Carmelo Anthony is out of the playoffs for the first time in his career and the Nuggets get the Knicks’ lottery pick from the Melo trade. Yes, this was a 2013-14 disaster for the Knicks and an unthinkable conclusion when training camp opened.
Anthony had hoped the club could somehow sneak into the playoffs but his playoff dream ended, and now the talk turns to his future when July 1 — the first day of free agency — rolls around.
The idle Knicks were mathematically eliminated from the playoff race when the Hawks upset the visiting Heat, 98-85, Saturday night to nail down the eighth seed. The Knicks will go into their 42nd year without a title.
The Knicks (34-45) will take the court against the Bulls Sunday night at the Garden with nothing to play for but pride.
Anthony has said he would suit up regardless despite his strained right shoulder, but conceivably this could be the last game he plays this season. It also could be his last game as a Knick.
After Sunday, the Knicks face the Nets on Tuesday and Raptors on Wednesday. Anthony is likely to rest, making sure his shoulder injury is not serious with more tests.
Though there has been plenty of talk that Anthony would bolt the Knicks, the smart money is that he will stay put because of the addition of Phil Jackson as president and the fact he can get paid the most money if he stay in New York.
Nevertheless, Chicago, Houston or the Clippers also will attempt to romance him.
Anthony called Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau “a great coach’’ in assessing how Chicago has reeled off seven straight games despite their roster upheaval and look close to locking up the third seed.
“[The Bulls] have a great coach and system,’’ Anthony said Friday night after the Knicks temporarily escaped elimination by beating the Raptors. “It’s like Gregg Popovich’s system. You can put anyone in the system and it’s going to work. Guys been in and out of the lineup and they still get it done. ’’
Despite losing Derrick Rose again for the season and peddling Luol Deng in a salary dump, Thibodeau’s team carried on and Thibodeau again is in consideration for his second Coach of the Year Award. The former Knicks assistant would be a perfect hire for Jackson if he wasn’t still bound to the Bulls.
It’s all but certain Mike Woodson is coaching his last three games. He said this week he could have coached better this season and certainly the raft of games the club lost in the final minute and regression of Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith are black marks.
But it shouldn’t be forgotten Woodson got the Knicks to overachieve last season at 54-28, but he couldn’t do it again with this injury-riddled roster.
The good news for Knicks fans is Shumpert found a new life as sixth man and Smith rallied as the starting shooting guard, but it was too little too late. The best story of the season was Amar’e Stoudemire’s late emergence, back as the starting power forward once March rolled around. But the front office babied him in training camp and the first two months, wanting him health for the playoffs. But there will be no playoffs.
The Knicks trail the Hawks by 2 ½ games but would lose the tiebreaker. Their playoff picture could have been totally different had they hung onto a 17-point third-quarter lead in Atlanta days after the All-Star break. If they hadn’t choked in a miserable fourth quarter, they would have won the tiebreaker.
Knicks owner James Dolan already has stated he won’t raise ticket prices next season, sticking to his tradition of a price freeze if they don’t make the playoffs. The Knicks had made the postseason three straight years.
Dolan said he thought the Knicks were a title contender this season and once he realized how wrong he was, he forked over $60 million to Jackson to try to bail out the franchise.