Official: Melo traded to Knicks

[Kyle Orton]

You guys don't know that Amare is injury-prone? a risky investment?
Fantasy could be vanished in a second.
But, sweet dream seems a better option for Knicks.
Acctually, the Nuggets steal the trade.

off and die a painful death you re ed piece of . How can any Suns fan still refuse to admit that not resigning Amare was a mistake?

[peskypesky]

as a New Yorker, i have mixed feelings about the trade. i've never been crazy about Carmelo as a player. definitely has game, but it takes more than that to get to the top. something about his personality/psyche has always left me convinced he'll never get a ring in the NBA.

i'm actually very glad we're getting Chauncey. past his prime for sure, but a proven winner with the right at ude.

it will be interesting to see what happens. after the Lebron disappointment, its almost absurd that we end up getting Carmelo. but the Knicks have been hurting for marquee players for a LONG time, which is just not right for the biggest and best city in the nation. now we have Amare and Carmelo. lots of points. lots of highlights. lots of glamour. it'll be fun and exciting.

[MavFan6488]

Ok, I'm late to the party. Kobe and his world-champion Lakers have once again shook up the world. Players are colluding together left and right. First it was Bosh who left Toronto, where he was a 1st option to join D-Whistle. Then it was LeHype who infringed on a then 17-year old Kobe's phrase of taking his talents to the NBA (South Beach) and also joining D-Whistle. Next up was Boozer fleeing the WC for his life by joining up with D Rose in the EC. Then Amare' inked a $100M deal to join the Knicks (expertly guaranteeing to not see Kobe until the Finals - if he ever got that far). Now Melo is running scared.

FIRST, gasol joined kobe. Kobe ain't without a second all-star besides him..but laker fans still believe kobe leads his team to championships with 81 point game perfomances...WAKE UP! he "leads" his team to championships with 6 for 24 perfomances.

[Kyle Orton]

The #1 concern for the Knicks is Mike D'antoni. He now has a PG who can run his system well AND play good defense, plus both Amare and Melo now SHOULD become better defensive players because they aren't relied on so much offensively. Will D'antoni transition the Knicks into a grind-it-out defensive team like they can be, or is his hidden-agenda of proving he can lead a fastbreak fest to a championship gonna get in the Knicks' way?

[Kyle Orton]

gonna get in the way tbh. dude doesn't even know how to coach defense even if he didn't have an agenda, which he does.

the thing is he does. That's what was so frustrating about D'antoni, his defensive schemes were good. He never overreacted with double teams, his philosophy was get beat by a great individual performance rather than a great team offense. Unfortunately, he never felt like demanding accountability and good individual defense, so while the philosophy of not letting Parker, Ginobili and Duncan make others better was smart, it doesn't matter when you let them combine for 90 points on 57% shooting.

[Kyle Orton]

well that's part of coaching good defense

What I'm saying is he knew how to and made a conscious decision not to because in his mind focusing on defense and winning a championship with good defense would be admitting defeat to all the naysayers who said his offense first system can't win.

[Kyle Orton]

pretty stupid logic on his part then. so he knows defense wins yet chooses to prove how awesome his system is by only coaching on one end

It's just a stubborn egocentric personality. No different than Don Nelson. By far the most successful Don Nelson team was the 1980s Milwaukee Bucks that was near the top of the NBA in defense every year, but for some reason Don Nelson wanted to prove he could win without demanding any defense whatsoever in his post-Bucks career.

[Greg Oden]

get a room.

[Kyle Orton]

Oh no doubt hes convinced himself he can win with it and has gotten himself so entrenched in that view it's even harder to get him to loosen his stance on it. You'd think after repeated playoff failures he'd be more and more open to defense, but in Phoenix, after every playoff failure it became less about defense. During his last season in Phoenix, every time someone in the media posed a problem to him, the solution he offered was "shoot better, run faster".

[Kyle Orton]

get a room.

get a suit you can use to sit on the bench

[Greg Oden]

get a nice clipboard to assist Tebow, imo.

[G-Dawgg]

New york just depleted their team...all of a sudden Denver looks like the deepest team in the NBA...

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

Exciting trade from just a basketball fan's perspective. A marquee player is going to the biggest stage in basketball. That's something I look forward to watching.

For the Nuggets: Good job on milking several assets/pieces from this trade. I think this might be one of those things that's actually a blessing in disguise down the road because Carmelo wasn't going to bring home a championship. They'd end up being a pretender until he was done. This way they can at least try to build around a future star with a better demeanor and willingness to play defense.

For the Knicks: Gave up more than they had to but in the end they got the job done. They had to get Carmelo Anthony out of this because they were otherwise destined to settle for being a cute .550 team (at best) in the East. They're not contenders but at least now they're players. Someone mentioned a good point that Stern pushes stars so they'll get favorable treatment from the league. Also, forget about on the court play, Carmelo will make the Knicks a lot of $$$.

