LeBron James is impressed with Carmelo Anthony‘s willingness to take less money with the Knicks in order to get more talent around him in New York, he tells Marc Berman of The New York Post. “What I got out of it is, he wants to win,’’ James said. “Everyone says they want to win, but that’s what it’s about.’’ James, who spurned New York for the Heat in “The Decision” four summers ago, made it clear that he was rooting for Anthony, and not the Knicks: “I don’t worry about their franchise. I worry about Carmelo Anthony. I always want him to win and succeed. Obviously he’s been playing great basketball. I don’t like seeing him lose like they’ve been losing, but I really don’t care about the franchise.’’ Here’s more from the team that continues to make headlines for its struggles:
- Coach Mike Woodson‘s next three to five games could be another perilous stretch, a source tells Jared Zwerling of Bleacher Report (via Twitter). The source believes that owner Jim Dolan could make a knee-jerk firing if it appears New York is truly, finally out of playoff contention soon.
- The Knicks tried to trade Raymond Felton to the Magic for Jameer Nelson before the trade deadline, per John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com. The decision by Orlando to turn down the offer made sense at the time, but it looks even better now considering Felton’s recent legal troubles.
- Harvey Araton of The New York Times thinks that the failures and foibles of the Knicks supporting cast around Anthony are drawing blame away from Anthony and owner Jim Dolan, whom Araton believes are equally at fault for the team’s struggles this year. Araton cites the 2011 trade for ‘Melo that stripped the Knicks of valuable assets and ‘Melo’s failure to develop into a player who makes his teammates better as reasons the Knicks haven’t developed into contenders.
you just cant help but feel bad for Melo. He plays exhausting minutes every night, playing 40+ minutes, and putting the team on his back. He is the only one that they can rely on to score, he is rebounding the ball at the highest rate of his career, and he has even taken more responsibility on defense in the last couple of years. Sometimes, it seems like he is literally the only one on that team even trying. That team is terrible. Then when they lose, HE gets blamed?!?! Its totally ridiculous. Its a joke that people could say that he couldnt be the #1 option on a championship team. He absolutely could. He just isnt, and hasnt ever been on a team of that caliber
I hadnt even read this before making my last comment…this guy wants to put blame on Melo for getting traded to the Knicks?! Are you serious??? ROFL.This is the 2nd or 3rd time I’ve seen this now. How about blaming the Knicks for biting on that trade when they absolutely didnt have to? They’re the ones that decided to give up that entire package. Even after that, they’re the ones that decided to make the personnel decisions that they made that were absolutely terrible. Typical media GARBAGE…Get out of here with that trash
my biggest beefs with that trade was the decision to keep fields over chandler, and that they took too long to do the trade thus allowing brooklyn to drive up the price.
How willing is he to take less though? Just a few million less? 20M less? 30M less? Is he willing to make say, 8-10M a year so they can add 3 players, 2 stars and a solid player? Just how willing is he, is what I wants to know.
This will be interesting, but I think him taking anything less than $15M a year will get the player’s union up in arms, as it is their goal to increase the salaries of their players. If Melo takes, say, a 5 year $80 million deal, a capable GM would have more than enough money to play with in 2015 to put together some really good pieces, but the Knicks do not have a capable GM. If Stat or Bargs can be ditched on draft night somehow, I would make a run at Deng this offseason and Rondo+Noah or Hibbert in 2015 to make a rock solid team that the rest of the middling guys under the new CBA would love to sign up with for a legitimate shot at a ring. But this comment is for nothing because the Knicks are going to suck as long as Dolan is making decisions.
Anywhere from $15-17 million is more than enough of a paycut for them to build around him
‘Knee-jerk’ reaction? Has that source been watching the Knicks this year? Woodson should have been fired months ago. His schemes (especially defensively) are awful, he has poor clock management, poor line-up construction, bickers with his players (so much so that they were released), publicly criticizes his players (so much so that Shumpert can barely touch a basketball anymore), and never takes blame. He’s been an unmitigated disaster this year.
I don’t understand the hate on the Anthony trade. They essentially
got a superstar for 75 cents on the dollar. The only reason that trade
looks bad NOW is because the Knicks are losing in the year they gave the
first rounder away. But look at the rest of the trade and what the
Knicks gave up:
Galinari – lost a season and a half to a torn ACL, would have been without a position in Melo-centric lineups.
Chandler – decent player, but no superstar. Likely biggest loss. May have also been positioned out with a Melo-centric lineup
Felton – sadly came back after being on the outs in two organizations. Any
contributions he provided the Knicks were offset by acquiring Billups
Mozgov – a solid backup center, but if he’s the holdup in the deal you’re out of your mind.
The 2012 second round pick that became Izzet Turkyilmaz – has yet to play in the NBA
The 2013 second round pick that became Joffrey Lauvergne – has yet to play in the NBA
Oh, and as part of the trade, someone took Eddy Curry off of our hands. Addition by subtraction baby!
Now that I think about it, the trade itself was closer to 60 cents on the
dollar pending this draft lottery. Even better if the 2014 1st round
pick ends up being a bust.
Now DOLAN, on the other hand…remember that time when the Knicks amnestied Billups over Stat? Or when they hired Isiah Thomas and kept him around long enough to destroy our future franchise hopes? Peppridge Farms remembers…and so do we the Knicks fans.
I agree, that trade was a good one. Even though they could have just signed him at the end of the season, the trade both ensured that they’d get Carmelo and, like you said, got rid of Curry and Felton. 2nd round picks are not worth much in the NBA draft.
The only reason the trade looks bad now is because the Knicks traded away their 2016 1st rounder for Bargnani, which was a horrendously dumb move. The Knicks only have one 1st rounder over the next three seasons. But, that’s not the fault of the Anthony deal. It’s the idiocy of trading for Bargnani when he A) is terrible and B) was going to be amnestied anyway. The Knicks could have had him for nothing.
Remembering the terms of that Bargnani deal made me throw up in my mouth
a little. 100% agree, you do that deal if Bargnani is a superstar only. Not even a useful rotation piece, which he hasn’t been (slighlty below league average PER and horrible D – don’t let the PPG number catch your eye)
What’s most depressing about the Bargnani trade is that they did it to get bigger, ie to be able to hang with the Pacers. Which is insanity because Bargnani is one of the softest big men in the game and is an atrocious rebounder. There really is no upside to Bargnani.