Melo can say he will wait until free agency to make his decision. He's said he doesn't want to go to a team that has to gut their roster to get him...PROVE IT! He's said he would be willing to take a pay cut to win a championship...PROVE IT!
This is Melo demanding he get his money. Plain and simple. He doesn't care about the Knicks. He doesn't care about winning a championship. He wants the big market to make more money and he wants his wife to live in NY for her career, so she they can make more money.
And no, we won't have enough space to sign CP3 or DWill. Amare makes $20 mil. Melo will make $21 mil. Remember, Bosh and Lebron took $14.5 mil and Wade took $14 mil. Do the math. Something's go to give. The cap holds alone preclude us from offering a max contract. If the cap stayed the same, we would have approx $8-10 mil in cap space. All indications are that the cap will shrink with the new CBA. We will be stuck with Melo, Amare and a bunch of minimum salary scrubs. I'm sorry, that is an awful team. We can build a a better team without Melo.
Denver is getting Gallo, Chandler, Felton, Mozgov, Brewer and a 1st round pick for Melo, Billups and two scrubs. Even though Melo and Billups are essentially free agents in just 28 games. Wow!!! Denver's GM deserves Executive of the Year for this!!! I don't know how, but when they were supposed to be the desperate team and we we're supposed to be the team with all the leverage and power, we end up looking desperate and getting fleeced. Unbelievable.