Nuggets, Knicks make trade that brings neither closer to a title

Apparently Bud Adams is running the show in Salt Lake City.

 

man, a lot of folks here seem to be evaluating talent with their revisionist heart, not basketball acumen. amazing to me how many of you view 'melo these days. only slightly better than glenn robinson (who was a terrific scorer, don't get me wrong)? really?

um, okay.

keep trying to convince yourselves 'melo is just your run-of-the-mill hoops star. lol.

now, great addition for nets by rebounding from 'melodrama by landing deron williams. he's probably the best point guard in a league chock-full of an incredible number of 'young franchise' point guards.

do we know yet that deron has signed a contract extension? that's the key to this being a no-brainer move by the nyets. only thing nyet fans need fear is that there's no extension to possibly set up deron to join amare and 'melo across da river in a couple of years to turn the nix into 'miami north.'

the nyets better get deron a legit running mate or two by then. just as a ny/nj hoops guy -- i covered the nix and the nyets for the daily snooze in the '82-83 season -- the possibility of watching deron go head-to-head with chris paul for a few years.

 

Williams to Brooklyn.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AtldE3vEJS8ihcMbroVNE0I5nYcB?slug=aw-jazzwilliamsnets022311

 

Is it just me or does that seem like a fire sale trade?

 

Wow. Think Sloan is kicking himself?

 

If you think Robinson is slightly less of a player than Kobe Bryant...

Anthony is one of the greatest freshmen to ever play in the NCAA, starts on a Gold Medal team and he is ranked with Glenn Robinson?

This is Anthony's time to shine, and I really don't think he will disappoint.

And half of the NBA stands around on offense.

 

Is Favors any good? And if that first rounder is for next season...

 

Good point. I just want to know if those picks are lottery protected, as every first-round pick that swaps hands in the NBA seems to be.

 

Danny Granger, locked in with Indiana for the long-term, is not a supporter of all the stars going to the big towns (shocker, I know):

http://www.indystar.com/article/20110223/SPORTS04/102230342/Notebook-Granger-doesn-t-like-new-free-agent-trend?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|IndyStar.com|s

"It hurts a team like us tremendously if everybody can pick where they want to go. No chance at all for us. We need to figure out a way to have teams more evenly matched."

The Pacers can spend big on free agents this summer if they don't pull a big deal before Thursday's trade deadline.

Indianapolis doesn't have the bright lights of New York, the beaches of Miami or the warm weather of Los Angeles to entice free agents.

"Who would want to come here as a free agent?" Granger asked. "Any small-market team will have that problem. If the trend is to go to the better city, you got teams like us, Milwaukee and Minnesota who don't have a shot."

What's funny is he's saying this down the street from the stadium that holds sports' biggest endorsement machine, Peyton Manning. But can the NBA find a way to make it just as profitable and star-making to be in Indianapolis as it is to be in Los Angeles? I'm not sure it can.

The NBA relies way more on the so-called "casual fan," and not having players in college for multiple years prevents more pre-packaged stars, like Manning, from joining the league.

The only other thing it could do is to remove the max salary, or increase it substantially, which is not going to happen. If you can make the same money wherever you go, if you're a superstar (or have designs of being one) why would you NOT go to a major market where your off-the-court opportunities would be maximized?

 

Detroit won recently.

 

Favors has not been very good so far, but he's what, 19?

There's no doubt the Knicks are closer to a title now than they were a couple days ago. Carmelo is an elite scorer. The Knicks didn't play any defense under D'Antoni before he arrived, so why would his defensive skills make anyone say he's not a good acquisition?

Knicks weren't going to bring back Chandler after the season, who cares about Mosgov (who only just started getting any run in the last month), Raymond Felton and Billups are a wash and either one was just going to be keeping the chair warm for a better point guard. Gallinari? Good player, potential All-Star. Carmelo? Bonafide perennial All-Star. The draft picks? The Knicks blow them annually anyway.

This is a good trade for the Knicks. Unless you're telling me they should have gambled that they'd be able to sign Anthony in the offseason without giving up any pieces, you have no argument. And even that argument is flawed, because he wanted the extension so badly before the new CBA, he likely would have gone to the Nets and signed with them.

Nets got an absolute steal with Deron Williams if they can resign him. Great move for Jersey.

 

He's right.

The Peyton Manning comparison is unfair because Peyton can't leave the Colts, unless he held out and forced them to trade him because if he ever was going to become a free agent, they'd slap the franchise tag on him.

That's why having guys like Duncan in San Antonio and Durant in Oklahoma City is so rare these days. San Antonio was extra lucky that it got to follow up one ultra-humble superstar with another with Robinson and Duncan.