The NY Knicks brought back Carmelo Anthony in free agency and now Phil Jackson has the chance to make more moves, as trades with Amar'e Stoudemire, Iman Shumpert, JR Smith, Shane Larkin or Andrea Bargnani could be on the horizon, as that would clear future cap space for the team to make runs at Kevin Love, Marc Gasol, Rajon Rondo or LaMarcus Aldridge.
The Knicks have been busy this offseason and they now have the chance to continue making moves to build around Carmelo Anthony. According to ESPN.com, the Knicks considered looking into trading Amar'e Stoudemire this offseason and they had some interest from the Philadelphia 76ers, but the team wanted to take Iman Shumpert in the deal to take on the salary of Stoudemire. Phil Jackson already made a big trade to get rid of Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton and now he may also look at trading JR Smith.
Pro Basketball Talk reports that the Knicks are open to trading Smith, who won sixth man of the year two years ago but has not lived up to the free agent contract he signed before last year. According to ESPN.com, the team is willing to trade Shumpert along with Smith and they are looking to move Smith now and his $6.4 million salary and moving Shumpert is likely for the same reasons the Sixers wanted him last time the teams talked. Hardaway has played well in the summer league and is considered not touchable in the trade talks, but the team feels it has too many players at guard and wants to make a move.
The team also has Shane Larkin and he could be an option as well after coming over from the Mavericks in a trade for Chandler. The team also acquired Jose Calderon but they see him as the new point guard and now they could move Shumpert and build on Anthony and Hardaway instead. The NY Post reports that the team is going after Marc Gasol next season if he gets onto the free agent market and that they are also interested in signing Andrew Bynum.
ESPN reports that Phil Jackson said if Bynum was healthy next season he would consider it and reports have Bynum sitting out this season to get healthy. The Knicks lost a ton of games last season on bad defense and they want to get better inside and this comes after they started 3-13 on the season last year. The team signed back Anthony and started making moves and now Jackson has his man in Anthony and also in Derek Fisher and it looks like he will have time to build.
Knicks fans are not known for their patience, but the team has the chance to build something here around Anthony and in a year or two they could be a title contender. The team easily should be in the playoffs in the east and that could happen this season after the team missed out on the playoffs last year and that was a total disaster. Melo is back on a five year deal and now Jackson can build.
