It was written in the stars. Well, it's more like DEMANDED in the stars. Yah, that makes a little more sense.
Well, it finally happened—Carmelo Anthony got traded to the Knicks. And even though this thing has dragged on for months, upon months, upon MONTHS…I’m still extremely intrigued by the whole process. There are three aspects of the trade and its surrounding implications that had me scratching my head.
The first issue is the trade itself. The Knicks have been so bad for so long, that a near .500 record had Madison Square Garden in a tizzy. But you need to look at it this way: With that same .500 record they would be out of the playoffs in the West. The Knicks have taken advantage of a very weak Eastern Conference, having won 18 of their 28 games against the bottom dwellers in the East.
Now with Melo in the fold, the New York fans are expecting the team to win immediately. And the Knicks are sure to improve, but that improvement aside, they still don’t have the talent or depth to take down one of the East powerhouses, let alone the three they’d need to beat, to make the NBA Finals. What Knick diehards are going to need to come to grips with is that this is still a rebuilding team.
New York put all its eggs into the Lebron basket and came out of the sweepstakes with very little to show for it. Now they’ve got some cap space, and they’ve got two fantastic pieces, but as the Celtics (and now the Heat) have proved—it takes three. The general notion in the sporting world is that either Deron Williams or Chris Paul will be joining the team when they hit free agency in 2012, which is all well and good, but it doesn’t lead to winning in the 2010-2011 season. It does, however, lead me to my next point.
How is it that we have gotten to the point where players can dictate where and how they get to their next destination? I understand the years of service business, and that players have a right to determine where they want to play, but I’m still confused about how the power to put a team together got taken away from the owners, general managers, and coaches.
Look at what happened in Miami. Look at what ALMOST happened with Chris Paul in New Orleans. And now this with Carmelo. More and more we’re seeing players colluding in back rooms and having secret “summits” to put their own super-teams together. Forgive me if I’m speaking out of turn here, but doesn’t that take ALL the fun out of the off-season? If it’s all predetermined, then what’s the point? My hope is that the new CBA being hammered out by the NBA and the Players Association will address this because it’s truly getting out of hand. If the league isn’t careful they’ll end up with six good teams, in the six good markets, and lousy teams throughout the rest of the country
In 2008, the Celtics went out and got Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to team up with Paul Pierce in Boston. The three amigos turned the Celtics around so dramatically that every team in the NBA is now trying to duplicate it. Here’s the difference: the Celtics front office went out and GOT Allen and KG. There was no posturing from Garnett. Allen didn’t come out and say that he was going to refuse a contract extension from Seattle. Boston made a plan, and then they went out and made it happen.
Here’s the part where I sound kind of like a hypocrite. The third aspect of this whole ordeal that caught my attention was that Melo did this completely right! Yes, it’s ridiculous that players are setting themselves up with other players to create incredible teams. But at the same time, Carmelo Anthony did right by his previous organization by letting them know that he had no interest in re-signing. Loosing a superstar to free agency can be brutal for an organization. All I need do is remind you of “The Decision” this past summer.
Lebron James was absolutely skewered by the media, the fans, and even the players in some cases. And for leaving the Cavaliers the way he did, he had every reason to be. Now I’m not trying to compare Cleveland to Denver—the Rocky Mountain sports fan has had a LOT more to cheer about lately—but imagine a world where Carmelo keeps his mouth shut until the end of the year and then bolts from Denver to the Big Apple. The Nuggets are stuck rebuilding for the next seven years if that’s the case. Instead, this savvy player sits down with his GM and says, “Get whatever you can for me. I’ve appreciated my time here, but I need to move on.” And they did—Denver got a great haul for Carmelo from New York.
What bugs me is the guy is getting roasted for it, and I think it was a classy move. Would it have been even classier for him to say that he’d go to wherever the Nuggets front office could get the best deal? Oh, yah. You bet. But that’s what we should be riding him for. Not for giving his former team—a team that drafted him top-five in the first round in 2003—a chance to get pieces back, but for restricting their options.
Melo will take the floor for the first time in a Knicks uniform tonight against the Bucks, and the Garden will surely be electric as they usher in a new era of Knicks basketball. It will certainly be interesting to see how quickly their two stars gel. But while the players get it together on the court, don’t let your eyes stray too far away from the fans, the owners and the media. They all play a huge role in this as well.