Another All Star On the Way?

Six weeks ago the New York Knicks added one perennial All Star in Amare Stoutemire...could another soon be joining him?

The latest breaking news in the NBA off season has been revolving around Carmelo Anthony and his plans to forgo signing the 3 year 65$ million dollar deal that has been on the table for months. Melo' is under contract for 2010, but beyond that, he is free to sign wherever he desires. At age 26, Carmelo is one of the NBA's best scorers (28.2 PPG last season) and easily a top 10 player in the entire league. He is one of the game's best clutch shooters and has been able to maintain his superstar status among a team of circus characters and controversy.

From all recent reports, Carmelo has a small wish list of where he would like to play next season. That list features the New York Knicks at the top, bottom, and everywhere in between. In other words, New York is his only desire. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Carmelo knows all about the glory of playing in the world's most famous arena. Before he achieved NBA super stardom, Carmelo earned himself a spot on New York's list of college basketball greats by leading Syracuse to a National Championship during his lone year in college. It appears his goal is to come full circle by playing in New York one more time.

At this point, it seems only logical for the Nuggets to trade Carmelo. If he has no intention of re-signing, they might as well get some type of value in return while they still can. Sure, trading the team's best player is a tough sell to the fans, but it is still the best option at this point. The Nuggets should begin to plan for life without Carmelo and they would be wise to start gathering offers for his services.

If Carmelo is to be a Knick, then New York must offer some value in return. When looking at the team's roster, there appears to be only two players that would be deemed untouchable...Amare Stoutemire, for obvious reasons, and Raymond Felton, due to trade restrictions on newly signed free agents. That leaves Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, and Anthony Randolph as the Knicks with the most value on the court, and Eddy Curry as the Knick with the most value off the court (expiring 11$ million dollar contract.) If the Knicks have any chance of acquiring one of the league's best players then the first proposal should involve some of, if not all, the players listed above. Getting productive, young, cheap, players like Chandler and Randolph along with 11$ million dollars of cap relief with Curry is not an awful consolation prize for Denver.

In the meantime, Knicks fans should wait and hope. Donnie Walsh already delivered them one of the NBA's top 15 players. Adding another would elevate the Knicks to being one of the Eastern Conference's 3 or 4 best teams. Who knows? Maybe not getting Lebron wasn't so bad after all...