Carmelo Anthony is one of the five best players in the NBA, and will be highly coveted if he becomes a free agent at the end of the 2011 season. But any discussion now about him coming to the Knicks is a waste of energy.
It shouldn’t be mentioned, and it shouldn’t be insinuated, especially by any member of a Knicks organization looking to protect itself if its free-agent signings go poorly this summer.
For now, Anthony should be treated as the enemy, the way Danilo Gallinari treated him last night at the Garden. It was the first time in a long time one of the NBA’s elite stars didn’t dominate on the Knicks’ home floor.
Gallinari had asked before the game to defend Anthony, and he lived up to the challenge with a spirited performance on both ends of the floor to help the Knicks to an inspiring 109-104 victory.
Gallinari scored 17 of his 28 points in the third quarter, when he was matched into a physical and verbal duel of one-on-one against Anthony much to the delight of the crowd.
Anthony finished with 36 points, but he was scoreless in the final 3:16, when Gallinari displayed the kind of passion and backbone the Knicks have lacked this season.
“It was kind of fun for me to see him hold his ground and not back down,” Anthony said of Gallinari. “He was kind of talking back to me out there and I was kind of surprised.”
So please, no more talk of Anthony coming to the Knicks in 2011. There’s plenty of time for that even if Anthony seems open to the possibility.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen next year,” he said. “I’m the year after. But I don’t see why nobody wouldn’t want to play here in New York.”
Right now, the Knicks need to focus on their present and immediate future. For now it’s about developing players like Gallinari and Toney Douglas (nine fourth-quarter points) while adding some help in July.
Fantasizing about Anthony coming to the Knicks might be tempting. But there’s no sense in picturing him alongside LeBron James or Dwyane Wade or Chris Bosh when the Knicks open the 2011-2012 season. That will only lead to heartbreak.
Talking about 2011 and beyond is not the message the Knicks need to be sending right now, and it’s certainly not the message their fans want to hear. Any talk of Anthony joining the Knicks right now comes off sounding like the current Knicks brass is trying to buy more time. But we won’t know if they’ll deserve more time until the end of the 2011 season.
If they struggle again, D’Antoni could lose his job and Walsh’s status might be uncertain. That is why talking about the courtship of Carmelo isn’t worth discussing.