Written by Matt Moore at CBSSports.com
Carmelo Anthony has consistently said he does not want to be traded from the New York Knicks. Anthony has a no-trade clause in his contract, so whatever he wants is what he gets in that regard (and most regards in New York). He belongs to the city, his wife loves it there, it’s why he forced his way there when he had a much better team and chance at competing with the Nuggets.
Since coming there, he has made the playoffs twice, and won exactly one series. The Knicks have been a punchline much more often. So with the drama surrounding the team recently as well as a losing stretch that finds them under .500, the conversation has to be revisited. In a column on FanRag Sports, Charlie Rosen, who’s a good friend of Phil Jackson and has published several diary entries on the team from the Knicks President of Basketball Operations, wrote a column that says perhaps Anthony is softening on his no-trade ideas. However, he has very specific ideas on where.
Also, while he’s never been accused of playing defense, Anthony is intent on saving even more steps on this end of the game to conserve his energy for offense.
He’s four months away from his 33rd birthday, his contract is humongous and contains a no-trade clause. It’s understood that he’d only accept being dealt to the Cavaliers or the Clippers.
However, since his recurring complaint is that everybody blames him for every game the Knicks lose, perhaps Melo is sufficiently disgusted to accept a trade elsewhere. Perhaps to the young, rebuilding Lakers — after all, his wife’s name is La La.
Some thoughts:
1. The column is … tough to discern. You just don’t know what comes from Jackson and what are Rosen’s own thoughts and what comes from Jackson. The piece is in the bag for Jackson; at the end of it he literally absolves all blame from Jackson and Jackson’s disciple Kurt Rambis. Rambis is in charge of the defense, which is bottom-25 in the league … and yet Rosen says Rambis knows “all there is to know” and pins the failures on the players. He says Hornacek, not a Jackson guy, has done an OK job, but needs to run the Triangle more, because clearly, that’s what’s wrong.
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