It's quite easy to understand that in your hypothetical situation where Melo is not traded from the nuggets, they don't do well in the playoffs, he enters free agency and waits until today to sign with the knicks, that we would have Felton, Gallo, and Moz and what, 1.5 mill per year extra?
I don't know if that honestly makes us a better team then the one we have now. Out of those 3 players, i'd keep gallo but his position is redundant because of Melo. Wilson Chandler would be a FA/in china anyways. But honestly I'd rather have Melo with Chauncey then with Felton. Moz vs. Jordan, does it matter?
Also, if people here are going to throw around hypothetical mumbojumbo i'ma get in on the action. My 50% chance of Melo joining the knicks comes from the amount of options and variables in the way. His options were plentiful: 1) sign back with denver (that team was pretty good and could be getting better) 2) get traded to a different team and bring them to the playoffs, enjoy the experience and sign with them 3) go to china, turkey, or another place and play the next year or two away from the NBA. 4) sign with the knicks. Thats a 1 in 4 chance. 25%...
But O.K. Melo REALLY wanted to be a knick. You could put it down as pure will to join the knicks and that he'd sign with us whenever FA started up. But what if, in the meantime, the knicks made a play for Howard and Nash and we didn't have the cap space to get Melo? Sure, we'd probably be happy, but Melo would have burned bridges in Denver for nothing. The only way Melo could guarantee he'd be a knick was to ask for a trade. Was it selfish to want to be a knick so f%$kin hard? I guess?
Before we knew the lockout was over, it very well could have been an entire year (or more if they dissolved the union) before basketball in the NBA was played. Who knows what is going to happen a year or more in the future? Hind sight is 20/20.
Sorry, I missed this.
In the end, Melo would have become a Knick. No hypotheticals, just the will of a young, star basketball player. Stars get what they want. If that hasn't become apparent after all that's happened, seeing that they are the demigods of the modern age, then I don't know what to say.
I don't believe for a second that the only way he could guarantee that he'd be a Knick would be to force the hand of those who held the key to what he wanted. Not at all. He didn't need to bail on his team, who were 5th in the west at the time he left, even throughout the fittingly named
Melo Drama - and he didn't have to go through the whole Lebron saga, either. I can't dictate the standard on what's right and wrong for free agents, but I believe what he did was selfish, in regard to us, Chauncey Billups and his former team, and done with complete tunnel vision. Just a matter of opinion. Quickly became a witch hunt though, didn't it?
It's quite easy to understand that in your hypothetical situation where Melo is not traded from the nuggets, they don't do well in the playoffs, he enters free agency and waits until today to sign with the knicks, that we would have Felton, Gallo, and Moz and what, 1.5 mill per year extra?
And then - you can call it formed out of hindsight but it isn't, I eluded to it immediate post trade once I found out Billups was involved - the last question remains about what Melo never took in to account:
the fallout.
Pitting what could have been VS what is. Pointless? Depends on how you look at it, but I say
no.
Which is more palatable, especially considering our thirst for a 3rd star.
Chauncey Billups' expiring contract and Balkman's 3 years.
OR
Felton, Gallo, Douglas, The Gov, Randolph and all our traded picks (I think you're right about leaving Wil C out of it) for Chris Paul on the table
right now with N.0's back against the wall.
+ Curry's $11.4 coming off the books
Leaving us with a far higher likelihood of:
CP3 - Shump (or whoever)
Landry - Walker
Melo - whoever - does it matter?
STAT - Jefferies (perish the thought) - whoever
Ronny - Jorts - Jordan
This is what Donny Walsh wanted to protect. Not this specific scenario necessarily, of course, but just the ability and flexibility to maneuver for bigger and better things.
Is that hindsight? We could put a percentage on that!