For the Love of Money
The noise around a return for Carmelo Anthony has rose from a hushed whisper to a full on media campaign. The whispers began at Dwyane Wade’s last game for the Miami Heat against the Brooklyn Nets. Carmelo, LeBron and Chris Paul were sitting courtside and when the ball landed in front of Anthony, he could not resist faking a shot. The brief action brought attention on the New York native and led to applause for his lengthy, impressive career in the league where he was a 6-time All-NBA player. The whispers started from Carmelo’s camp that he would love a return to basketball, then an appearance by Chris Brickley in which Brickley stated that Melo deserved a ‘farewell’ tour. The last action of the publicity campaign is an appearance on First Take with Carmelo’s longtime friend, Stephen A Smith. Smith, who can be an impressive interviewer, will likely uncover a lot of interesting details but will be tremendously one-sided given their close friendship.
One final season in which Carmelo returns seems a given except when it is consider that there are no teams for which a farewell tour is appropriate. Denver moved on from Anthony and have built around one of the most exciting cores in the NBA, Mike Malone will not sacrifice long-term success in order to let a former player live out his dreams. The New York Knicks would be a possible choice but where does Carmelo fit on their team? The team is stocked at the forward positions with Kevin Knox, Rj Barrett, Taj Gibson, Marcus Morris Sr and Julius Randle. The Knicks who have a fledgling core of young talent will not sacrifice the development of their talent so that they can cash in on one last Melo payday. James Dolan and the Knicks management are incredibly dysfunctional but even they must recognise that it is time to rebuild carefully and build assets to make New York an attractive free agency proposition. The Thunder or Rockets will not have Melo back, there is no history there that even makes the proposition worth entertaining. The only possible path back into the league for Carmelo would be as a rotation player for the Lakers but even that seems unlikely, LeBron is trying to win now. Anthony’s desires are likely low on his list of priorities.
The question worth asking is how Carmelo’s career ended up in this manner? When Anthony was drafted in 2003, he was expected to be one of the defining players of his era, the ultimate foil for LeBron James. Even when Melo forced a trade through to the New York Knicks, there was an expectation that the elusive title would fall into his hands. He was certainly a good enough scorer to make this happen and there was plenty enough of his prime in order to find the right combination of talent which could propel the Knicks to the promised land for the first time since Ewing and Starks. Carmelo’s career can be seen in a series of decisions which have been made because of prior decisions, each decision being driven by a sense of ego and greed.
I fully expect basketball players to seek the payday wherever possible. Elite talents deserve to command that type of salary as they are franchise changing, a player like LeBron James or Kevin Durant can secure at least two championships. However, a champion chooses to sacrifice themselves for the good of the team. LeBron did this financially in Miami where he took less than the max so that the Heat could keep Udonis Haslem, a franchise lifer, Durant did the same in the Bay Area so that Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston could be retained. Anthony only sacrificed his game at the very last opportunity when his back was against the wall, it was too late at that point for him to change and Houston promptly removed him from basketball activities. The sacrifice that Melo made happened at the wrong time, in theory Carmelo Anthony could have made a meaningful career decision five years ago in which he could have contended for an NBA title.
The 2014 free agency class was captivating for basketball fans, the NBA was in a state of flux as the perennial winners who defined the first half of the decade had began to decline as contenders. Miami looked old and emotionally exhausted as the Spurs ruthlessly dissected the Big Three which had won two championships in four years. The Spurs were heading towards a transition period as Duncan, Ginobili and Parker entered their twilight years. During the opening days of free agency, the league seemed to be wide open. The Chicago Bulls who were constant contenders during LeBron’s domination of the Eastern Conference had entered free agency with enough cap space to sign the kind of player who could solve their issues regarding scoring.
