Revisiting the Carmelo Anthony Trade



He plays defense like this too.



Looking back to the middle of the NBA season, all the hype surrounded Carmelo Anthony.  Was he staying in Denver?  Would he be traded to the Nets? Would he be traded to the Knicks?  Would he be traded to the Lakers???  Melo was shipped to New York along with Chauncey Billups and several others in a package for Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, and two more players.  This move was supposed to give the Knicks the opportunity to compete with Chicago, Boston, and Miami in the East, while Denver was supposed to slip out of playoff contention and be content with building for next year.

What resulted from this deal? The complete opposite.  The Nuggets were 32-25 when the trade occured. Since? 18-6 and have wrapped up the #5 seed in the Western Conference with a cumulative 50-31 record.  The Knicks sported a 28-26 record before the trade, and are now 42-38, playing near .500 basketball at 14-12 since Anthony came to town. 

Why has this trade not worked out?  First, playing Anthony at Small Forward as opposed to Chandler or Gallinari gives the Knicks less size on defense (as well as less work ethic).  Second, Anthony is not a good fit in Mike D'Antoni's offense and neither is Billups.  Both those players are more comfortable in a half court offense, as opposed to the up-tempo one D'Antoni runs.  Clearly the Knicks can adjust their offense around Anthony, but that will take time and Knicks fans are pretty impatient...  Finally, the loss of Chandler and Gallinari limits the amount of frontcourt players the Knicks can play in their rotation.  Can they really rely on major minutes off the bench from Shawne Williams and Jared Jeffries? I didn't think so.

Wilson Chandler and his fellow
former Knicks have thrived
in Denver

Meanwhile, the Denver Nuggets are thriving.  The superb play of both Raymond Felton and Ty Lawson gives Denver a constant scoring threat from the backcourt to compliment Aron Afflalo's defense and JR Smith's offense at the SG position.  Their frontcourt is now extremely deep with Nene, Chris Anderson, Kenyon Martin, Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari, and Al Harrington.  The Nuggets enter their playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder with a lot of confidence, while the Knicks have struggled to find their rhythm and now face arguably the top defensive team in the league!  As Marilynn always says, and is right about "Carmelo Anthony? Whatever!"