Carmelo Anthony & JR Smith Didn’t Want Jeremy Lin Back, Source Tells Ian O’Connor
Carmelo Anthony has been taking a lot of heat for Jeremy Lin’s departure from New York – I put more blame on Melo than James Dolan or future financial constraints – and things are only going to get worse for the Syracuse star when this quote in Ian O’Connor’s column picks up steam:
Much as he tried to run away from that “ridiculous contract” quote, Anthony’s scrambling came in vain. “Melo didn’t want Lin back, I do know that,” said one source who has extensive dealings with the Knicks and their players. “Everybody in that locker room wanted Lin back except Melo and J.R. Smith.”
While that’s the money quote in the column, O’Connor quickly backtracks from it, and the headline says the exact opposite. Melo’s CAA team has been doin’ work with the media from the second the “ridiculous contract” quote emerged, quickly running to Marc Spears at Yahoo for a clarification, and then doing their best with columnists and radio guys to steer the discussion away from Melo.
It won’t work. The only way Melo escapes this? Winning. We know Lin won’t win in Houston next season – roster’s too young. But Carmelo Anthony has an Olympian by his side in Chandler, a future Hall of Famer in Jason Kidd, plus Amare, Raymond Felton (who everyone suddenly loves), Steve Novak and come January, Iman Shumpert. Oh, and how could I forget JR Smith!
It’ll be quite the shitshow in Madison Square Garden next season if the Knicks start slowly and the Brooklyn Nets are the better team. We know Boston’s better. I think Philly’s better.
But I’m sure Melo will come through in the postseason. He always does.
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July 20th, 2012 at 11:15 AM
To be fair, there’s a lot to love.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:15 AM
Should surprise nobody.
That you wrote another post on this? Agree completely.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:16 AM
I liked this. Melo is a chump.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:16 AM
Suddenly, that roster looks loaded!
July 20th, 2012 at 11:18 AM
Anything new with the Jets?
July 20th, 2012 at 11:19 AM
I love the fact that J.R. Smith is chiming in on personnel decisions. I sincerely hope Knicks didn’t take into account Smith’s opinion on free agency. Even the Knicks couldn’t be that dumb, right?
July 20th, 2012 at 11:21 AM
Trade Melo for Dwight.
Solve both problems!
July 20th, 2012 at 11:24 AM
You can put any qualifier you want to in front of his name and it still doesn’t change the fact that he is garbage now.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:25 AM
Jeremy Lin was not that good. Teams figured him out rather quickly after Linsanity and he looked like crap in a lot games. His body of work is not worth $25 million over three years. Melo was right – ridiculous contract.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:26 AM
I liked this.
Did you just like it this time, or also the 8 previous times that this post has been written?
July 20th, 2012 at 11:27 AM
Melo might have been right about the contract, but I take comfort in the fact that as long as the Knicks have Carmelo Anthony, they probably won’t even make the playoffs, let alone win a championship.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:27 AM
You get him for cheap first two years. If he does suck, being an expiring contract in 3rd season, you can always trade him to someone looking to offload bad contracts. Plus, the so called poison pill thing is overblown, from what I’m reading. Apparently you can manipulate the contract to alleviate some of the luxury tax hit.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:28 AM
Agreed. I don’t know how Morey is getting a pass on this shit. Its good for your job status to buddy up to every NBA writer apparently.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:28 AM
Could not agree more. No matter how you look at it (numbers/watching him), he was really bad last year
July 20th, 2012 at 11:31 AM
No. Its a 3 year deal for about 8 million a year. The poison pill only would have affected the Knicks. Morey is a moron because he let two point guards that are better than Lin leave and paid Lin more money than those guys got paid.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:32 AM
Kim Jones is reporting that JoePa statue is coming down this weekend. After this morning’s events, it doesn’t seem like a big deal anymore.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:32 AM
Agreed. I don’t know how Morey is getting a pass on this shit. Its good for your job status to buddy up to every NBA writer apparently.
First he hired Kevin McHale, then he completely dismembered last year’s team in a vain attempt to trade for Howard….I’m wondering if he had a stroke or something because these are not the actions of someone who is supposed to be good at his job.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:33 AM
The phrase “veteran leadership” is so damn overrated. I don’t care if you are second coming on Buddha, imparting wisdom to your teammates from the bench. If you can’t play, your influence is going to be minimal. If it’s someone like Ray Allen, who still has some fuel in the tank, sure, getting him for his talent along with “veteran leadership” makes sense.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:33 AM
Agreed. I’m never going to get that frosted strawberry donut back
July 20th, 2012 at 11:33 AM
This made me laugh.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:35 AM
Kim Jones is reporting that JoePa statue is coming down this weekend. After this morning’s events, it doesn’t seem like a big deal anymore.
