Carmelo Anthony is still a Nugget. And it’s doubtful that he’s going anywhere before Dec. 15, when players that were signed as free agents this summer are eligible to be traded. He may stay in Denver well beyond that, but at that point, the Nuggets will have 24 games worth of data to determine where they stand in the Western Conference, and they’ll have more options if they decide they need to make a deal.
But that doesn’t mean that there will be nothing written about possible Anthony trades in the next few weeks. In fact, there’s bound to be plenty written in the next few days, because the New York media, in search of a quote that will tease their readers, is visiting Denver twice this week.
The Nuggets host the Knicks tonight (9 p.m. ET, League Pass) and the Nets on Saturday. Both teams, of course, have been long rumored to be potential trade partners with the Nuggets or (at least in the Knicks’ case) potential destinations for Anthony in free agency next summer.
Anthony hasn’t signed an extension and there have been plenty of reports that he wants out of Denver, but his quotes on the subject thus far have been rather cryptic.
The latest is this one, as blogged by Alan Hahn of Newsday…
“You’re up and down, fast-paced and you get extra possessions in the game,” Anthony said, when speaking of Mike D’Antoni‘s system. “On the flip side, I’ve been on teams where we weren’t known for our defense, and that’s not something I want to ever deal with again.”
The funny thing about that quote? As they stand now, the Knicks rank 11th in the league defensively, allowing 103.4 points per 100 possessions, and the Nuggets rank 13th, allowing 104.2.
Of course, we’re looking at small sample sizes here. Each team has played just 10 games, the Nuggets numbers are greatly skewed by that thrashing they received in Indiana last week, and the Knicks have played some awful offensive teams. Further, the Nuggets are missing two of their best defenders, Chris Andersen and Kenyon Martin.
Denver has been a top-10 defensive team four of the last six seasons, while New York has been a bottom-seven defensive team seven of the last eight. And at best, D’Antoni’s teams in Phoenix were slightly above average defensively.
This year, as they’ve lost five straight, the Knicks’ issues have been more on the offensive end of the floor, where they currently rank 23rd and have been held to just 96.1 points per 100 possessions during the streak.
Either way, D’Antoni’s seat on the bench is starting to warm up. The Knicks aren’t as bad a team as they’ve looked over the last 10 days, but it’s still unclear if D’Antoni can push a team that lacks offensive talent to the postseason.
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John Schuhmann is a staff writer for NBA.com. Send him an e-mail or follow him on twitter.
Seriously, Walt Frazier for coach. If anyone ever watches the Knicks games on MSG, he always has fantastic observations regarding the game. Quick decision making and easy answers on how to defend key players. He would bring that Rick Adlemen accountability with that Doc Rivers savvy and poise. He is SO Basketball smart and would make Chandler, among others, into an all-star to support the already dominant Amare’. I’m sick of bashing D’antoni, I KNOW I could coach better than him.
If Walt wants the job he should be next in line. If you support, join the group and let’s see if we can bring that winning mentality back to New York, starting with out coach!
walt fazier is doing what he does best, sitting behind the mike talking………………………….. how do u think a 60 something year old man with no coaching exper is going to relate to players in this day and time? it’s one thing to sit conviently sit back and talk about what you did 30 something years ago, but a completely different story when you have to get out there and show us how it’s done
I think they need to think more about running the pick n roll offense like when d’antnio was witht the Suns maybe a trade Felton and Eddy Curry for Nash with wilson chandler who is a better Marion will make the Knicks offense look good
You are forgetting that the league has a salary cap man. Not only would this trade not go through for money purposes, but do you honestly think a team would trade a 2 time league MVP that is still in All-Star form for those guys? I don’t. And Chandler is good, but not better than Marion was. Marion was also an MVP candidate for a couple seasons. Chandler isn’t even an All-Star candidate yet.
Schuhmann enough with your numbers! You can use numbers to say anything you want, and why do you share the numbers with us if you admit they’re badly skewed and don’t accurately reflect the real defensive abilities of the teams involved.
Michael Doleac has been reading my mind. He is a psychic. I agree that Walt Frazier has no coaching experience but I always think about him as the next coach for the Knicks. He will definitely go along with the players. The players will respect him back. However, I have no beef against Mike D’Anthony. I believe he is a suberb coach. One thing that remains very clear is that there is no offense without a solid defense. Just take the Lakers as an example.
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