NBA Trade Rumors: Should The New York Knicks Trade Carmelo Anthony?

NBA Trade Rumors: With a ton of drama surrounding the New York Knicks, we question whether they should trade Carmelo Anthony

Are Carmelo Anthony and Phil Jackson not seeing eye to eye? Phil Jackson made a couple of controversial comments this season and you have to wonder if it’s affecting his team.

In an ESPN article that was published in November, Phil Jackson referred to LeBron James and his business partners as a “posse”. James didn’t take this too lightly and his response helped stir up a lot of controversy. People may have taken Phil Jackson’s comment out of context and this brought a bunch of unwanted attention to him and the Knicks.

Since Carmelo Anthony is one of LeBron’s best friends, you have to wonder if they ever had a conversation about this in private. Anthony has went on record to say that “I just don’t understand him talking about LeBron right now in November” and he had a point. Jackson probably didn’t like some of the things Anthony had to say about the situation and since no one has yet to ask Phil Jackson how he feels about Melo’s take, we may never know.

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Some say Carmelo Anthony should’ve been traded as early as 2012 during the Linsanity era. As soon as Linsanity started heating up Anthony suffered a minor injury that kept him out for a few weeks. While Jeremy Lin had the NBA world on fire there were worries about how Anthony would fit back into the rotation. After Carmelo Anthony’s return, Linsanity cooled off but the Knicks still made the playoffs.

They ended up losing in the first round against the Miami Heat.

That was then, and this is now.

On December 7th Phil Jackson made yet another contentious statement and this time he was referring to Carmelo Anthony, someone from his own team.

On CBS’ sports network We Need To Talk Jackson said

"“He can play that role that Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant played,” Jackson said. “That’s a perfect spot for him, to be in that isolated position on the weak side. Because it’s an overload offense and there’s a weak-side man that always has an advantage if the ball is swung.“Carmelo, a lot of times, wants to hold the ball longer than — we have a rule, if you hold a pass two seconds, you benefit the defense. So he has a little bit of a tendency to hold the ball for three, four, five seconds, then everybody comes to a stop. That is one of the things we work with. But he has adjusted to it, he knows what it can do and he’s willing to see its success.”"

So Phil Jackson was kindly calling Melo a ball hog right?

People who’ve watched the NBA for quite some time already know that Melo can be a bit of a ball stopper. This is no secret. He has lessened this habit over the years. Particularly last season, when he averaged a career high in assist (4.1). With more ball handlers on the Knicks this season, his assist numbers are likely to stay below that.

Was Jackson’s comment necessary at the time? Probably not because the Knicks were third in the East when that was said. Currently, they are 6th in the East. They’ve dropped a few spots but are still in the playoff picture. The drama surrounding this franchise just might be the cause of this drop-off.

Of course the media had to ask Carmelo Anthony how he felt about the situation. Anthony seemed pretty annoyed and didn’t really want to speak on it.

Phil Jackson trying to implement the triangle doesn’t surprise me one bit. It did help him win 11 rings.

Sorry Phil, It’s a new era of basketball now and many believe that the triangle is outdated and would never work in today’s game. The New York Knicks point guard Derrick Rose has an idea on how the offense should be ran. Rose says the Knicks should use the pick & roll more. Yes, the oldest play in basketball and still one of the most effective.

Will either of these suggestions truly help the Knicks get to the next level anyway? Max Kellerman of ESPN’s First Take doesn’t think so. Countless times he has said that the Knicks cannot win with Carmelo Anthony. Neither can any team win with him as their best player.

(Knicks discussions ends at 7:05)

The rumors are going around but there hasn’t been a story about the Knicks themselves even thinking about dealing Carmelo Anthony. There’s a lot going on with this franchise and it’s caused some speculation. It doesn’t seem like Phil Jackson and Melo have the best relationship.

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Melo even took to twitter to say what most believe was a subtweet about Phil Jackson. Yup, this definitely seems a little rocky. We’ll just have to wait and see what the future holds for Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks.