Melo-drama

Whenever this soap opera centered around superstar forward Carmelo Anthony does end, it will met with a sense of a collective “finally” from everyone involved- fans included.  When that is, is a completely separate matter.

Here’s what we know:
A. Melo will NOT be a Nugget a year from now.
B. He prefers to go to a team in NY*
C. Money IS a very big sticking point.
D.  His wife has a small, tiny role to play in this even if Melo won’t admit to it.

Let’s work our ways backward.  Carmelo’s wife Lala Vazquez, as any hip hop loving teen who watched MTV knows, is a C-List celebrity.  I recently listened to the Rich Eisen podcast in which during an interview with Adam Corolla it was brought up that nowadays the luster of being a celeb is gone.  Corolla commented that everybody’s on TV.  Interesting point made by another portion of the C-List celeb club.

She made their prolonged engagement into a boring reality TV show which is Hollywood’s nicest way of sending you out of their good graces.  Reality shows don’t revive careers or make them: they destroy them or make you famous enough for some teen to put ten exclamation marks in their facebook photo album montage of similar unimportant celebs they have met.  After all, if you’re a real celeb would you be caught dead in normal people clubs?
I get why Melo said his wife doesn’t have anything to do with his decision but let’s make one thing clear: if Lala has no say in his career then she’d be the first wife in history to NOT want a say in her husband’s work.  Marriage is not a democracy no matter what they say and its also not open for discussion.
Lala clearly thinks she can prolong her status in the celeb world by pushing Melo to the tri-state area, but is that a good thing for humanity is what I’m asking.

Second, money is a HUGE sticking point.  Don’t believe the hype that it isn’t.  But I don’t think its Melo who would be suffering.  Its his agent.  Bill Simmons broke it down well but let me summarize: when Lebron, Wade, and Bosh signed extensions that would make them free agents the summer before the collective bargaining agreement expired they were able to negotiate player friendly deals that allowed them to test free agency before a much less player friendly cap was put into play.  Melo, also in the loop of the superfriends, had an agent that added an extra year to the contract which did two things:
1. Gave his agent a bigger check.
2. Removed the leverage that Lebron and company had negotiated for themselves.
By having the deal expire around the same time that the CBA did, Melo lost the leverage of being able to wait the season out and go to free agency and still collect the big bucks.  With a hard cap looming and a smaller cap also, if he were to wait till the summer and sign with whoever he wants to sign with, he would potentially be losing $15-$20 million.
For a guy who’s earned over a $100 million over the course of his career, he may stand to lose more over the long term, during his prime, when he should be making the buku bucks.  Simply put, this is a bad thing for his portfolio and just looks bad personally for a premier player in the NBA.

The third reason ties every other reason together so we will move on to the fact that he no longer will be a Nugget a year from now.  That much we know.  At the current point of this writing- we have 41 days left before the Febuary 15th tradind deadline date and most people in the know believe that a deal will get done by the Denver front office led by uber aggressive GM Masa Ujiri and President Stan Kroenke.  The best offer is from NJ who are willing to give the Nuggets what they have been seeking all along: young promising players (Derrick Favors- 2010 #3 overall pick) and draft picks (2 number ones).  But the Nuggets want cap flexibility and Melo has supposedly leaked it to those involved in making this trade happen that he would like to play alongside some strong veterans that he believes can right the ship in the short term.  Of course naturally Melo has “asked for” Rip Hamilton and Chauncey Billups so they can play that wonderful game of “what if”- what if Joe Dumars had drafted Carmelo Anthony in the first place when he had the chance?  Its always great when you correct a mistake 8 years later- I’m sure in their thirties Hamilton and Billups can help Melo win a title.*
*= read heavy sarcasm

The fact that Billups is a teammate that Melo respects and Rip Hamilton is a decent shooter are reasons the sides will give you as to why it makes sense on several levels to pair these guys up in Jersey alongside Brook Lopez.  But look deeper and you will realize other motivations behind adding them.

Trading Billups gives Nuggets cap flexibility and during the past weekend when for the 900th time it seemed like the trade was close to being completed, it was leaked that Billups would ask for a buyout which would be a terrible roadblock considering this is what “Melo wants”.  Also Rip Hamilton, having completely destroyed any trade value by his poor play and vocal call for a trade from Detroit, has the same agent as Melo- Leon Rose and it seems like the perfect kill two birds with one stone scenario to me.

Even in the East who is scared of a team with a core of Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton, Brook Lopez and Carmelo Anthony?  How can Billups and Hamilton be the reason this trade goes through?

New Jersey has been aggressive in its attempts at procuring the services of a superstar to market the team around for the forseeable future.  After striking out on Lebron and co., the Nets see this as their first step in creating excitement over their move to Brooklyn- bring a hometown superstar player to christen the new digs and give legitemacy to the Nets.  Remember that the Nets have a Russian billionaire who will have no problem in spending to bring that legitemacy- but with that being said the Nets MUST be aggressive in their game plan if they want anyone to buy season tickets for a team that has won a combined 22 games between this season and last which doesn’t match what the Knicks have accomplished this season already.

