the cap and the same draft issues would still apply yes. But at the same time, the cap hit wouldn't be as extraordinary meaning there would be some ability to sign a player every now and then. Also, the young core of the Knicks would still be intact.
At this point, I think I would rather be playing with Felton, Gallinari and Chandler over Billups and his aging body. I also think that starting next season, a lineup of Stoudemire, Gallinari, Anthony, Chandler and Felton is better than anything the Knicks could possibly cobble together even with Billups there now and for one more season.
Looking at this, then why would Anthony force the trade now instead of going in free agency? Its about the money stupid. That 3 year-$65million extension that he gets isn't available in free agency. In fact, the free agent contract might not even be worth 75% under the new CBA whenever it is hashed out. The trade was forced now so Carmelo could go where he always wanted to go and get paid too. Bravo to the Nuggets for extracting so much out of the Knicks in this deal and shame on Carmelo for choosing the money over the winning.
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