J-Speaks: Knicks Finally Trade All-Star Forward

Coming into this NBA off-season, one of the biggest questions was when would perennial All-Star Carmelo Anthony be traded from the New York Knicks, and would he be traded to the Houston Rockets? The two teams though had difficulty making this trade happen, and it was very likely that Anthony would be a Knick at the start of this week. The team dodged that bullet over the weekend as they found a partner to do a deal for the perennial All-Star. 

On Saturday, the Knicks dealt the 33-year-old Anthony to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for center Enes Kanter, forward Doug McDermott, and a 2018 Second-Round Draft pick, as reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The deal became official on Monday, which kept the Knicks from a potential of answering questions from the press about his status with the organization.

The deal marks the first time the Knicks will start the season without the guy they acquired on Feb. 22, 2011 from the Denver Nuggets in hopes that he would bring them their first Larry O’Brien Trophy since 1973. 

“Win, lose or draw, I was there every night. I came in and competed every night. I stayed professional throughout all the ups and downs that comes along with being in New York,” Anthony said when he was officially introduced as a member of the Thunder at Media Day on Monday. 

NBATV Insider, and sideline reporter for the NBA on TNT David Aldridge, this deal came together very quickly when Anthony decided in the days leading up to the trade to include the Thunder as one of the teams he wanted to be traded to, which led to him waiving his no-trade clause.

“There’s no point in talking if he’s not going go there,” Aldridge said to NBATV’s Matt Winer, and Dennis Scott on Saturday afternoon’s edition of “Gametime.”

Aldridge also said that once Anthony decided I want to be traded to the Thunder, all it took was a couple of phone calls, including one on Saturday morning between the Thunder and the Knicks to complete the deal. 

Since his arrival in New York city seven years ago, the former No. 3 overall pick out of Syracuse by the Denver Nuggets in 2003 has effectively in navigating his life in a place that is not for the fate of heart of pro sports stars. He, his wife actress, business woman and television host Alani “La La”, and their son Kiyan were fixtures at many local events over the years.

Unfortunately, in Anthony’s 6.5 seasons in the “Big Apple,” the only significant thing he did was become the seventh player in Knicks’ franchise history to score 10,000 points, and have the third best scoring average in team history at 24.7 points per contest. 

In that time, the Knicks went just 207-269 during the regular season with Anthony. They made the playoffs the first three seasons of Anthony’s tenor in NYC, but missed the playoffs the last four seasons. Their only playoff series win came in 2013 when they defeated their Atlantic Division rival, the Boston Celtics in opening round in six games. They lost in the Semifinals to his new Thunder teammate Paul George and the Indiana Pacers 4-2.  

To bring Anthony’s time with the Knicks into a clearer context, before Jackson became team president in 2014, the team was 141-117, making the postseason as mentioned three straight seasons. They were an abysmal 80-116 with Jackson in the front office. 

The career of Anthony as a Knick will be characterized as one that had such promise, but never lived up to the hype, thanks to Jackson inability to make proper moves to improve the team, and how he simply ridiculed, and disrespected his star player in the press for much of this past season. With all of that, Anthony never got rattled from the challenges of playing under the spotlight of the “Big Apple,” and the fans of New York. 

“I don’t think the fans have anything bad to say…. There very educated about. They understand what it’s like playing in New York, and for me, I feel like I’ve embraced all those challenges playing in New York,” Anthony said.

Throughout this off-season it was the Rockets who tried to acquire Anthony from the Knicks, with the hope of pairing him the All-Star backcourt of Chris Paul, and James Harden. 

What the Rockets were offering though in terms of a deal that would involve a third team was not enticing for the Knicks to pull the trigger, especially with the centerpiece on their end involving sharp shooting forward Ryan Anderson, who has three years and $60 million dollars left on a four-year, $80 deal he signed the prior summer. 

While they knew the chances of getting a complementary replacement for Anthony, the Knicks knew that they not only wanted to clear salary cap space for the 2019-20 NBA campaign, where they would be done with all the deals former team president Phil Jackson had done. On top of that, Anthony had to consent to the deal because of the no-trade clause in his contract, that Jackson surrendered to the 10-time All-Star when he signed his new five-year, $124 million deal in the summer of 2014. 

The Cavs had no interest in acquiring Anthony because, according to an NBA.com report, they did not want to move center Tristan Thompson, or the unprotected 2018 First-Round pick they acquired from the Celtics in the Kyrie Irving deal a month ago.

The Knicks did consider an offer for Anthony from the Portland Trail Blazers, which included young veterans on long deals like forward Maurice Harkless, and guard/forward Evan Turner. The Trail Blazers did not include rising star center Jusuf Nurkic in any offers the Knicks brought to the table.  