If you want to be cynical about it, the timing is actually quite smart.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:36 AM
Agreed. I’m never going to get that frosted strawberry donut back
Yep, I laughed.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:37 AM
Team he had last year wasn’t even close to contending for a championship unless Kobe, Lebron, Wade, Dirk, Durant, Melo, Stoudamire, Rose, Paul, Rondo, Pierce, and Westbrook all somehow got involved in a fatal car crash.
You go for Howard, if you don’t, you bottom out and try to rebuild. As a fan of a team that kept it’s mediocre core for years at a time, I applaud him for actually having the courage to at least try something.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:40 AM
Team he had last year wasn’t even close to contending for a championship unless Kobe, Lebron, Wade, Dirk, Durant, Melo, Stoudamire, Rose, Paul, Rondo, Pierce, and Westbrook all somehow got involved in a fatal car crash.
You go for Howard, if you don’t, you bottom out and try to rebuild. As a fan of a team that kept it’s mediocre core for years at a time, I applaud him for actually having the courage to at least try something.
Will have to take your word on that, as I don’t NBA much. You’re right, he had to try something, but as someone smarter than myself once pointed out “It’s such a fine line between stupid and clever”.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:40 AM
Bottoming it out is no more a proven formula to build a contender then making smart decisions in the draft, trading and signing free agents. There is a reason that teams that tend to draft in the top 5 stay pretty consistently there.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:41 AM
Dealing Lowry was a given based on his relationship with the staff and netting an additional (lottery?) pick. I actually think Lowry, Dragic, and Lin are all fairly comparable and their contracts bear that out. The real outlier was Orlando offering Nelson nearly the same.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:42 AM
Juwan Howard disagrees with this notion.
/ starts beef with opponents who taunt Lebron
July 20th, 2012 at 11:42 AM
Agreed. The Rockets have pursued every big name free agent type imaginable in the last few years and have not even come close. Morey has done well with his point guard moves: Brooks, Lowry and Dragic were all shrewd pickups. He stole Scola. They built the team around Yao and McLady, only to see them crippled by injury. And still they’ve managed to be a decent team post-Yao, somehow. But they were going nowhere fast.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:43 AM
there is a post up on this
July 20th, 2012 at 11:44 AM
Sure, but he went out hard after prominent free agents last two years. None wanted to come to Houston. What was he going to do? Keep Lowry and Scola and hope to be a 7-8 seed every year? At least there’s a chance that you hit the jackpot on draft night.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:45 AM
But, it seems as if Morey is covering his bases and doing both. Most people applauded his draft, most NBA people liked his FA signing of Lin, and advanced metric people loved the offer to Asik. He is in position to either sign a big-name FA next summer, or be bad enough this coming year to have a shot at a great pick.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:51 AM
Miami and OKC/Seattle had the two worst records in the league in ’07-’08. Boston was horrible the year before they won a title. San Antonio tanked to get Tim Duncan. Cleveland and Orlando went to the finals because they landed franchise players #1 in the draft. The only franchise that really hasnt bottomed out in recent years is the Lakers, and that’s because they’re the Lakers.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:53 AM
Miami bottomed out, got the #2 pick, and then traded that dude for nothing 2 years later. “Bottoming out” had nothing to do with the reason they are now successful.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:57 AM
Boston tanking out got them a high draft pick. Which they then packaged to either get Garnett or Allen (can’t really remember which). Sure, getting a high draft pick is only part of rebuilding. But it’s a damn important part.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:57 AM
His numbers with the Knicks were better than Lin’s.
July 20th, 2012 at 11:58 AM
No we don’t
July 20th, 2012 at 12:00 PM
You know how many of my coworkers I hate? Who fucking cares who these dope like and dislike? There’s one bitch here that is good at her job, is very good at it, but I can’t fucking tolerate her “Happy Monday” and “I hope you’re having a Jason-type of day” and “I’m blessed, bless you, too” bullshit. If she left and our performance suffered, what the fuck ever. But they keep her because no one gives a shit what I think about her personality, and neither do I, really…I just close my door.
July 20th, 2012 at 12:04 PM
You fuckin metrosexuals.