The Thibs’ Bulls were a strong defensive unit who relied heavily on Derrick Rose to create shots and score the ball, in previous years the dearth of scoring led to Chicago coming up short in the play-offs. In the same vein, Carmelo Anthony had played on a Knicks team where he did not have the supporting cast which is required to win an NBA championship nor the personnel who could grind games out when it mattered. Carmelo joining Chicago made a lot of sense, the Bulls would finally get a talented scorer who they could pair with Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah. It would be a legitimate Big Three with scoring, defence and playmaking being blended together to produce quality results. Moreover, Chicago would have the rotation players which the Knicks could never seem to get, the Knicks always seemed to struggle to find quality role players who could make an impact on the game. The Bulls did not struggle for this, they had talented reserves such as Mike Dunleavy, Aaron Brooks and Nikola Mirotic who could be relied upon to perform at a good level within their roles.
The Bulls would have had a starting lineup of Rose/Butler/Carmelo/Gasol/Noah, a lineup which is laden with defensive talent and post-season experience. It is the type of lineup which would be comparable to the Cleveland Cavaliers who were the front-runners in the Eastern Conference. The Cavs had a scoring guard in the form of Kyrie Irving, the Bulls had Derrick Rose who was still an All-Star level player despite his injury troubles. The Cavs eventually acquired JR Smith to play at the 2 guard position, the Bulls had Jimmy Butler who could do what Smith did but while also being able to create his own shot. The Cavs were much better at the Small Forward position and both teams were even at the Power Forward spot. However, Joakim Noah was a vastly superior player to Tristan Thompson. It is entirely possible to see the Chicago Bulls beating the Cavaliers in the 2015 Eastern Conference Finals if they have that scorer from the forward position.
However, Carmelo Anthony chose to remain with the New York Knicks over reports of dysfunction within the Bulls management structure. The dysfunction with the Bulls was real, the relationship between Thibodeau and GarPax had began to fray as Thibs felt that GarPax did not back him in terms of building a roster that fit his needs, GarPax felt that Thibs’ coaching ideas were wearing down the roster. The insistence of playing his starters around thirty eight minutes a night had led to serious fatigue for Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah over the four years in which Thibodeau was coach of the Bulls. However, Anthony choosing to remain with the Knicks was puzzling. The Knicks have long been a poster child for dysfunction and arguably had worse management. Phil Jackson was a cantankerous president who insisted on playing the triangle and appointing a former player as coach. Derek Fisher may have been a good coach for a rebuilding team but he was deeply inexperienced.
The decision that Melo consigned him to two unhappy years in New York before he was eventually dealt to the Thunder for a return of Enes Kanter, a relatively low return for a player who was an All-Star for the Knicks. Melo choosing the money effectively meant that he could not contend for a quality team during his prime. I do not knock Melo for his choices, he had a settled life in New York and having the additional financial security must have been very nice. However, it must be noted that Anthony chose a dysfunctional rebuilding franchise over the closest thing to a sure thing that was available on the market.
The need to get out of New York led to two years for both Oklahoma City and Houston where he was a marginal player, he was at times the type of player who had to be dragged along as he was a liability. Carmelo without scoring was a complete negative on the court and the scoring abilities seem to desert Anthony for stretches at a time.
Carmelo’s time in New York was not totally bad, the Knicks had a hugely productive in which they won 54 games and reached the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. Carmelo was the scoring leader for the team, the guy who could be relied upon to take over games when it mattered. It was arguably the first time since Denver that Anthony had a decent roster and a proper chance of making the NBA Finals. The roster was pretty good, JR bombed from deep, Chandler was rugged around the rim while Melo took on the scoring load. There was a really good blend of experience throughout the team and Anthony looked happy as he had players with championship experience on his team. Jason Kidd and Tyson Chandler were just two years removed from a championship in 2013 and both players were quality role players.
The Knicks lost in 2013 to the Pacers as they could not cope with the youth and gritty defence of the Pacers. The young wing duo of George and Stephenson caused nightmares for the Knicks who had the oldest roster in the play-offs. Mike Woodson could never seem to work out how to negate the effect of Roy Hibbert. Hibbert’s rim protection took a lot of the Knicks’ offence apart and it seemed that the coaches could do nothing except pray for an explosive Anthony game. Melo’s only chance to win an NBA title went out of the window and more questions were invited upon his future legacy as a NBA player. In some ways, Anthony can be seen to be culpable for the coaching issues in 2013 as he forced out the previous coach in 2012.
