Carmelo Anthony Traded to Knicks in Nine Player Deal

The Denver Nuggets have traded Carmelo Anthony to the New York Knicks in a nine player deal.  It finally puts to bed the entire "Where will Carmelo get traded?" talk.

First off, Carmelo is a gifted scorer.  Umm, that is it.  He doesn't impact games in other ways, really.  Now, pair him with another defensive sieve, Amar'e Stoudemire, and you are just asking for trouble, imo.



Lets see exactly what the Knicks gave up.  Felton is playing at an all-star level this year.  He is outperforming his contract and is young enough that you can continue with him as part of your core.  Chandler's positional-versatility and ability to shoot the three can really help a team.  At this point, Gallinari is essentially a poor man's Carmelo.  No, he doesn't use the same amount of possessions but he is very similar assuming he gets more touches.  I wouldn't have traded Gallinari straight-up for Carmelo once you take contract into account and I am scratching my head wondering why exactly this deal was made other than to bring the hometown guy home.

Additionally, New York gave up Anthony Randolph and Eddie Curry in another move with Minnesota.  They should have paired those two with Gallinari and Mozgov in a separate move to round out their team, imo.  It looks to me like the Knicks were simply reshuffling the deck chairs on the Titantic.

Player	TEN+	Fair$
Wilson Chandler	101	$7,113,160.08
Raymond Felton	138	$14,184,281.26
Danilo Gallinari	93	$6,197,991.60
Timofey Mozgov	64	$1,595,634.23

Carmelo lacks impact in correlation to the amount of possessions he uses.  Yes, he is a gifted scorer and is able to absorb a massive amount of possessions.  He just doesn't provide much outside of that.  Chauncey is playing at an all-star level but so was Felton.  I like Chauncey and think he will be good for New York but this is an overpay on New York's part.  I do think that Balkman, if used correctly, could be a positive in this deal, though.

Player	TEN+	Fair$
Carmelo Anthony	114	$10,016,890.83
Chauncey Billups	132	$12,278,503.01
Shelden Williams	69	$2,045,827.95
Anthony Carter	74	$2,491,694.63
Renaldo Balkman	76	$2,445,679.97

Well, if I am Denver, I am pretty happy with this deal.  I come out of it with a $17.1M trade exemption.  If I was them, I would flip Gallinari to another team before the trade deadline but only if I could shed the rest of Kenyon Martin's deal and acquire a rebounder/shot-blocker to put next to Nene.  I would re-sign Nene and JR Smith in the off-season.