Carmelo Anthony Goes To the Knicks

Finally! After a nauseating amount of reports over the last few weeks of where Carmelo Anthony may or may not go, the Denver Nuggets have sent him to the New York Knicks. As you probably already heard a "few" times,  it had been speculated that the New Jersey Nets and the Knicks where the top suitors for Anthony. The bottom line is Anthony wanted to become a Knick; he would have been a Net a long time ago if he didn't care about going to New Jersey. Since Anthony was in the last year of his current contract, he held a big bargaining chip in this deal because if he would have been traded to any team like the Nets he could just finish out the season and sign with the Knicks next season. No team in their right mind would have given up true value to the Nuggets unless they could have had Anthony sign a contract extension. With the trade deadline approaching this week, it was in the best interest of the Nuggets to trade Anthony so they would at least get something back in return. Otherwise, they just would have lost him to free agency in the off season.

The one thing that was working against the Nuggets was the apparent want of Anthony to only go to the Knicks. The Knicks of course knew of Anthony's desire to play at the Garden so they were willing to play the cat and mouse game hoping they wouldn't have to give up much or anything to get Anthony. But the Nuggets can thank the Nets for showing a strong interest in obtaining Anthony; the Knicks definitely didn't want to lose Anthony to another team, especially to their neighbors the Nets. So the Knicks themselves wound up parting with more players than I'm sure they would have liked. They reportedly have shipped Raymond Felton, Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov and some draft picks to the Nuggets for Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Anthony Carter, Shelden Williams, and Renaldo Balkman (who the Knicks originally drafted in 2006). The Minnesota Timberwolves were also part of this deal; they received Eddy Curry and Anthony Randolph from the Knicks in exchange for Cory Brewer. It will be debated whether the Knicks gave up too much. I think that they did, considering they seemed to have leverage against the Nuggets. But getting a player of Anthony's caliber I think ultimately will be worth the price. The Knicks probably won't contend for a title this season but combining Anthony with Amare Stoudemire will make a solid foundation for what could be a championship team with a couple of more added pieces (the Knicks will have to get better on defense over time as well).

Now that the drama of this trade situation is over, I'm sure Anthony, the Knicks, the Nets and the Nuggets are relieved and everyone can get back to playing basketball. But there are still a couple of more days left before the NBA trade deadline. Could there possibly be another blockbuster trade on the horizon?