The Daily Blog

Mar 1

Charley Rosen: Carmelo Burns LeBron as Knicks Win in Miami.

No surprise that the marquee matchup in New York’s 91-86 win in Miami pitted Carmelo Anthony versus LeBron James. Turned out that Melo won both the battle and the war.

Simply put, Anthony shredded LeBron’s paltry attempts to guard him. On several drives hoopwards — whether resorting to straight power-moves or tricky spins — Melo left James in the dust. Indeed, at the time Melo was putting the finishing touches on any given layup, James was beaten so badly that he wasn’t even posterized.

As ever, LeBron’s defensive stance was too upright, and the slightest ball-fake drew him completely off-balance. On one embarrassing sequence, LBJ was so mesmerized by the ball that he was unable to react when Anthony executed a nifty back-door cut, caught a lob pass from Amar’e Stoudemire, and scored on an uncontested dunk.

For sure Carmelo Anthony is the most versatile point-maker in the NBA — beating James from the low-post to wing isos and pull-ups — but the game at hand should finally put the lie to all the hype concerning LBJ’s being a top-notch defender.

Anthony’s numbers: 10-of-22 shooting, two assists, three turnovers, nine rebounds, and 29 points. As is his wont, Melo was most comfortable when put in isolation situations — his 12 iso opportunities led to scoring eight points. In grill-to-grill competition, Anthony scorched LeBron for a total of 20 points.

At the other end of the game, Anthony’s quick-footed, aggressive defense against LBJ was a revelation. In fact, Melo hasn’t played such ornery defense for such long stretches since he locked horns with Kobe Bryant in the fourth game of the 2009 Western Conference finals.

Anthony also demonstrated his hustle when, after having a lazy pass intercepted by Mario Chalmers, he chased down the resulting Miami fast-break and wound up blocking Chalmers’ attempted layup.And what about LeBron?

His stats certainly were impressive: 10-of-20 shooting, five assists, five turnovers, three steals, seven rebounds, and 27 points. But he hit only two of seven jumpers, forced several shots, tossed a number of haphazard passes, and seemed to be on cruise control for much of the game. James was also variously defended by Renaldo Balkman, Landry Fields and Bill Walker but managed to register only 11 points when operating against Melo. That’s because Anthony contested virtually every one of LeBron’s shots and managed to either tip or downright block at least three of them.Inevitably, the fast-paced, hard-fought (if somewhat loosely-played) game was decided in the waning minutes — and that’s when the self-appointed “Chosen One” got lost in the crowd. With the Heat trailing 87-86, LeBron went into his iso-mode against Melo, driving left and elevating to ostensibly score the go-ahead layup. But Melo maintained good defensive position, thereby forcing James to shift the ball from his left hand to his right hand, and giving Amar’e Stoudemire sufficient time to arrive on the scene and block the ensuing shot attempt.

For his encore, LBJ back-rimmed a 3-pointer that would have knotted the game.

Not that Anthony was New York’s only hero. In the last two minutes, Chauncey Billups hit a clutch off-balance flipper, then followed this with an even more timely 3-ball. During that same time span, Mr. Big Shot also came up with a pair of game-changing steals — one against Chalmers, the other on still another soft pass by LeBron.

Overall, the Knicks played 48 minutes of never-say-die basketball. And despite their lack of interior defense, New York was alert in poaching the passing lanes, competed on more than even terms (43-42) in the battle of the boards, and got better performances from their subs (19 points against 15 from Miami’s bench).

It’s too late in the season for the Heat to blame their failures on their still-evolving team chemistry. The truth is that Anthony, Billups and Stoudemire all stepped up in the clutch for New York, while Miami put the endgame entirely in LeBron’s hands.

If despite the dramatic, uplifting win, the Knicks have no chance whatsoever to win the championship, sub-par performances like this one strongly indicate that LeBron and his playmates will also be spectators come June.

And as Porky Pig once said, “Th-th-that’s all, folks!”

Feb 23

Reports: Carmelo Anthony Finally Traded to the Knicks.

Carmelo Anthony has finally gotten his wish.

The saga that has both interested and tortured NBA fans for the better part of this season appears to finally be over, as multiple reports are now confirming that Anthony has been traded to the New York Knicks.

The Denver Post first reported the deal, a blockbuster which involves nine players, three draft picks and millions in cash exchanging hands.