With Anthony gone, the team will now be built around young star forward/center Kristaps Porzingis, who understands that he is the face of the franchise now, the team will only grow if the rest of the cast he is around going forward grows with him.

"I'm excited about he opportunity of being the leader of the team," Porzingis said in answering WLNY Fox 5 Sports Anchor Duke Gastiglione about his new role.

"But, at the end, it's going to be 15 guys on the roster, and everybody's going to have to contribute. And, everybody's going to do that. It's not just about one guy, and that's his team, and I'm going to do what I can, but it's a team. It's not just one player."

Alongside of him in the front court will be the 25-year-old Kanter, who has made himself into one of the best scoring big men in “The Association,” with a 14.3 scoring average, while also grabbing 6.7 rebounds in 2016-17, in a little over 21 minutes of the bench for the Thunder this past season. 

He is also on a short deal that will pay him $17.8 million for this season, with a player option of $18.6 million. This will be Kanter’s third team since being taken No. 3 overall in the 2011 draft by the Utah Jazz. The Thunder acquired Kanter from the Jazz two years ago as part of a three-team deal with them, and the Detroit Pistons. 

The Thunder faced criticism for matching a four-year, $70 million offer sheet the Portland Trail Blazers offered to Kanter in the summer of 2015, but he became a solid offensive compliment to All-Star guard Russell Westbrook and then forward Kevin Durant. 

While Kanter will bring a great offensive skill set to the Knicks with his ability to score in the low post, as well as rebound the basketball, he is a below average defensive player, which kept him from cracking the starting quintet with either the Jazz or Thunder. 

In McDermott, the Knicks are getting who is looking to still find his footing since being the selected No. 11 overall out of Creighton in 2014 by the Chicago Bulls. 

While his first two seasons were a struggle at times with the Bulls with scoring averages of 3.0 and 9.4 respectably, McDermott made some strides a season ago averaging 10.1 points per contest, and shot 37.1 percent from three-point range before he was dealt to the Thunder, along with forward Taj Gibson, who signed with the Minnesota Timberwolves in the off-season for guard Anthony Morrow, and Cameron Payne, and forward Joffrey Lauvergne. 

McDermott’s paired with the newly signed Tim Hardaway, Jr. in the off-season will give the Knicks two floor spreading snipers that will allow Porzingis, and Kantor to operate in the low post. 

While Porzingis will be the new center of attention of the Knicks organization, the Knicks’ will also need Hardaway, Jr.; second-year forward/center Willy Hernangomez; second-year Mindaugas Kuzminskas; second-year guard Ron Baker; rookie guard Frank Ntilikina; center Kyle O’Quinn, and Lance Thomas to develop or continue to develop into solid complimentary players. 

They will need new additions like guards Jarrett Jack, and Ramon Sessions; previously mentioned Kanter, and McDermott; veteran guard Courtney Lee, and veteran forward Michael Beasley to be solid contributors both on, and off the court. 

That 2018 Second-Rounder the Knicks got in the Anthony deal could be a very high one next June because that picked previously belonged to the Bulls, and considering they are in rebuilding mode after sending All-Star forward Jimmy Butler to the Minnesota Timberwolves on draft night in June, that could be a very high pick.

With the trade of Anthony official, new front office management in General Manager Scott Perry, and former GM Steve Mills as the new president, the remaining, head coach Jeff Hornacek, the new and remaining Knicks on the roster now can begin what will hopefully a new chapter that will lead them back to respectably in the NBA and hopefully the postseason not too long from now, with Porzingis leading the way. 

As far as when Anthony will be facing his old team again, that will take place on opening night at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, OK on Thursday, Oct. 19 at 8 p.m. nationally on TNT, and in New York locally on the Madison Square Garden Network (MSG). Anthony will make his return to New York when the Thunder come to Madison Square Garden in NYC to play the Knicks on Saturday, Dec. 16 on MSG.

Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 9/23/17 www.nba.com article “Oklahoma City Goes All In With Carmelo Anthony as New York Knicks Get Fresh Start,” by David Aldridge; 9/26/17 4:30 a.m. edition of WLNY Fox 5's "Good Day Early Call," with Sukanya Krishnan, Jennifer Lahmers, Mike Woods with weather, Ines Rosales with traffic, and sports with Duke Castiglione; www.espn.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/ny/seasontype/2;  http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_New_York_Knicks_seasons; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmelo_Anthony; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_McDermott; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enes_Kanter; and 9/26/17 6 p.m. edition of “Time to Schein” on CBS Sports Network with Adam Schein.