The NY Knicks are waiting on Carmelo Anthony and now that LeBron James is going to the Cavaliers and Dwyane Wade is interested in the Chicago Bulls along with Melo, names like LaMarcus Aldridge, Kenneth Faried, DeAndre Jordan, Marc Gasol or Kevin Love could be potential future trade options for Phil Jackson if the team loses Melo.
The Knicks have Melo in their sights, but he is still undecided. According to ESPN.com and Stephen A. Smith, Melo is still thinking about NY and Chicago, but he has eliminated Los Angeles as an option. The Knicks are deep into a very important offseason in the immediate future of the franchise, as the team could possibly be looking at losing Carmelo Anthony if he doesn't sign and after losing in the playoffs to the Pacers and missing out last year, the main goal will be signing Melo and trying to advance to the Eastern conference finals and making it to the NBA finals eventually in the future.
Jordan averaged nearly 10 points and eight rebounds per game before last season and he has shown that he has the chance to develop into a very good player as well. Jordan has the athleticism but he needs to work on his overall game if he wants to be a premier free agent. Gasol and Aldridge are two of the best players at their positions and if they are available, the Knicks should pounce, especially on Gasol. Aldridge averaged 21.1 PPG and 9.1 RPG two seasons ago, while Gasol won defensive player of the year while leading the Grizzlies to the West finals two years ago. Melo will get his chance if he stays in NYC, but who will he bring along?
The Knicks are likely to go hard for Anthony and reports say that in the future, if he decided to stay or leave the team, Phil Jackson may look at a number of trades heading into the 2015 season, as the books will be basically clear of all the tough contracts, meaning the Knicks could spend big, much like Miami did when they got the Big 3. Clearly Dwyane Wade made some fantastic choices along the way to get LeBron James and Chris Bosh to South Florida and now that the three have won two straight championships and then split, Anthony too likely wants to get in on the action.
The Knicks purposefully signed players to certain contracts so that the books would be fairly clear heading into that season and with a number of players coming up for free agency over the next two seasons, Anthony has some big choices to make and his decisions could be the difference between a championship and no titles during the Melo era at MSG. While 2015 is still a long ways away, it doesn't mean that some players won't be ready to make the jump as well. Bleacher Report put together an interesting list of options, with names like LaMarcus Aldridge, Kenneth Faried, DeAndre Jordan, Marc Gasol and Kevin Love if he is not traded to the Cavaliers.
Leaving LeBron out of things, that is a solid amount of potential free agents and trade options and many of them appear to be natural fits to play alongside Melo. Aldridge will be in an interesting situation, as he will be an unrestricted free agent after next season and while he is happy in Portland and is getting a max offer, he could be the perfect veteran to play at MSG.