By Charlie Balk

Maroon-News Staff

No, it was not worth it. Don’t get me wrong – none of the players who moved to Denver mattered much to the Knicks’ future. The city of New York learned to embrace Gallo, Felton and Wilson Chandler, but all of these players are easily replaceable. What does matter is the cap space and the draft picks that New York gave up. Maybe it was Isiah’s horrible influence, allegedly pulling strings from Florida; maybe it was just a panic move. I don’t know what compelled the Knicks to trade the kitchen sink for a superstar who would have signed with them come free agency no matter what. The Nuggets, Carmelo and the Nets used a barrage of tactics to run up his price and the Knicks bit on all of them.

Melo feigned interest in signing with the Nets to pressure the Knicks; the Nets played along. Anthony also suggested that he might be will­ing to sign an extension with the Nuggs if they failed to move him by the trade deadline: another strategic tactic to pressure Walsh and the Knicks. Melo wasn’t going to re-sign with the Nuggets because he did not want to play in Denver.

Anthony had made this clear since the sum­mer. He wanted to play with his boy, Amar’e. He wanted to play in Manhattan (sorry, Brooklyn). He wanted the extra year tacked onto his max deal, which is only possible when re-signing with the team that he’s inking the deal with – collo­quially referred to as a player’s “Bird rights.” The Knicks gave him all of this, rather than waiting it out and signing him in the summer when he would have come anyway.

Then again, maybe everyone won. Denver got something in return for an exiting superstar. The Knicks overpaid to get a scorer to pair with Stoudemire. And Carmelo Anthony got every­thing and anything he wanted. But hey, it’s a superstar’s league, right?

By Adam Settle

Maroon-News Staff

For the Knicks, it was absolutely worth it. Does the Carmelo deal make them an Eastern Conference contender or even a championship contender? Absolutely not. The Knicks are look­ing to become the Miami of the North at the rate they are unloading role players and solid pieces to fill their starting lineup with as many scorers as possible. Like Mike D’Antoni’s Suns of the past, the Knicks will light it up with the best of them night in and night out, but at the same time will be subject to giving up points in bunches.

Carmelo Anthony is a lot of things: a super­star, a scorer, a triple-threat, a clutch player and a face of the franchise. He is not a defender. The over/under for most Knicks games going forward should be upwards of 200. The addition of Car­melo and Chauncey Billups with the subtraction of Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Timofey Mozgov, several picks, Don­ald Trump, Matt Lauer, the Chrysler Building and the cast of Law and Order makes the team marginally better in the short term. They are still miles from the Bostons, Orlandos and Miamis of the East, or even Atlanta or Chicago. However, the Knicks are now more marketable not just for the fans, but also for potential free agents com­ing out after next season (Chris Paul anyone?). The results may not come for a few years, but in the mean time Carmelo brings some of the swagger back to New York that has not been there since Latrell Sprewell and Allan Houston were in town.

By Edouard Boulat

Maroon-News Staff

Don’t let this question fool you – there is no right answer. Okay, well at least there is no one right answer. Short term, as in this season, you’d have to say that no, the Knicks move to get Carmelo probably wasn’t worth it. They gave up three young starters who combined for around 50 points per game and a first round pick for one star player and a 50-year-old guard. Their bench is now shorter and they are thinner than Paris Hilton at the center spot. Unless Ronny Turiaf has been pretending to be awful his whole career and is actually quite good, the Knicks are going to have a really tough time beating any of the elite teams in the East in a seven game series.

Medium to long term, however, as in the next four to five years, this deal is absolutely worth it if you are the Knicks. By signing Carmelo An­thony you make it very clear to the rest of the NBA that you are after one thing and one thing only – rings. And guess what? In the summer of 2012, Chris Paul and Dwight Howard are free agents. If the Knicks were to add either of those big names, along with the usual crew of role players willing to take a pay cut to go after a championship, New York would become a huge favorite to win it all. That would make the Melo deal more than worth it.