would the knicks be better without the Melo trade?

[Moranis]

Give them a true point guard and a decent bench and they'd be a heck of a lot better. 

The Melo trade was smart . . . it might not have made them better in the short term (hard to say), but anytime you can get one transcendent player, you do it. 

The Knicks can fill their team with productive role players over the next couple of years to replace what they gave up.  But they couldn't have gotten a superstar like Melo except by trading for him.

  Bird, Magic, Jordan, Duncan, Shaq, Kobe and the like. Melo's more like a Nique.

Sure, nobody's saying Melo is a going to be a top 20 all-time player.

But you'd rather have a Dominique than a Wilson Chandler and a Danilo Gallinari.

but would you rather have a Melo than a Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinar, Raymond Felton, Timofey Mozgov, Anthony Randolph, 2014 first, 2012 second, 2013 second, and the lesser of the Denver/NY first in 2016

I mean that is the trade essentially because the Knicks let Billups, Carter, Brewer, Williams, and Balkman all go for nothing.  Hell they exercised Billups option and then amnestied him 6 months later without him playing a single game.

Yes, I'd rather have Melo than those things.  If you can trade non-superstars for a superstar, you do it.

But wouldn't Melo have signed there anyway.

Gallinari is a 17 point scorer this year and is still just 23.  He certainly has the shot to get to superstar level as he has just gotten better every single season.

Randolph is a 17.5 point scorere this year and is still just 22.  He certainly has the shot to get to superstar level as he has just gotten better every single season.

[SHAQATTACK]

A differnet kind of team. More fun for me . I don't like one man ball hog teams..

[PosImpos]

Give them a true point guard and a decent bench and they'd be a heck of a lot better. 

The Melo trade was smart . . . it might not have made them better in the short term (hard to say), but anytime you can get one transcendent player, you do it. 

The Knicks can fill their team with productive role players over the next couple of years to replace what they gave up.  But they couldn't have gotten a superstar like Melo except by trading for him.

  Bird, Magic, Jordan, Duncan, Shaq, Kobe and the like. Melo's more like a Nique.

Sure, nobody's saying Melo is a going to be a top 20 all-time player.

But you'd rather have a Dominique than a Wilson Chandler and a Danilo Gallinari.

but would you rather have a Melo than a Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinar, Raymond Felton, Timofey Mozgov, Anthony Randolph, 2014 first, 2012 second, 2013 second, and the lesser of the Denver/NY first in 2016

I mean that is the trade essentially because the Knicks let Billups, Carter, Brewer, Williams, and Balkman all go for nothing.  Hell they exercised Billups option and then amnestied him 6 months later without him playing a single game.

Yes, I'd rather have Melo than those things.  If you can trade non-superstars for a superstar, you do it.

But wouldn't Melo have signed there anyway.

Gallinari is a 17 point scorer this year and is still just 23.  He certainly has the shot to get to superstar level as he has just gotten better every single season.

Randolph is a 17.5 point scorere this year and is still just 22.  He certainly has the shot to get to superstar level as he has just gotten better every single season.

there's no guarantee Melo would have signed there anyway; plus, if they hadn't traded all of those players for Melo, they wouldn't have had the cap space to sign a player like Tyson Chandler.

[Celtics18]

In retrospect I don't love that Anthony trade that the Knicks made.  They gave up a lot of young talent and Galinari looks like he could turn into a star player at only 23 years of age.  The way they handled Chauncey Billups deserves scorn, and I love that they continue to prove their ineptitude despite everyone thinking that they had finally made their big splash. 

I like what Denver's done.  They really got the best they could have done for 'Melo and now they are looking like a really nice team with no big name superstars but some really talented guys.