The NY Knicks are coming into the offseason with tons of questions and with trade rumors flying about names like Tyson Chandler, Amar'e Stoudemire, Raymond Felton and Andrea Bargnani, Phil Jackson has some big decisions as he tries to sign Carmelo Anthony as a free agent and some other names that could be potential targets include Luol Deng, Lance Stephenson, Kyle Lowry and in a dream world LeBron James.
The Knicks are looking to sign back Anthony if he opts out of his contract with the team this summer and with everyone expecting him to do that, New York is ready to woo him back. The team feels that they have a situation that is beneficial to Anthony, as he is the centerpiece of the offense and now would be the first block as Jackson tries to build a contender. The Knicks had hoped they would be contenders by now after originally trading for Anthony, but things do not always work out that way and now Anthony could be poised to leave NY.
According to SI.com, the Knicks are one of a number of teams looking at Anthony, with the Houston Rockets and Chicago Bulls expecting to make big pushes to sign him as a free agent. Anthony is coming into the offseason after missing the playoffs for the first time and that is another reason why fans are a bit anxious about what will happen.
The Bulls and Rockets are both hoping to sign Anthony, but they have big moves to make before that can happen. The Bulls will need to move Carlos Boozer, while the Rockets will have to trade Jeremy Lin or Omer Asik before they can snag Anthony. The Rockets are also in the mix for Rajon Rondo or Kevin Love and they likely will try and push for one of these major deals among Rondo, Love and Melo. The Bulls have Boozer's contract and they can amnesty him to save some money and they hope to make a Big 3 as well with Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose and Anthony could be the perfect fit for the Bulls since they have had issues scoring over the past couple seasons.
The Knicks feel that they can sign Anthony because they can offer him the most money and the longest contract and on top of that the team has Phil Jackson at the top now and that means the franchise could turn things around quickly. Anthony and everyone else realizes that it could take another year or two to get the team into championship contention and that is one of the main issues for the Knicks as they try to bring back Carmelo.
Anthony averaged over 25 points per game again last season and he was one of the few bright spots for a Knicks team that was terrible. Tyson Chandler was good when he was on the court, but he dealt with injuries and the Knicks were just terrible last seas overall. The team started off 3-13 and that was the end of their playoff hopes basically and now they are trying to build things back.