Mike D’Antoni is arguably one of the best minds in basketball, he is the coach who knows how to supercharge an offence in whatever way possible. All of his teams have played in different ways, the ball-stopping isolation employed Harden, the ‘SSOL’ employed by the Steve Nash Suns. When D’Antoni was hired in New York, there was cause for hope. D’Antoni had built high-powered offences in Phoenix which always contended in the play-offs and were only ever one step away from reaching the NBA Finals. There was a legitimate belief around the league that if Robert Sarver stuck his hand in his pocket and paid for a roster that was complete, D’Antoni would have won a ring. In New York, he had an owner in James Dolan who was never shy in terms of spending the money to achieve success. Dolan for all of his faults is always willing to spend big.
D’Antoni’s ideas for the Knicks made a lot of sense. The idea would be that the high pick and roll would become a staple of the offence and Carmelo Anthony would take a lot more three-pointers. The high pick and roll is a D’Antoni hallmark, it was the offence which led to productive runs for both Nash and A’Mare in Phoenix. The high pick and roll would work with Stoudemire in New York and another talented guard who seemingly emerged out of nowhere.
Jeremy Lin was a nobody before he started for the Knicks due to injuries to Mike Bibby and Toney Douglas. He was a third stringer out of Harvard who was putting up numbers for the Erie Bayhawks in the D-League. It was expected that Lin would be the 12th man on the roster, a break in case of emergency guard. The Knicks were struggling massively with injuries at the point guard and in a game against the Nets, D’Antoni found his point guard. Lin played aggressively and constantly looked to push the pace offensively, he was the perfect D’Antoni point guard. He did not have the instinctive feel for passing that Steve Nash did but Lin loved to attack the rim and excelled in the pick and roll. Lin playing point guard for the Knicks made a lot of sense to everybody except for Carmelo Anthony.
Anthony and D’Antoni clashed over D’Antoni view of the offence. Melo wanted the offence to run through him and he wanted to take a lot of contested mid-range jumpers. The offence needed to be within his wheelhouse otherwise Anthony was not happy at all despite the fact that he was a superb three-point shooter. Anthony playing the 4 spot was heaven for the majority of basketball fans, his frame would let him bully to the rim off mismatched defenders. It would create offensive opportunities for the Knicks while also removing some of the burden off Melo.
The conflict between Anthony and D’Antoni was never resolved, D’Antoni folded to respect the wishes of his superstar forward but was privately unhappy. He was more of a passenger than a coach for the Knicks. D’Antoni’s unhappiness eventually led to his resignation and the appointment of Mike Woodson, a good not great coach. Woodson was effective with the Hawks but he could never seem to work out how to maximise the talent he had or find a scheme which could slow down LeBron. Melo’s bullish desire to play as an isolation specialist meant that the D’Antoni’s ideas could not be implemented which meant that the roster was not being used effectively.
The choice of running a lot of pick and roll with fast ball movement would make use of A’Mare as a rim-runner and Lin’s ability to navigate the pick and roll. Carmelo’s insistence on playing a certain style only benefitted one player, himself. Anthony’s desire to be a ball-stopping isolation specialist meant that ball movement dried up and only one player could be involved on the offensive end of the ball. The effect of this is that A’Mare and Melo did not really mesh and Lin chose to move to Houston at the end of the season.
If you had D’Antoni at the helm in 2013, it would be a different story. The use of the high pick and roll would have dragged Roy Hibbert out of the paint and forced the Pacers’ big man to defend on space. The feared Pacers’ defence would have been dissected with one single play, Hibbert could never defend in space. Hibbert did not have the mobility or footwork to be comfortable defensively anywhere except for around the rim. The Knicks would have likely made the Eastern Conference Finals in a series which would be a toss-up.
Moreover, Anthony’s words towards Jeremy Lin also meant that the Knicks did not have that point guard who would be aggressive looking for his own shot as a third option on the team. In 2013, the scoring pecking order for the Knicks was Melo, A’Mare and then JR Smith. The only person out of that group who could create their own shot was Carmelo, a secondary shot creator would have been welcome especially against a team like Miami who had at least three players who could create shots. Unfortunately, Carmelo Anthony’s ego ran Jeremy Lin out of town.