Anthony will head to New York, along with teammates Chauncey Billups, Shelden Williams, Anthony Carter and Renaldo Balkman. In exchange, the Knicks will send Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Timofey Mozgov, the Knicks’ 2014 first-round draft pick, the Warriors’ 2012 second-round pick, the Warriors’ 2013 second-round pick and $3 million in cash.

After months of dealing with the topic of the long-rumored trade on a daily basis, Nuggets head coach George Karl was understandably relieved to have things resolved.

“I’m glad it’s over,” Karl said. “I’m glad it’s an opportunity to reinvent. I think everybody handled it as classy as you could handle it. There’s some sadness to it, there always will be.”

Dec 24

armelo Anthony Leaves Nuggets Following Sister’s Death.

Carmelo Anthony has left the Denver Nuggets to be with his family following the death of his sister and will not rejoin the team until after Christmas.

Michelle Anthony died of a pre-existing medical condition Tuesday in Baltimore. She had four children.

“Our entire organization supports Carmelo during this difficult time for him and his family,” Nuggets executive vice president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri said in a statement released by the team. “It is heartbreaking news, particularly during the holiday season.”

Anthony has recently nursed a strained right elbow, sitting out the last two days of practice.

With several key players returning from injury in the near future — including Kenyon Martin (knee) and Chauncey Billups (wrist) — the Nuggets were hoping to see their roster fully intact for the first time this season, perhaps gaining insight into whether it can be a serious championship contender — or if it’d be best to accelerate the rebuilding process by trading Anthony.

Those plans are obviously on hold until Anthony returns. After Wednesday’s game against the Spurs, the Nuggets will travel to Oklahoma City to face the Thunder on Christmas Day before returning to Denver to host the Philadelphia 76ers on Dec. 26.

Aug 27

When Carmelo Anthony didn’t immediately jump at the chance to sign a three-year, $65 million contract extension with the Nuggets this summer, rumors began to spread that maybe he wasn’t all that thrilled about staying in Denver beyond next season.

Those rumors have now become fact, thanks to a report from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports that says Anthony and his agent have told the team in no uncertain terms that he wants out.

And at this point, even the “next season” part appears to be in serious jeopardy.

According to the report, Anthony’s representatives, William Wesley and Leon Rose, had told Nuggets’ ownership that they’d be better off trading the team’s best player weeks ago. Anthony echoed those sentiments in a meeting on Sunday, one that apparently went so poorly that it may have solidified his future in Denver — or lack thereof.

“This wasn’t a productive, nor particularly pleasant, meeting and multiple sources said it could turn out to be the point of no return for Anthony and the organization. Sources insist it’s no longer a matter of if the Nuggets trade Anthony, but when, where and for whom he’s traded for,” Wojnaroski wrote. Anthony effectively demanding to be dealt out of town comes at a strange time for the organization. Before head coach George Karl was forced out of action due to undergoing throat cancer treatment late last season, the Nuggets appeared to be the team best suited to challenge the Lakers in the Western Conference. Without Karl there, however, Denver limped to the regular season finish line, and the club was unceremoniously bounced out of the playoffs in the first round at the hands of the Utah Jazz.
Now, after parting ways with former Executive of the Year Mark Warkentien and just recently hiring former Raptors executive Masai Ujiri, the team is faced with potentially being forced to completely rebuild the franchise if they end up trading Anthony for nothing more than young talent and draft picks.

It’s very similar to what took place in Phoenix this offseason, with Steve Kerr and David Griffin resigning after Kerr and Suns owner Robert Sarver couldn’t come to an agreement on a new contract. The Suns were left without any tenured front office leadership to guide them through the tricky Amar’e Stoudemire free agency period, and once Amar’e left for NYC and the max contract that he deserved, the team that finished last season just two games from the Finals was left with a former agent in Lon Babby scrambling to replace Stoudemire with the likes of Hedo Turkoglu, Josh Childress, and Hakim Warrick.

With untested front office leadership in Denver, there’s no telling how this will turn out for the Nuggets. Anthony reportedly gave the team a short list of his preferred destinations, which included the Nets, Clippers, Warriors, Rockets, and Bobcats — all teams that have some combination of young pieces and picks that the Nuggets might convince themselves is enough in return for Anthony.

But in all reality, it won’t be. And a team that was seemingly on the rise to the level of legitimate contender a season ago might start this next campaign in a significantly worse position.