Schmeelk's Stance: Now What?

By John Schmeelk
>>More Columns

With the Knicks last two wins against quality opponents, it's pretty safe to say they've established themselves as a playoff team. If the roster remains the same for the remainder of the season, the Knicks should win anywhere between 45 and 50 games, and be no worse than the 6th seed. That means they'll face the Magic, Bulls or Hawks with a very remote chance of having home court advantage in the 1st round of the playoffs.

Any of those results would be a huge success in the year that was supposed to be a turning point for the franchise. The Knicks are once again a real playoff team with an opportunity to advance to the 2nd round of the playoffs. They have a franchise player in Amar'e Stoudemire, a real point guard in Raymond Felton and a slew of improving young support players like Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari and Landry Fields.

Making the future even brighter is the about 15 million dollars worth of cap space this summer, with Eddy Curry's contract coming off the books. The new collective bargaining agreement could alter exactly how much the Knicks have to spend, but they'll have enough freedom to add another significant piece to become a potential championship team. How best to do it? What's the next step?

Obviously, signing Carmelo Anthony as a free agent in the summer is a no-brainer. He has his flaws (shoot first mentality, below average passer, unwilling defender, not a leader) but his scoring ability alone would improve the Knicks overnight. Of course, that's the easy answer, and when is anything easy for the Knicks? (winning the lottery to land Patrick Ewing was the last time, actually)

The question that must be plaguing Donnie Walsh and Mike D'Antoni in their quiet time is how much is Carmelo Anthony worth in a trade? Barring the possibility Carmelo Anthony refuses any and all trades except to the Knicks (a possibility), and thereby giving them all the leverage, the only the way the Knicks match what the Nets can offer is by including Landry Fields, Danilo Gallinari and Eddy Curry's expiring contract. Wilson Chandler is a restricted free agent this summer so his value to the Nuggets would be minimal.

If the Knicks make a trade like that for Carmelo their rotation would be as follows in 2011: Stoudemire, Felton, Anthony, Chandler (Knicks would resign him), Turiaf (player option), Mozgov, Shawne Williams, Toney Douglas and players not yet on the roster.

If the Knicks pass on Anthony their rotation would look something like: Stoudemire, Felton, Chandler (Knicks resign him), Fields, Gallinari, a big free agent signing like Marc Gasol (Restricted Free Agent), and then the same players as above.

It really comes down to whether Carmelo Anthony is more valuable than a combination of Fields, Gallinari, and a player like Marc Gasol that the Knicks could buy in free agency with the money not spent on Anthony. Gasol is restricted, and though many think the Grizzlies will match an offer for him, the recent money given to Rudy Gay (a ridiculous 80 million) and Mike Conley (40 million) through 2016 might make them a little gun shy. Alan Hahn of Newsday mentioned Gasol as a good target a while back, and he would be the perfect center to compliment Stoudemire in D'Antoni's system.

Common logic in the NBA dictates that teams need two superstars to win a championship, but in the second roster listed above the Knicks have surrounded their star with the perfect group of good support players to challenge for a championship. In this situation either Gallinari, Fields or Chandler would have to improve to the point where one could be legit go-to perimeter scoring option. Is that more probable than finding the right roleplayers around Felton, Stoudemire and Anthony?

It's certainly a debatable point, and I'm still on the fence about it. I'm just not sure how much better the Knicks can get offensively, even with Anthony. The only thing Anthony would definitely give them would be a go to scorer when the offense isn't flowing or at the ends of games. The Knicks weakness is defense, and trading away Fields and Gallinari for a liability like Carmelo would only hurt that end of the floor. Then again, passing on a superstar like Anthony can be a franchise killing decision. Maybe Fields and Gallinari are nothing more than bench players.

Of course, there's a chance the Nuggets really like Derrick Favors and the draft picks the Nets are offering as a better deal. There's nothing the Knicks can do about that. With or without him, the Knicks need to decide what their championship formula is: go superstars or go team.

UP AND UNDER

Up: Wilson Chandler might just be a legit third player on a good NBA team. He plays solid defense man to man, blocks shots, and is still good with the mid range jumper and taking it to the basket. What's starting to push him to the next level is his consistent three point shot. He has become especially adapt at the corner three, which is a shot that is often open in Mike D'Antoni's system. I also want to honorably mention the Knicks defense here, which has been much better in recent games.

Under: Danilo Gallinari's shooting this year is not what it has been. It's been hidden by his more consistent trips to the free throw line and better all around play, but so far this year he has missed a ton of wide open shots. He's only shooting 41% from the field and 38% from the three point line, numbers that should be better due to the number of wide open looks he is getting. There's no arguing his defense though, which continues to improve as he is often tasked with guarding the other team's best player.

AROUND THE WORLD

I'm still not sure what I think about the Orlando Magic trade. Here's what I know for sure: They are much better offensively. Hedo Turkoglu, Gilbert Arenas, and Jason Richardson are better offensively than Vince Carter, Rashard Lewis and Mickael Pietrus. But they are also worse defensively, with Pietrus being one of the best defenders in the league against LeBron James and Marcin Gortat a good presence in the pain off the bench. I still don't think it's enough to challenge either the Heat or Magic in the East.

THE FADEAWAY

I might as well throw my two cents in on the Christmas Day controversy brewing around the NBA with LeBron James and Phil Jackson complaining about playing on the holiday. It stinks playing on holidays, but it comes with the territory. Working for the Giants I had to fly to Green Bay Wisconsin on Christmas afternoon for a game the following day. I was in the office getting ready for the game on Christmas Eve. People are working the board at WFAN on every holiday of the year. When you work in sports, it's understood that working holidays is part of the deal. Deal with it. In fairness, the NBA might be going overboard playing 5 games on Christmas. Two games are probably enough, making it more of an honor to get one of the coveted slots on the holiday. But I don't think anyone wants to hear millionaires complaining about having to play a three hour basketball game on Christmas.