As Carmelo Anthony leans toward leaving New York, Chicago and Houston emerge as frontrunners

and Bev.

 

Actually that lineup is worse than our starting lineup this year. There is absolutely no defense with love, harden, pierce and cannan. All that does is put even more pressure on Howard.

 

I won't question your sources. I really could care less since it's all speculation anyway. But this at least makes some sort of sense. I'm guessing Lin goes to the Cavs, Minnesota dumps some bad contract but still better than Jack contract to the Cavs, and we get Jack's horrendous 3 year albatross deal as penalty.

At least it would solve the otherwise issue of possible Beverley/Lin/Rubio/Shved/Barea super PG penta-io(any word for this? :grin

If this goes through, I will make a "Cleveland front office being dumbasses Appreciation thread." One of the few contracts in the NBA worse that the bunch in Minnesota and Lin's balloon payment.

 

Melo doesn't rely on athleticism so he should age fine.

 

Well, Plan B starts now.

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/24608424/reports-carmelo-anthony-is-expected-to-return-to-the-knicks

 

attempt to win 154 to 140 every game

 

I was thinking about what a realistic possible 3 team trade would look like with Minnesota and Boston where we got both Love and Rondo and I think we all forgot to mention our Euro Stash picks being involved which woud make a lot more sense because Boston has 3 starting caliber point guards (Rondo, Bradley, Smart); Minnesota has 2 (Rubio, Barrea) and Houston has 2 (Beverley, Lin, with Canaan still developing) so this deal where Rondo goes out to Houston shouldn't net them a point guard in return since they have no need for one (unless you want to consider Lin a 2 which I doubt they would and I doubt Minnesota wants Lin on their team.

What I am thinking is it may have to be a 4 team trade with Philadelphia where Lin goes to Philly, a TPE or some low dollar asset gets traded to Minnesota or Boston, then the rest of the chips somehow fit. . . regardless, those Eurostash picks would have to be on the move here.

 

Yeah, it would likely need to be a Melo sign-and-trade (using one of the Lin/Asik contracts, either to NYK or to a third team), with a Love trade using the other of the Lin/Asik contracts. Due to Parsons's BYC status, it would be tough to match salaries on a Love trade without either Lin or Asik.

Also, doing a Melo S&T preserves the team's salary cap exceptions (MLE, BAE).

 

because the knicks feel aligned? ok.

 

Yeah don't know how to feel about it. All that report does is source other "reports." Stuff that we saw yesterday come out from Woj and others.

 

Well it does mention one NEW thing that has been worrying me this entire process. The end of the article mentions the small chance of Anthony ending up in Miami with LeBron.

 

I don't understand why this chance is so "slim."

 

Weren't we all panicking about Golden State grabbing Howard a year ago as we all sit here clueless to what's going to happen today? There was one voice kept telling us we had Howard in the bag and everyone ridiculed him and chased him off the board. As we approach the impending decisions of this weekend, it sure would be nice to have a voice on the board letting us know what's going on.

Do we have any insiders left on the board and where are they in our time of need or have the useless haters and trolls chased them all away?

 

Moving on?

http://mweb.cbssports.com/nba/write...nt-of-the-free-agent-double-standard?v=1&vc=2

 

The Knicks believe they have satisfied almost all of Carmelo Anthony’s concerns, and now wait to see if they will be crowned champions of the Melo Sweepstakes. Anthony is expected to make his decision sometime this weekend and the Knicks remain the clear favorites.

Another boost in the Knicks’ chances took place Friday, when the Bulls moved to blow even more cap space by beginning negotiations with European draft prospect Nikola Mirotic — a sign Chicago realizes its chances of landing Anthony are slim. The Bulls would no longer be able to sign Anthony with their remaining cap room.
Knicks president Phil Jackson told Anthony during Thursday night’s meeting in Los Angeles he can have the team’s maximum 5-year, $129 million contract if he wishes. But The Post has learned there’s a distinct possibility Anthony will still decide to take a little less than the max.

One scenario would be Anthony starting at the max $22.4 million, but taking a 7.5 percent pay reduction in Year 2, as allowed by the collective bargaining agreement. That reduced salary for the 2015-16 season would give the Knicks a little more cap space next summer.

Jackson has said he prefers for Anthony to take less than the max to give him more salary-cap flexibility in 2015 and 2016 to sign free agents.

A source close to Anthony said he has confidence Jackson and general manager Steve Mills will make the Knicks top-flight contenders in the future, but was unsure about their ability to upgrade the team for this season. Anthony didn’t want to go through another 37-45 campaign.

“I don’t think the money ever was the most important part,’’ the source said. “I think his concern was, could they make the team better this season? He is comfortable in the outer years, but needed to be convinced about the upcoming year.’’
That’s why Anthony is trying to take an active role in recruiting free agent Pau Gasol, though the Knicks only have their $3.3 million mini mid-level exception. Gasol has been heavily courted by the Heat, Thunder and Bulls. One scenario would be convincing Gasol to sign for one year, then allowing him to share in the 2015 cap space with his brother, center Marc Gasol, who will be a free agent.

Anthony liked the hiring of Derek Fisher as coach, along with the trade with the Mavericks, in which the Knicks upgraded the point guard position with Jose Calderon — a friend of the Gasols — and young Shane Larkin, while adding a potential scorer off the bench in second-round steal Cleanthony Early.

Anthony has met with Jackson three times since the season ended. A Yahoo! Sports report on Friday called the two “aligned with their vision.’’

The source close to Anthony told The Post on Friday that family is also a factor in potentially staying in New York. The Post has reported Anthony’s Brooklyn-raised wife La La Vasquez doesn’t want him to leave the Knicks after she was a driving force in the trade that brought him to New York from Denver in 2011.

Meanwhile, the Bulls almost assuredly need a sign-and-trade with the Knicks to make an Anthony addition happen — and Jackson isn’t willing. During Tuesday’s meeting, the Bulls proposed Anthony taking about $16 million per over four years after maneuvering. But signing Mirotic will make that figure even lower. According to the Chicago Tribune, Joakim Noah has told confidants Anthony likely will re-sign with the Knicks.

http://nypost.com/2014/07/04/source-melo-may-take-less-money-and-re-sign-with-knicks/

 

Dwight and Harden spoiled me these past two offseasons. I was almost expecting something big to happen.

 

Just a thought, why did we minimize our window on Parsons? Couldn't it have been just as feasible to not push him to RFA and go all in on this summer and next? In this way we could've extended parsons if we did get the FA (Melo) of choice or went through this next year with him as UFA... Maybe the UFA gamble for next year was something Murree didn't want to roll the dice on.

Or some type of wink wink deal had to have been promised last year?

 

It's not over J. Not even close.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Once 'Melo re-signs w/ the Knicks, expect <a href="https://twitter.com/PhilJackson11">@PhilJackson11</a> to make a run at trading for Love. I still can't find a good match though. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/twolves?src=hash">#twolves</a></p>&mdash; Darren Wolfson (@DarrenWolfson) <a href="https://twitter.com/DarrenWolfson/statuses/485451739047288832">July 5, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

? LOL