Carmelo To Knicks

Last night, all the speculation and endless rumors finally ended, when the Denver Nuggets finalized a deal to trade their superstar forward Carmelo Anthony to the New York Knicks. In return, the Nuggets will get 4/5 of the Knicks' starting lineup (Raymond Felton, Wilson Chandler, Danillo Galinari, and Timofey Mozgov) as well as a 2014 1st round pick and some cash. New York will also get point guards Chauncey Billups and Anthony Carter and forwards Shelden Williams and Renaldo Balkman from Denver, and guard Corey Brewer from the Timberwolves. Minnesota will get Eddy Curry's expiring contract and forward Anthony Randolph from the Knicks.

As far as the rest of this season, I think this trade may make the Knicks a couple wins better, but overall, they still will not be able to compete with Boston, Orlando, or Miami until they get a better supporting cast around Amare and 'Melo in the future. In the end, the defensive ability (or lack there of) will determine how successful the new-look Knicks will be.

In the big picture, for the health of the league, I do not like this deal at all. With current rules in place, superstars are wanting to join up and play together in big markets. It started several years ago on a much smaller scale with Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett being combined in Boston. It continued this summer with LeBron, Bosh, and Wade joining up in Miami. Now, Carmelo practically forced his way to the Knicks. And while the Nuggets got pretty good role players in return, how do we know if they are not headed down the same path as the Cavaliers post-LeBron?

The NBA and basketball in general is unlike both the NFL and MLB in that there are only 12 players on each team, with only a handful of superstars available. If two or three of them join up on a couple teams, there are going to be a lot of other smaller market that will struggle and never be competitive. Even before LeBron took his talents to South Beach and this trade, we had franchises (Memphis, LA Clippers, Toronto, New Jersey) that seemingly have always sucked. With more superstars becoming free agents next summer (namely Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, and Deron Williams), what is to stop them from leaving their teams and joining up on a single team? Not only does it hurt the teams they are leaving, it also takes the "teamwork" out of a competitive basketball team. No longer are we going to have complete teams, but rather "Two or three superstars+9 scrubs" teams. And while the fans of those select large market teams may enjoy watching two or three of the ten best players on the planet play every night in their city's uniform, what about the 25 other teams out there and their fans?

LeBron can talk all he wants about contraction, and reducing the number of teams in the league, but easier said then done, Mr. I-Didn't-Go-to-College-and-Know-Nothing-About-Economics. What happens to all those employees on small-market teams, and the arenas they are in, and the economic wealth and passionate support a professional sports team can generate for a city?

Hopefully, this will get resolved at the next collective bargaining agreement, where the small-markets will have to stand up and try to implement rules that keep their superstars at home. Some potential solutions are to lower the salary cap or add a franchise tag for teams. Part of what makes the NFL so popular is the parity, and fairness in the league, where there are 4 or 5 new playoff teams every year. With superstars joining up, I'm afraid there will only be 4 or 5 good teams left.