Miami Part 2........... http://basketball.realgm.com/wireta...sociates_He_Wants_To_Sign_With_Knicks_In_2012
(Donnie) Walsh's patient strategy applied not only to keeping and adding necessary role players to complement the two superstars, but also to adding a third star who could push the Knicks into the Eastern Conference elite with an aging Boston team, Miami, and Chicago. A person with knowledge of the conversations told CBSSports.com on Saturday that Jazz point guard Deron Williams began informing close associates after last season that if (Amar'e) Stoudemire wound up in New York, Williams would follow him there as a free agent in 2012. If the Knicks got (Carmelo) Anthony with the three-year extension under current rules, it is not clear whether they'd have enough cap space to add a player such as Williams, Chris Paul or Dwight Howard when the trio become unrestricted free agents after next season. Read more NBA news and insight: http://www.hoopsworld.com/HeadlineStories.asp#ixzz1EWoyigeR
even under the current CBA there's no way the knicks are going to have anything like the cap flexibility the heat did (obviously). in 2012 carmelo and amare by themselves will be taking up almost the same amount of cap space used to sign all 3 of lebron/wade/bosh.
Could a player sign a one year, full MLE deal with a team and then work out a max extension the next off-season with that team?
HAHAHA good thing they didn't side with Sloan and helped their star stay happy. Talk about karma for the GM.
Nope. It requires Bird rights to give a player a contract that exceeds the salary cap and that requires three seasons with the team.
They'd have to work out some sort of sign and trade with the Jazz. Utah wouldn't be looking to do the Knicks any favors, but if it looks like Deron is going to walk and they'll get nothing, they might be willing to sign Deron to an extension and trade him, and his Bird rights, to the Knicks for some combination of Raymond Felton, future draft picks, young prospects and cash. BNM
will be a neat trick if he's a nugget. sounds like the knicks are going to blow most of their tradeable assets on carmelo.
If they decide to wait for Anthony to hit the free agent market and sign him, rather than trade for him, they'll retain some assets for a trade. Not that I think it's terribly likely that they find Utah or New Orleans willing to dump Williams or Paul on them, but who knows.
they've already offered felton, gallinari, chandler (+ randolph to minny for a pick going to denver) for melo/billups/filler. apparently it's all up to the nuggets at this point.
Sure, but offers can be rescinded. And Denver could ultimately turn it down. Until something happens, nothing is locked in.
point was the knicks obviously aren't choosing to wait. they don't care about 2012, presumably because they know aquiring a 3rd superstar will be next to impossible. they may not even have that choice if carmelo has indicated he doesn't want to wait until post-lockout to become a FA.
When the Miami thing happened last summer one of the first things I thought of is that other star type players might try to form their own super groups. It's one of the reasons I've lost quite a bit of hope that the Blazers (and other small market teams with poor winter weather like them) will be all that competitive in such an environment -- that they'll mostly serve as a palooka or "tomato can" for these super teams to beat up on en route to their championship appearances. If another super team forms or if the Lakers reload with Howard and another nascent free agent star post Kobe then I'll probably stop watching NBA hoops and instead start watching WWE which makes no secret about the matches being fixed or set up.
Melo is just an all-star, not a superstar. Dwight Howard would be pretty formidable though, along with a Paul or Deron. Howard still has some time left in Orlando so until then, I don't really see any elite trios forming. The Lakers had an interesting chance with Melo but they decided not to do that trade. Not really a fan of Bynum and his health.
This whole Melo trade talk is hard to listen too. Even Rich Cho has said it is holding up deals and everyone is waiting on it to be completed. Well, here we are Sunday with just a few days left on the trade deadline and no trades at all have taken place. You would think teams would make deals now so players could start flying out for medical evaluations so less games are lost to teams. I wonder if there are no real deals in place or could it be true Melo is holding up talks. Irritated listening to the whole thing.