BOTP: Knicks' primary hope is for Melo to open up trade list beyond HOU and CLE

Why in the world would he do the Knicks a favor?

Besides the obvious fact that he has a no-trade clause, the Knicks are the ones responsible for Carmelo thinking he was heading to Houston this week. Every leak was from NY, not Houston. They were the ones "motivated" to do a deal. They were the ones expressing confidence that "this thing will get done." They were the ones talking with Morey for the last 3 weeks and letting him do all the legwork across the league.

It's insane how the Knicks are jerking Carmelo around through this process... and now you think Carmelo is going to do them a favor after all this and expand his list? Not buying it.

Now yes, either directly or indirectly, I'm sure the Knicks will "threaten" Carmelo that if he doesn't expand the list, they could just keep him and take the cap relief. But ultimately, the Knicks have more to lose, and I'm fairly certain most people around the deal know it. Keeping Carmelo means A) putting an unhappy player around your young core, B) making your organization look like a joke to influential people around the league, and C) not even having control over their potential cap room, since it's Carmelo's decision alone with the 2018 PO. So if there's a staredown, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the Knicks have reason to be the first to blink.

All that said, I'll take some issue with your characterization of me as overly optimistic. Personally, I'm not all that optimistic because despite all those factors... it's the Knicks, and it's entirely plausible that the egos of James Dolan/Steve Mills lead them to make a decision that's not rational. We'll have to wait and see. That's certainly a risk factor in dealing with such a trainwreck of an organization. What I'm optimistic about is Carmelo not showing a willingness to return or expanding his list, because that just doesn't make sense on any level.

 

A lot of people on this board complain about Les having his hands in too many of the Rockets decisions but really we should all be glad that James Dolan isn't running this team. I feel bad for Knicks fans.

 

well people here think DM is a terrible gm. they much rather have guys like billy king

 

To be fair, the Knicks have been a joke for 20+ years.

 

People here just love to complain and about the dumbest **** too.

 

The thing to remember is that ultimately, Melo wants to keep playing in NY. If the Knicks ride his entire contract out and let him walk, I think he would be perfectly fine with it. I don't think there's any reason for him to expand his list.

 

I think Carmelo wants to revive his career and win a ring and Houston is his best shot. He isn't considering more teams

 

fify @RocketsTruth

 

This is make or break for Rockets in terms of being the new IT team. If they can somehow manage to snag Melo after all this garbage we know this team has arrived as a true destination franchise. Not just a place to play with Harden.

Melo will have to get his hands dirty to come play here. Let's see if he's willing to.

 

I was hoping (NYK fan) that we could make a deal to get some of your young assets like Taylor, Hardentsein etc) but tbh, Knicks really aren't in that desperate a situation in this regard. He plays in NY for 17/18, and then he has an option for 18/19. If he hates it here, he walks at end of year and we free up 27 million at end of year. If he wants to put the screws to NY and exercise the option, he re-ups w another 27 or so mil, and we can then cut and stretch, and the hit to the cap over 18/19 - 24/25 would be only 5.7 mil. If the cap does increase over this period (which it most likely will), each year, the increases could eventually absorb his dead cap space. Bottom line is that it makes zero sense to cut him before the end of the season. We aren't getting anything with cap space this year anyway/ We will suck with him or without him, so why hamstring our dead cap w even more $$. The deal has to make sense.

 

Stay strong my fellow melo, all will be well soon

 

Its not a favor. It's a decision that he could have to make himself as to whether he wants to risk coming back to a toxic situation while they holdout for better trades that might or might not happen, AND potentially have his role on the team diminished as there is a clear indication that could happen from the top down, or take the opportunity now to expand his list and get to a team like the Heat, Spurs, etc. where its better to "take the money and run" or stay and risk the outcomes of being in a toxic situation.

What I'm saying is that this meeting is likely to try and open up more options for Melo to help drive towards a better win-win scenario. That's what good management does, BUT as many will say including yourself I'm sure... the Knicks are a poorly run franchise so who knows EXACTLY what their thinking is. I can only tell you what I would do in the management position, and my goal would be to bring Melo to the table and make a case for him expanding his options, and express a willingness to discuss a buyout as that would be better in some cases than taking back contracts.

......

I certainly didn't want you to take issue with the statement. I think its great that Rockets fans are excited about the possibility as I am too as a super fan. I'm just speaking from a business/front office perspective, you know and I know that this was always going to be a challenging deal to get done despite a willingness from all parties to get done. And we are the team that went through the CP3/Gasol trade, the D-Mo trade, among many other deals that have fallen apart at the last minute. I'm just seeing a million Melo threads a minute, and thinking... geez... can we come back down to reality for a minute and address how hard this particular deal is to get accomplished in the first place?

I don't blame anyone for seeing smoke and thinking fire though. Even someone as skeptical as me said ... holy crap there must be something to this, but we have a long history of thinking that we should know how difficult this was to get done in the first place.

 

I'm just sorry you are a Knicks fan, but I guess things could be worse...

 

So the Knicks are in the same position the Nuggets were in a few years ago. What goes around comes around.

When you run your team into the ground and your ex GM publicly bashes your star player, what do you think would happen. At this point you cut ties and move on. Seems like most NYK fans are ready to do that anyway.

 

i never said billy king

but sam presti and sam hinkie> dayrl morey

 

Generally franchises don't like to have these kinds of distractions.

You already had Kristaps showing frustration with the way things were being run.

Do the Knicks really not care about having a potentially disgruntled star in the locker room all year? That could put a dark cloud over the team.

 

oh ok presti, the same guy that gave us harden. and hinkie, the same guy who has philly being the worst team for years.

 

That is not very accurate from a realistic point of view. Fans may not care as they are not the ones actually running the team, but the absolute dumbest thing a team could do is keep a veteran superstar on the team if they are hellbent on leaving. It is a player's league now and players talk to each other. Melo (despite people calling him cancerous) is friends with a lot of other superstars. If he tells them that Knicks are keeping him against his will, potentially that hurts the Knicks FO's ability to recruit while causing unnecessary distractions the entire time.

 

Agree with this take. It just doesn't make sense for Melo to change his stance.

 

They could diminish his role but I feel that would scar their reputation even more. Especially when it comes to star players.

"Hey come play for us but just to let you know if things don't work out, we'll probably treat you like ****"

To give a player a no trade clause and then ask him to essentially waive that to get a better deal contradicts the whole idea. Carmelo wanted that because he wanted the leverage and now he's going to surrender that leverage to the team?

Seems doubtful but weirder things have happened, especially when it involves Houston teams in the mix.