Carmelo Anthony to Knicks: “No Legs”

October 20, 2010 | 6:26pm

Per NBA.com (via KV reader Rocky)

A league source with knowledge of the New York Knicks’ thinking said on Wednesday that there were “no legs” to an ESPN report that the Knicks have made “significant” progress on a trade that would bring Carmelo Anthony to New York from the Denver Nuggets.

To be honest, not surprised by this news. Don’t expect Melo news to pick up anytime soon actually, Tommy Dee implied on The Knicks Blog last night.

It’s entirely possible that the Nets are still in this actually. According to ESPN’s Chris Broussard, the Nuggets still love what the Nets have. This move would kill many hopeful Knicks fans in their quest for a title chip.

Hopefully, the Knicks will be able to focus entirely on the season at hand, but at the same time, be able to pick up Melo next free agency. We’ll see in due time.

Immediate Future: Melo and Knicks?

October 20, 2010 | 7:08am

Per ESPN New York

NEW YORK — The New York Knicks have made significant progress in recent days in their efforts to acquire Carmelo Anthony from the Denver Nuggets, a source told ESPN.com Tuesday.

Well… isn’t that coincidental. After a day the media hears that Gallo wants to stay in New York, a new report comes out claiming that “significant progress”. It doesn’t shock me, the Knicks has come back from Europe now, and Melo wants out. Expect for this to continue… for God know’s how long. Even if a move is actually made in the next seven days, the Knicks should still be focusing on the now.

Facts Every Knick Fan Ought To Know About Melo Rumors

September 28, 2010 | 9:00am

Danilo Gallinari is one of my favorite players on the Knicks, and from the little I’ve seen from Anthony Randolph has made me quite happy. Throughout the offseason, the two have been linked tremendously to the only two “real” assets the team has, and it’s possible that they could be two cornerstones of this next generation of Knicks.

To add to this, both of their contracts are tremendously cheap. Randolph’s contract will be valued at a little more than four million, while Gallo’s will be around $5.5 million. For New York fan base’s expectations of them over the next few years, this seems like pretty reasonable amounts of dough. For comparison’s sake, Ronny Turiaf (an off-the-bench spark on a championship contender – at best), will be paid almost $8.5 million over the next two years.

What nobody is talking about right now is renewing the contracts of Gallinari and Randolph. Those two guys alone will max out any team’s contracts in a 2013 if they are resigned. The fact remains that the current Knicks won’t be able to get out of the first round right now with powerhouses like Miami, Orlando, and a rising Bulls team.

With the new CBA quickly approaching, that four and five million dollars per year becomes a decent amount to be paid for a role player. However, the amount wouldn’t not cover the costs of Gallinari and Randolph to be extended to max deals.

By that time (2013), Amar’e would be making his annual salary of $20 million a year and spending time in Boca in the offseason with his unfortunately dull knees. He will have become the eighty years old on the NBA scale (hit thirty in the League and you’re gone). Will he still be an effective? That’s debatable.

Building a championship contender, therefore, in the Eastern Conference will be extremely difficult and may result in futility. There will be too many difficult teams to deal with and a All-Star trifecta may be the only way to do it. Will Gallinari (the shooter), Randolph (the intensity), and Amar’e (the wisdom) be enough to ever win a title? That’s also debatable.

Maybe I’m just a conspiracist, but here are some of my theories on Melo not staying in Denver.

  • I’ve always found it fishy how Amar’e would come to New York by himself. Who throws their own reputation on the line without hedging their bets? Sure, New York had the best offer, but Amar’e understands that you cannot put a price on legacy. It seems inevitable that eventually Carmelo, or another star, will commit to the Knicks in the next year or two.
  • Melo didn’t take media shots yesterday for the Nuggets. No media shots, no game play, Benjamin Hochman reports.
  • Training camp has started meaning what team wants distractions? Particularly for the four team trade, no team wants its players doubting them.
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Suprise, Suprise: Knicks Don’t Have Enough Assets For Melo

September 22, 2010 | 12:00pm

Via The New York Times

In preliminary conversations, the Nuggets have told the Knicks that they do not possess the assets they are seeking if they decide to trade Anthony, according to a Knicks official. The official did not want to be identified because he was describing private conversations between the teams.

Knicks fans don’t want to hear this, but Carmelo Anthony isn’t coming to New York via a trade. Maybe Brooklyn or Houston, but it obviously isn’t Knicks. And this Times article confirmed it.