The two week stretch that Linsanity lasted for was exciting, hugely entertaining but also interesting in regards to the locker-room dynamics for the Knicks. Anthony had entered the season as the unquestioned superstar on the Knicks, the only player who would command all of the media’s attention. Jeremy Lin’s break-out took some of the media attention away from Carmelo and in some ways Lin became a bigger story that Melo ever was in New York. Here was an Asian-American who had faced discrimination and constant doubts over his ability who was now putting up double-doubles on a nightly basis. The attention that Lin made Anthony feel uncomfortable, he did not feel that Lin deserved the attention which he was commanding. There were a certain level of jealousy that the Syracuse forward harboured towards the undrafted rookie. He felt that he was entitled to the attention that a superstar playing at the Garden should receive from the basketball world.
The signs of disgruntlement were subtle but they did exist. Tim Keown reported in an ESPN magazine piece that Melo did not fully apply himself in practices when he felt that D’Antoni’s offence was focused on making a star in Lin instead of playing towards his strength on the wing. There was reports that Melo was jealous of Lin to the point where he would call his own number on offence instead of following D’Antoni’s system which preached ball movement and a high tempo. Melo’s jealousy towards Jeremy Lin effectively gave the Knicks an ultimatum, me or him.
At the end of the season when Lin’s contract expired, it was expected that the Knicks would re-sign the point guard and start on their way to championship. The opposite happened, Lin walked on a 3/25 deal to the Rockets after the Knicks promised that they would match any offer for the rookie sensation. It was telling that as soon as Jeremy Lin received this offer sheet from the Rockets, Melo derided the contract. He called the contract ‘ridiculous’ and left the decision up to the Knicks. It is entirely possible that James Dolan saw the comments of his star player and made the choice to sacrifice a promising youngster to appease his All-Star. Whatever the reason, it meant that the Knicks lost a high-level point guard and the offensive genius that was Mike D’Antoni would be following him out of the door.
Carmelo Anthony’s time with the Knicks is peculiar. A veteran laden roster with previous championships only resulted in one fifty win season before that team crumbled into the misfits that the Knicks became during Melo’s last years in New York. There was a distinct lack of depth, the type of role players needed to win championship. A scoring forward with a deft touch offensively would have been perfect for the Knicks off the bench, a player like Gallinari would have been a great fit. The Knicks sacrificed a lot of their depth in order to acquire Anthony. The trade involved promising youngsters like Gallinari and Mozgov who looked to be part of a bright future for the Knicks, instead the Knicks chose to sacrifice these players so that Melo could be acquired six months before he hit free agency.
Anthony had expressed nothing but a desire to play one of the grandest stages of them all. The Garden is one of the cathedrals of basketball, it is one of the few historic arenas which the lineage is unbelievable. From Earl and Clyde in the 1970s to Ewing in the 1990s, the Knicks lineage was strong and for a player like Melo who is from Red Hook, it was a draw like no other. The Knicks were by far the only suitor for Melo in free agency, all they had to do was wait six months so that they could sign him. It would have meant that the Knicks would have had a team that had a good blend of both experience and youth.
The Knicks chose to make the trade and sacrificed Gallo, Mozgov, Wilson Chandler and multiple first-round picks. The Knicks GM, Donnie Walsh, initially objected to the deal as he felt that New York would be giving up too much. James Dolan over-rided his management and make the trade regardless. Anthony was a Knick but they had given up a lot to make the deal happen. The other issue with the deal is that there was a lot of pressure placed upon the Knicks to rebuild roster depth. They had to go on and sign veteran players which only limited their window. The aim became winning as fast as possible before their veteran players fell off a cliff in terms of impact.
The Knicks are at fault for creating a massive problem for themselves in regards to roster construction but Anthony is somewhat culpable as well. Anthony knew within himself that he would sign with New York, it was the ideal destination for himself in free agency as he could come home to a roster that was brimming with talent that could be developed or flipped for assets. Moreover, New York would provide the quality of life that Carmelo and LaLa Anthony were looking for. The life where LaLa would have better acting opportunities and Carmelo could indulge his passion for wine. If Carmelo knew this, why did he request a trade just six months before his free agency occurred?