July 20th, 2012 at 12:04 PM
You can’t think of it like that. First two years, he averages $5 mil/yr. Then on third year it’s $14 million. You can always trade expiring contracts because someone somewhere is always looking to offload long term contracts.
July 20th, 2012 at 12:07 PM
Not really.
eFG-same
assist%-Lin
TO%-Felton
Steal%-Lin
3point%-same
Reb%-Lin
Points/36mins-Lin.
Also, since that season Felton put on about 45 pounds
July 20th, 2012 at 12:07 PM
They got Ray Allen (and Glen Davis) for the #5 pick (Jeff Green). Of course now Green is back in Boston and Allen and Davis are gone. The trade was important for both teams. Trading Allen allowed OKC to stay at the bottom for a couple more years and collect Westbrook and Harden, on top of it he wouldve taken shots away from Durant had he stayed.
I do feel like following the OKC model can be shaky because they benefitted from a LOT of luck both in terms of actually landing the high picks in the lottery and teams ahead of them making mistakes (Portland drafting Oden, Memphis drafting Thabeet). Also not every draft is created equal.
July 20th, 2012 at 12:09 PM
What was Knicks winning % with Felton?
July 20th, 2012 at 12:09 PM
But, that structure of contract was only if he signed with the Knicks. The Rockets (or any other team but the player’s former team) have the option of spacing the cap-hit over 3 seasons. So for the Knicks the contract would be 5, 5, 14 whereas for the Rockets it is 8, 8, 8.
July 20th, 2012 at 12:10 PM
They were but he got a LOT worse last year, is insanely out of shape and was abysmal in Portland.
July 20th, 2012 at 12:11 PM
Right. Very lucky. You have to get a guy who will suck as a rookie, too. The plan didn’t work for the Cavs, for instance, because Lebron was too good. Instead of getting a top 2-3 pick, they got stuck at #9 and took Luke Jackson.
If Durant was good as a rookie, Seattle/OKC would have been too good. Luckily for them he didn’t win ever as a rookie or soph.
July 20th, 2012 at 12:11 PM
28-26
July 20th, 2012 at 12:13 PM
The Knicks were far better than that with Lin. So I really don’t see where Fatty has an edge. Darrell?
July 20th, 2012 at 12:14 PM
Oh, didn’t realize that. I thought contract would be structured same wherever he signed. That makes Knicks not matching even worse.
July 20th, 2012 at 12:14 PM
That’s right because you need to draft another top 5 player (westbrook) that isn’t quite good enough yet to put them over the hump to allow another top 3 pick (Harden).
July 20th, 2012 at 12:18 PM
He wasn’t (as) fat at the time, so Darrell’s eyes probably look back glowingly at Felton (but I hope his eyes remember Felton put up those #’s in MDA’s PG-friendly system and his numbers even dropped that same season in Denver before completely falling off a cliff last season in Rip City).
July 20th, 2012 at 12:21 PM
Holy shitballs, this story somehow will not die.
July 20th, 2012 at 12:25 PM
Hmm……
July 20th, 2012 at 12:38 PM
Carmelo is history’s greatest monster.
After Zeke, that is.
July 20th, 2012 at 1:36 PM
As soon as Anthony arrived, he showed his team spirit and respect. After being told that his #15 that he wore with Denver was retired on the Knicks for both Dick McGuire and Earl Monroe, he wanted it anyway.
Classy and unselfish. And JR Smith? Just another thug.
July 20th, 2012 at 1:44 PM
haha .. now that lebron is boring we can hate on carmelo
melo will never win a title (at least not until he joins the heat)
July 20th, 2012 at 2:47 PM
As a Nuggets fan, all I can say is if you let these two clowns have any say in personnel matters, you seriously deserve what you get. I wouldn’t give them any input about the post game spread.
July 20th, 2012 at 4:45 PM
eh, 16-10 with Lin (yeah, I looked it up), which means 9 and 10 after the 7-0 start, including the get back game by Darren Williams, the rape by Mario Chalmers and the Heat, the abusive triple double (including 20 points and 20 assists) by Rondo in front of Lin’s college coach, get back game by Toronto (those I remember off the top of my head. Now, I can’t quote the numbers like my man Scalia, but I do know that the Felton who was a guard for the Knicks, is a better player than the Lin of post scouting report fame. I also know that the Felton I saw on tv yesterday attending the summer league game, looks alot like the Felton who played for the Knicks.