For Carmelo: He somehow managed to pull off acting like he was a victim in a situation he created. If you listened to him talk, it was like the Nuggets wanted to get rid of him and he was some poor pawn caught in a game of front office warfare. I strongly dislike Carmelo - in both what he brings as a player and his personality. He acts like a complete and his game isn't suited for team basketball. As it stands, he's a 1 dimensional player. He can score easily but that's the extent of his abilities. If I was a Nuggets fan, I'd just be glad this was off my team. He's not a winner. To me, winners are guys like Manu, Kobe, Derek Fisher, Duncan, D. Rose, Westbrook, Blake Griffin, and Kevin Durant (not as much lately). These guys remind me of the players from the tough NBA eras when guys were fierce - MJ, Scottie, Karl Malone, Stockton, Barkley, Bird, etc. Nowadays, the soft y guys that look for excuses and don't care 100% about winning like Carmelo, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Lebron, D-Wade, Bosh litter the league.

NJ Nets: Can't believe the owner went back on his word of not pursuing "Carmela". He didn't seem like that type of guy. I think the Nets got lucky they didn't get him, not that he was ever seriously considering playing for them. Carmelo played with them like a yo-yo. I thought the owner got the message when he said they were done pursuing but guess not.

Overall: Even though I would never want Carmelo on my team, I love this trade because of how live this NBA season feels. The East is going to have a great bracket this year once the losers get weeded out in the first round.

Nice post, especially the bit about Melo.

[mingus]

I think if the media wanted to turn Melo into a bad guy they could have, but the story was always more about the Knicks than it was Melo. Melo is just a boring dude. The coolest thing about Melo is his name.

[Darrin]

I think the Knicks actually have a stronger team this season than they did before this trade. Amar'e and Anthony is a bonafide 1st and 2nd option. It gives them an inside-outside threat. Chauncey Billups is a great 3rd option and Billups and Antony are in the midst of their third season together so there is chemistry. Landry Fields is a good 4th option on offense. They still have Toney Douglas. Mike D'Antoni managed the minutes and shots for Stoudemire, Nash, Joe Johnson, and Quentin Richardson to the tune of 60 wins. He won 54 games with Boris Diaw as his best interior player. He's great with point guards.

The question becomes whether they can guard the interior and rebound the basketball. That's the only thing standing between them and leap-frogging the Hawks and possibly the Magic.

[mingus]

I like the trade for NY. They have a team that could possibly take Boston or Miami to 6 games. Over summer, they'll add pieces for next year.

[Darrin]

I like the trade for NY. They have a team that could possibly take Boston or Miami to 6 games. Over summer, they'll add pieces for next year.

I'd like to see them get the 4/5 matchup with the Hawks or Magic. They might win that series and that would be a better story than if Howard loses to Miami or Boston. The Hawks are perhaps the most boring team out there. They almost lost to the Bucks last year. So a Knicks/Celtics or Knicks/Heat matchup would spark an old rivalry and give them a cinderella story for a budding up-and-coming team. The first playoff series win since 2000 for the Knicks. Perhaps this year's Oklahoma City.

[wanggi]

off and die a painful death you re ed piece of . How can any Suns fan still refuse to admit that not resigning Amare was a mistake?

I'm not sure when the Suns fans will admit that so-called mistake but I'm sure the Knicks would not refuse to admit that signing Amare was a huge mistake if he gets injured again.

[biskvito]

Gallinari is one of my favorite young players in the league, I'm very happy for Denver... hope Nene stays and they build from there.

[pauls931]

So how long til CP3 signs?

[Pistons < Spurs]

Maino Freestyle Welcoming Carmelo Anthony to Madison Square Garden as a new member of the New York Knicks!

http://soundcloud.com/executivenick/...-carmelo-maino

[Booharv]

I have a hard time believing Anthony would have risked signing under the new collective bargaining agreement and losing dozens of million of dollars. If they lower the salary cap, the Knicks might have been able to offer him like $10 million dollars a season. Who knows what the number would have been, so I doubt they could have just signed him for 50 cents on the dollar in the offseason like everyone assumes. I don't think Melo would have let that happen.

[angelbelow]

Nuggets got a pretty good deal. Unless the Knicks get CP3 or Deron they have no chance for the next 5 years, so i doubt melo went there to win.

[mardigan]

Nuggets got a pretty good deal. Unless the Knicks get CP3 or Deron they have no chance for the next 5 years, so i doubt melo went there to win.

It's New York, and they now have two superstars. I find it hard to believe they will have a hard time getting talent to come there in the next few years, salary permitting.

[LakerHater]

So he'll be wearin #7?