And more than anything- the Knicks are a major reason they are willing to trade anyone and everyone to make this Melo to NJ happen.  Coming to the backyard of such an established and storied franchise like the Knicks won’t be easy but since the Russian Mark Cuban came to office- they’ve been aggressive in their marketing against the Knicks.  Of course they are catching them at their weakest moment having been a laughing stock till recently.  Their rennaisance this season has been difficult to stomach if you are a Net fan or front office exec.  Not only are the Knicks in a better position leverage wise to stand pat and let Melo come to them but they look like a team that has a better future than the Nets who many saw coming into the season as the one with more upside.

Insert Melo into the Knick line up, without subtracting anyone, and the Knicks are a top 4 team in the East easily and who knows maybe more.  The fact that its widely know that Melo wants to play in New York, an idea that was beginning to seem less and less relevant to star players in the NBA, makes New Jersey doubly concerned that by the time they move to Brooklyn- no one will care because the Knicks will be completely relevant again.  The Garden and the Knick history will be too large a shadow for the Nets to compete with and even for a Russian billionaire that’s a big bill to take a loss on.

And this Brooklyn operation won’t work if the results are the same which makes getting a bonafide stud like Melo that much more important to play besides promising center Brook Lopez.  Lopez has regressed this past year which adds to the necessity of having that star who can carry a team and the Nets know those guys don’t grow on trees and aren’t available every year via the draft.
But let’s pause all that and bring it to this one crucial point: in the end Melo still holds the trump card.  He can blow everything up by not agreeing to the contract extension and that is where it stands.  All the parameters of the deal have basically been agreed upon.  The one thing really holding this up is Melo.  As his agent continues to convince him of the Nets as a compromise to being a Knick Melo has not agreed to anything.  MELO is holding this deal back, not the 20 players involved in the trade.  The Nets are desperate to get Melo and Melo is desperate to get the Knicks to make an offer appealing enough for the Nuggets to bite on which hasn’t happened because Denver feels as though New York has been pushing this since day one and so out of bitterness has refused to seriously consider anything from New York no matter how good Landry Fields and Wilson Chandler have been playing.

Melo’s reluctance to sign in Jersey and the chance that Denver loses Melo to free agency for nothing will be enough for the Knicks to re-enter the picture without havin to lift a finger which is why you’ve barely heard a peep from the Knicks.  They don’t have the assets of players and draft picks Jersey does but they are his preferred destination and not the alternative like Jersey is.  The Knicks have played this perfectly.

What’s my personal preference? That he come to the Knicks during free agency when we don’t lose a player like Landry Fields who I believe is the kind of reserve player that comes along very rarely- a guy who can shoot the 3, defends decently and has basketball IQ through the roof.  If he’s your sixth man or seventh you’ve got an excellent team.  The fact is, the Knicks are going to lose Wilson Chandler during free agency.  If the Laker game ingrained anything inside the Knicks head is that in order to beat the elite teams you need a quality big man and a Marc Gasol will give them that at a price that won’t be breaking the bank, but enough that a team will be able to outbid the Knicks for Chandler’s services.  Donnie Walsh knows this too- why else do an about face and say outright that he plans to resign Chandler when he’s been adamant to visit that situation in the offseason this whole time?  Because it only makes his value jump.  How much better would Amare and Felton and Danilo be with a player like Melo alongside them?  Even though losing a player like Chandler would be hard, he basically is Carmelo-lite and I doubt Knick fans would be so crushed that the mere thought of Melo would make them nauseous.

In the end, these soap operas come down to one undisputable truth: Melo can end it all.  He can end it all by coming out and declaring to the world what his intentions are but he won’t.  Which is why there’s so much misinformation floating about what exactly Carmelo wants.  Wouldn’t it be prudent for journalists to ask Carmelo about who he’d rather play for?  Of course, but Melo is wise to not do so even IF its ruining his team’s season.  He saw what the “decision” did to Lebron and his image and while financially it won’t affect his bottom line, know one thing:  every reporter and every analyst now have a different perception of Lebron.  All the whispers of his baby-ish spoiled brat behavior is as much a part of his lasting legacy as his undeniable skills and unique talent are.  Melo would rather avoid the PR nightmare rout and do things in a manner that has minimal fallout.  Unfortunately the longer this drags out and the longer he insists on New York being his preferred spot, the less patience the public will have because dealing with New York is low on Denver’s priority list.  At this point, everyone just wants it done, over with, finito.  If he’s staying the season say so, if he’s being traded then trade him but until there’s resolution (and there may NOT be until the trade deadline- which is 40 days away) the talk and chatter won’t go away and eventually people will grow tired of it- if they haven’t already.

In the end, its all on Melo because like any good soap opera the star controls the action.  Until the star decides to take command we’re all stuck waiting as an audience.