The New York Knicks will officially miss the playoffs again. Without a draft pick, there is hardly any chance for roster changes.
Thus, there is a big chance that the Knicks may be "stuck" with this lineup next year. While they did find a gem in Kristaps Porzingis in the draft and they acquired some veterans in Robin Lopez and Arron Afflalo, the Knicks were woefully short of their goal.
It has been suggested, quite accurately, that the only way the Knicks can make significant improvements to their team is to trade Carmelo Anthony. ESPN writer Jordan Brenner wrote extensively on why the Knicks should trade their superstar.
One of them is that the timeline for the team's stars do not match. Anthony is 31 and his game is aging rapidly while Kristaps Porzingis is only 20. Before Porzingis reaches his peak, Anthony may not be the scoring force he was before.
However, there are no rumored rifts between the two, at least for now. Porzingis himself weighed in on all the rumors surrounding his teammate.
"Obviously, I want him(Anthony) to stay here. We need him. I need him," Porzingis told NYDaily News. "And we don't want to lose him."
The young Latvian Knick continued: "I need him, No. 1, to learn from him. And to win. We need him to win. Without him, it would be much more difficult. Him leaving would be tough but I'm not worried about that, I don't think it's going that way. He's been loyal. I think he loves New York. And that's the most important thing."
Despite his rapid success, Porzingis acknowledges that he is a work in progress and therefore, he still has a lot to work on. He is very specific on how Anthony could help him.
"Definitely (improving my post game is important). I have a great guy to learn from, Carmelo Anthony. So I'll be working out with him probably in the summer. I'll try to find the right people to work with, to learn more and maybe an ex-NBA player who is really good in the post, somebody I can find who can help me with that. Put in the work come back next season better."
To be fair, Anthony is very smart on the offensive end. He is no longer as athletic as he once was as evidenced by this video, but he can still light up the scoreboard.
Trade opportunities for Melo are limited since he has a no-trade clause. This is an important factor in the "trade Carmelo" debate. How many teams will Carmelo actually waive his clause for, and what would they offer? All those trade machine speculations would be useless if Melo wants to stay in the Big Apple.
Are the Knicks better without Carmelo Anthony? It might be a useless question since it could never be answered.