It would have been a clean break for both sides, Denver would have a chance to let their older players walk so that they could focus on developing youth. Anthony would have left Denver with no sense of bad blood or obligations while joining a New York side which was on an upward trajectory. Instead Anthony requested a trade which took away a lot of the Knicks depth and gave Denver a chance to accelerate their rebuild. In fact Denver improved and after acquiring Andre Iguodala in trade, the team won fifty seven games in the season where Anthony led the Knicks to the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. It was puzzling at the time and it is puzzling now, there was not a pressing need for Anthony to get to New York, he could have done that in six months time with no roster cost.
Anthony’s choice to go to the New York Knicks made a lot of sense given the options available at the time, he had a chance to build a legitimate contender in the East and elevate the Knicks back to glory. He had a co-star in A’Mare and a high-quality coach to rely upon. However, Melo limited his options in 2006 during his contract negotiations which arguably prevented him from playing on one of the best super-teams of all time.
The James/Wade/Bosh Heat were special, it was a collection of Top-25 NBA players working together to achieve the ultimate goal of a championship. It had one goal in mind and that goal was to crush the competition. It was a fantasy tossed around in Sapporo in 2006 and was made possible by The Decision on July 8, 2010. LeBron choosing to join Dwyane Wade on the Heat made the dream possible, Chris Bosh would not have come to South Beach unless there was another star. Bosh had made it clear that all he cared about was winning, the Celtics and Lakers had proved that you needed three stars to win a championship. It was highly possible that Bosh would sign with Dallas who already had the makings of a championship with Dirk and the various veterans who they had. Instead, the Miami Big Three was formed.
The actual numbers behind the Miami Big Three are arguably the most interesting aspect of the deal. We have seen great players wanting to team with other great players, it is not exactly a new concept. The over-riding theme of the Miami Big Three was players choosing to take control of their careers instead of following the normal course of businesss. The first emblem of player empowerment was the choice to sign a three year extension instead of the normal five year second contract extension. LeBron had encouraged his various friends around the league including Carmelo Anthony to take less years on his extension as there was a chance that they could play together while earning more money. James’ back-room team including Mark Termini, Rich Paul and Maverick Carter had studied the NBA and they anticipated a huge salary cap increase in 2010. The increased cap coupled with the fact that All-Stars like Wade, Bosh and James could qualify for the Rose Rule made the three year extension an attractive proposition to all three of them.
From a young age, James and Anthony had expressed a desire to play with each other, ever since they were kids playing in high school games against each other. In 2006, Anthony had a chance to make the dream a reality by taking a three year deal instead of five years. It could have meant that Wade, LeBron, Anthony and Bosh would have teamed up given the agency which all of the players were represented.
CAA were one of the foremost power-brokers in the NBA with Leon Rose representing James and Anthony and Hank Thomas representing Wade and Bosh. One of CAA’s common practices is to package their assets together in order to generate more publicity and a greater return on their investment. The theory behind that practice is pretty simple, athletes could be used in tandem for huge sponsorship deals which would mean more money for the agents and the talent. In creating the Miami Big Three, the representation by CAA ensured that each player would play on discounted contracts so that their salaries could fit under the cap and so that Haslem could be re-sgined to a favourable deal. It is entirely realistic that CAA could get every single player to assent to a Big Four which would run the league. There would be four top-five players at every single position bar point guard, their team would be pretty damn dominant.
Instead Anthony chose to take the security which a five year extension provides. The five year deal kept him out of the crazy 2010 off-season and out of any plans to form a super-team with LeBron and Wade in Miami. It meant that Carmelo was unlucky again. When you look back at Anthony’s career, it has been driven by greed and a desire for his ego to be massaged. The urge to secure the bag prevented a guaranteed ring in Miami, his ego meant that the embers of a talented D’Antoni team was extinguished. It is a sad state of affairs for a player who achieved so much success but make no mistake, Anthony is somewhat to blame for his career path.
