As One Knicks Experiment Ends, Trying to Guess What the Next Will Be

Who is responsible for thinking that Amar'e and Anthony would be a successful match on the Garden floor at the SAME TIME. With the background of each player, it should have been evident that the plan would never work. This monumental error in judgment, added to the mega-money just dished out to Carmelo, will haunt the Knicks growth for several years.

I'm so sick of people bashing the Carmelo trade and how the Knicks gave up some much to get him. Melo is a damn good player. None of the pieces they have given up for him have turned out to be stars or even dependable starters. Denver certainly isn't thriving. Also, if he'd been traded to Brooklyn instead, the Knicks might have given up all those pieces for Deron Williams (Utah was prepared to deal him to the loser between the Knicks and the Nets in the Melo sweepstakes and Donnie Walsh is on record as saying he'd wished he known Williams was available). That's a truly a horrifying thought. For all his perceived faults, Melo is a superb offensive force whom analytics show has made his teammates demonstrably better throughout his career. Is he LeBron James? No. That's a standard no player can match. But he's a star player and getting a player of his caliber is incredibly hard through the draft or free agency. The jury is still out on whether he can attract other quality free agents to come play with him, but to assume no one will want to come play with him is premature. He's well-respected and liked by other players throughout the league and was highly coveted last summer as a free agent. Let's let this upcoming offseason play out before making rash judgments about the folly of resigning him.

Give Phil Jackson a break. Once he gets at least 2 future Hall of Famers he'll do fine, but not before.

So much is made of Amar'e's injuries, but the real issue is that the Knicks two stars never played well with each other.

For the past three years or so, it's been understood that Amar'e and Carmelo do not play on the court at the same time, except perhaps for a few minutes at the beginning of games when Amar'e was healthy enough to start. WTH?

Both stars are at fault, but given their positions Carmelo has to take a larger share of the blame. Can anyone remember a highlight moment starting with a pass from Carmelo to Amar'e? It just didn't happen. To the contrary, when the two players were on the court together and one got the ball, the other stopped playing, making it four-on-five. Pathetic.

Can you imagine anyone saying of the Warriors "Curry and Thompson are great, but they can't both be on the court at the same time."? Inconceivable.

So why do we put up with it in NY? Because until this year other teams inexplicably chose not to double team Carmelo, and because we had Tyson Chandler and Jason Kidd to play defense. The Knicks were barely good enough to fill the seats at the Garden. Opponents have figured us out, and we lost our defense, and now the Knicks' utter lack of cohesiveness has been exposed.

What a statement about the current atmosphere surrounding this club that Stoudemire can't even weight the 29 games remaining in this season to get out of there.

This is a follow-up to Smith and Shumpert becoing the types of contributors in Cleveland that we thought that they would be here. And trading Tyson Chandler for basically no one worth discussing.

Sorry Phil, but you and Derek have failed to deliver the winning and positive environment that you were supposed to bring with you. Instead of you looking like a genius, Mike Woodson does.

Jim Dolan's misguided meddling is at the core of this Knick's travesty. Ironically, while he's made an incalculable number of bad decisions regarding hiring, firings and player signings, the Garden is always sold out and the Knick's Franchise is at the top in valuation.
Sell Jimmy SELL!

With all due respect, Rhoden's leaving a very important point out of his column. When Dolan brought Anthony to NY, Rhoden was 100% in favor - despite the enormous price in young players and high draft picks. Go back in the stacks and take a look for yourselves. Unfortunately, this was a fiasco, one that long-time Knicks fans predicted from Day 1.

Look, I have nothing personal against Anthony. Not going to join the "he's a loser" camp. Whatever. But his slowdown, one-on-one style wasn't what we needed. The guy needs to get fed the ball all the time to be effective. Even then, it exacts a price in terms of ball movement and involving other teammates. The upshot: the Knicks offense became too predictable and too easy to defend.

Stat was a keeper and it's a shame that his knees betrayed him. Had he been healthy and had the Knicks kept those young players and all those draft picks, NY would have been among the teams contending for a division championship, not the right to select the No. 1 pick in the draft.

If only Melo and Dolan would leave for the suburbs

Wonder how Phil Jackson is sleeping while collecting $10 million per season.

Stoudemire was a great shot in the arm for the team then but he was already damaged goods when acquired by Dolan, the NBA's Snyder and owner of the Knickskins.

Buying Knick tickets shows P.T. Barnum was right - there is a sucker born every minute.

Trade Jim Dolan.

The 76'ers get ripped all year for 'tanking' but now the Knicks are planning to do it and supposedly it's ok. Pretty hypocritical by the media. But don't know a better way to really compete for a championship in years to come. Painful though that Phil really thought this was a playoff team.

NBA history shows that two scorers do not make a champion unless there are eight team-first players in the rotation. Given the realities that we are stuck with me first, last and only Anthony because Dolan would not agree to trade him; Anthony likely will not agree to go anywhere; the rest of the players (maybe Galloway will work out) are not skilled enough to play defense; and no team oriented player will come here to get stuck playing with Anthony; the Knicks have no hope until about three years of players taken with lottery draft picks after Anthony leaves, mature. In other words, wait until about 2525, as in the hit pop song from 1969, the start of a magic season for the Knicks.

Stoudemire came to the Knicks when no other superstar would. Then he led a group of young players (Galinari, Chandler, even Felton) that played well together, giving Knicks fans hope that they would turn things around. But they couldn't wait for Anthony to be a free agent, they traded 4 of the 5 starters (!) to get him. That's the biggest travesty, not just that they got Anthony but they gave up so much when they did.

Time to dump Melo and the rest of that pathetic crew (the former D league players), and get rid of the triangle. It's too complicated for today's players. Start from scratch.

Stoudemire brought a ton of credibility when he signed with the Knicks. Don't blame him for Dolan's ability to throw it away quickly. And wouldn't it be nice to see the Anthony bashing stop? It would have been so easy for him to stop trying 30 games ago, but he didn't. He's played his heart out whenever he's been on the floor.

Mr. Rhoden, with respect, have the Spurs over-relied on analytics to choose (and choose to keep) their players? Have the Hawks? The Knicks have long thrown good money after bad, at least partly from the sense that what Philadelphia is trying to do, or more to the point what Oklahoma City did in much subtler way, would not be tolerated in New York City. I think Phil panicked last summer when he re-signed Melo for very nearly the maximum salary, not wanting to begin his tenure, say, 10-43. Oops. Due to the changes made by owners in the CBA after the 2011 lockout, it's going to be much harder to put three max-level players on the same team, a la Miami 2010. But Melo may well be a depreciating asset, especially if he does not exercise his ETO after the 2016-17 season, keeping him on the cap sheet for another year. LeBron and Bosh were persuaded to join Wade, still in his prime then, in South Beach. Does any top-level free agent (or two) want to play with an aging Anthony? Do any of them want to play in New York anymore when the money is significantly less? Durant could do it; he doesn't need the money. Almost everyone else does. And despite the team's massive wealth, it can't really use it to make the team better any longer because of the CBA. Phil needs to do very well in upcoming drafts, obviously.

I"m done bashing the Knicks. There's nothing more you can say except Knick fans better hope Phil Jackson is a genius. Season ticket holders must be tormented. They have to decice within the next few weeks with their wallets if there will be a competitive team on the floor next year. At least you can point to the NBA all star game as the highlight for the season at MSG. I'm sure none of the games will be ever be remembered.

Somehow it's sadly appropriate that the dog show is taking over the garden right now...

That's aint so hard at all to guess Bill. Dump the self centered prima donna: Milo