Melo has leverage, but he also doesn’t love the Knicks the same way you do. There are benefits to him coming to NY, but he doesn’t live and die with the team. You can’t even make the claim that he loves New York (grew up rooting for the Ravens).

Sure, he may end up in New York, but according to “sources,” he won’t because of a trade.

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Melo, Melo, Melo, and More Melo

September 21, 2010 | 8:00am

In the past month, since The Decision, the NBA media at large has had nothing to talk about. Nothing of substance to the height of LeBron’s one hour special, anyway. So what have they done? Every sports journalist has created a pact that they are all going to bond together to report as much nonsense about the guy as possible.

Guess what? They’ve succeeded.

Knicks Vision reported at 6:30 AM yesterday morning about the Nuggets being more open to trading their star. Well not only did The Knicks Blog follow that development, they also followed every preceding thing to happen yesterday. Let’s take you down the line:

  1. Chris Broussard tweets “Sources tell me Melo’s first choice still New York Knicks.” and “@thashark316 Nets, Lakers, Rockets, maybe Bulls. But Knicks definite No. 1 choice.” at around 1:20 PM.
  2. Tommy Dee and Chad Alvino break down the “Melo to the Nets” argument. The truth of the matter is that the Nets do have a chance, and as much as we like to belittle them and tell ourselves we’re better than them, they still have as good of a shot at Melo as we do — if not better. 7:41 PM post time.
  3. Isiah Thomas brings the Bulls name back into the conversation. For those of you counting at home, the Rockets and Lakers have been brought up once, the Nets and Bulls have been brought up twice.

My point in this post is twofold: 1) The Knicks Blog does as good of a job as anyone with Knicks news, insight and analysis and 2) no one knows where Melo’s fate in a trade except the Nuggets.

The latter is something I brought up about LeBron in early July, but the concept is the same: the Nuggets are the only ones who know. Not Source A or Source B. The Nuggets know where they would like to send him and where the most realistic bargain will be. If they don’t trade him at all, that’s on them, but trust me, they will trade him.

As a side, unrelated note: KnickerBlogger did some really cool things with predicting the Over/Under’s of the Knicks team last season and then seeing how well he actually did. Check it.

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Well, Look At That: Bulls Can’t Trade For Melo

September 11, 2010 | 10:00am

Over the past few days, the Knicks have been thrown to the ground by writers from Yahoo and ESPN for the Bulls, and I’ve been trying to dispute all their big-shot sources with no real evidence to prove it.

In comes Dan L, from The Knicks Fan Blog, who was interviewed here at Knicks Vision a couple of days ago. The reason for the interview was because he is the best Knicks source out there that continually proves main stream media wrong.

Without involving a third team, the Bulls have little-to-no shot at Carmelo Anthony. Sitting at your computer screen, you are thinking to yourself, “Dan, everything I’ve been reading on ESPN suggests you are wrong.” Well, I’ll give you a source better than ESPN, The Knicks Fan Blog.

And here is just another example of that.

Without trading Rose or Boozer, the Bulls would need to trade Deng, Gibson, Johnson and draft picks for Melo. As the post says, you can never say never when it comes to NBA GMs, but it’s safe to say that many other teams can put together better offers.

Dan has, once again, set the record straight on Carmelo Anthony.

To add to that is the tweet Tommy Dee put up yesterday saying that the Bulls were being passed around in Melo talks in order to try and pressure Joakim Noah to sign an extension.

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If Melo Enters Free Agency, 95% Chance He’s A Knick

September 4, 2010 | 9:50am

Myles Mills is a regular contributor to The Knicks Blog. Take it for what it’s worth – every source has an agenda – but it just proves that the longer this thing plays out, the better chance the Knicks have to get Melo.

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Melo: Sources Gone Wild

August 31, 2010 | 10:05pm

Couple of tweets from Tommy Dee relaying his sources information on the Carmelo Anthony situation. In this case, the average fans knows just as much as avid NBA watcher. Here, you’ll see what I mean.

First tweet, @TommyDeeTKB, about ten hours ago:

Source close to the situation: “#melo still has every intention of battling Miami as a Knick”

Second tweet, @TommyDeeTKB, about fifteen minutes ago:

Another source says: “don’t expect a melo trade anytime soon. This may go all season.”

Now if you’ve read this site for a couple of weeks, you know this is no knock on Tommy. The guy is a world-class reporter and beat blogger. In fact, just the opposite, both updates may end up being true. Melo may be a Knick, but it may also take the trade deadline to do it. Or he may not end up getting here this season and sign on during free agency. Just remember, every source has their own agenda. We’ll have to wait… and see.

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