Call him Melo, swift, the curse, or as he is affectionately known in my home, The Black Hole (once you pass him the ball you never see it again). Just don’t call him for another contract. The Knicks debacle that reached epic lows in the Isiah Thomas era is now in the hands of Phil Jackson, an on-court genius and personality super-smith, who can coach superstars better than any in the business. The question is, does he need this particular superstar? I say no. In fact, I say resigning Carmelo Anthony openly guarantees the Knicks will go no further than the first round of the playoffs for as long as he wears the uniform.
My beliefs are rooted in game film and financial data. One thing is certain, Carmelo means to command the max contract from whomever signs him. He is too well known and too obviously proficient as a scorer. However, I see what George Karl saw, a selfish scorer who isn’t worth the money he expects to be paid. Some will dismiss my analysis on the grounds that I don’t like ‘Black Hole’s’ style of play. I don’t. However, I also know that there are a wealth of prolific scorers in the NBA who can give you a good percentage of what he gives you while leaving enough cap space and ball handling time to develop and please other members of the roster. I’m not a singleton operator here. When talking about the future landing spot of Kevin Love, the empirically driven website Numberfire said that Love could put up numbers comparable to Melo, and that dude passes.
Carmelo the player is good. Carmelo the contract is not. Once you can begin to see the two as separate entities, you can begin to understand that basketball is no longer a 1 star show. The best teams–The Spurs of the world–are built around depth and role play. You need people who are able to fill positions and exploit mismatches. One star is not enough. Two often cannot defeat the overwhelming mismatch-driven strategy of a deep club (see Spurs v. Thunder).
Get rid of Melo, Phil. You have some of the tools already in place to run the Triangle. Go get some more and build something worth cheering for again.