Ben R: Frank O. – the major knock on Melo is not his passing but his defense. We will be a better offensive team with Melo over Gallo and Chandler and Billups over Felton. I have faith Melo will figure out how to play in this system and we will be a very good offensive team. I don’t think there are alot of people that will argue that. How much better is yet to be seen but I definitely think we improved offensively.
The problem is that Miami team that everyone is using as an example is not winning with offense, (though LeBron+Wade is better offensively than Amare+Melo) it is winning with defense. I look at the Knicks and see that we downgraded defensively in three places on our starting lineup and downgraded our bench.  

I’d be willing to bet that our D stays right around 20th, as it is now.
Felton, contrary to what people like to say, was not a great defender. He was getting beat often off the dribble and had difficulty guarding the super speedy guards of today.
Gallo tried hard, but was not an imposing defender, even though he often was significantly bigger than his opposite.
WC was effective for a time on defense, but his shot blocking numbers were in decline since November. He was a different player over the last 25 games.

yes our bench is less. Yes we need help at center, but I’m not sure it’s a huge amount.
What they need is a big center who plays defense. Not sure there are many out there available.
You point is valid to me. I’m not sure it’s quite as bad as you, but I could be convinced otherwise.

The problem is that Miami team that everyone is using as an example is not winning with offense, (though LeBron+Wade is better offensively than Amare+Melo) it is winning with defense. I look at the Knicks and see that we downgraded defensively in three places on our starting lineup and downgraded our bench.

The way I see it, the Knicks have a inside-out threat in Amare, a slashing low post scorer in Anthony, and a deadly PnR, knockdown 3pt shooting field general in Billups.
How we’re not saying, “Holy Shit, these guys are going to be awesome!” is pretty hard to fathom.

But there are things here that need to be considered.
1. I think it is a valid point expressed by Walsh and D’Antoni, that Melo is a rare talent, and even rarer that the Knicks could acquire him in what appears to be the start of his prime. Getting a guy like him – and his peers and coaches all universally see him as a superstar – creates momentum for a franchise, it brings excitement to a city. Like attracting a Nobel Prize winner to your faculty, Carmelo will attract others.
2. While everyone is talking about how the CBA limits the Knicks…well, it doesn’t just limit the Knicks. The waterline will drop for everyone, and if the Knicks are in good cap position now comparatively with the rest of the league, and they are, then they will be in a good cap position during CBA. Remember, the only contracts the Knicks will be committed to in 2012, I believe, will be Melo, Amare and Balkman.
3. Landry Fields…look, I love the guy, but if it comes down to not signing him and having enough cash to bring Paul or Williams to NYC, Landry is gone. These are perhaps the best two PGs in a generation.

Of course, the Knicks gave up a lot. I didn’t like it either, but the doomsayers are being a bit overly negative, in my view.

I agree with Ben – Carmelo being here raises the odds of a 3rd superstar WANTING to come. Reality is that other stars like playing with their famous pals. BUT – that benefit is more than offset by the Knicks eating up their cap space.

If cap really does go to $61-63 million, then yes, Chris Paul or Deron Williams or Dwight Howard is realistic and all could be well. With CP3 we might need to offer a longer contract than other teams, wary of his knees.

There was a weird perspective shift this year – I don’t know anyone who thought the current team was about to win a title, but 28-26 was right on target – a 12-win improvement, a playoff team where 4 of the key building blocks were 21 and 22 years old. Gallo, Chandler, etc. are not nearly at their ceiling. Doing nothing, we would have been better a year from now – we’re talking a 45-50 win team, with tons of cap space. MSG would have been a very attractive free agent destination, with or without Carmelo.

But people got impatient. I don’t care about bumping our odds right now; I’d rather be focused on the peak. But I am in the minority, I think.Like Owen said @83 – this is not a bad trade if your goal is a 50-win team, but it lowers the ceiling for sure. Not hopelessly…

You could say the same thing about Miami though. People thought their supporting cast this year was weak, well as their salaries escalate they’re going to have no flexibility to sign other players either. But it’s a stars league, I think you gather up as many stars as possible and worry about filling in the gaps later, but that’s just me…

Where there’s a will there’s a way though, especially if Chris Paul’s knees keep the bidding down a bit, maybe he’d accept a touch less than the max, which might start him at what 12-13 Milll? That would probably put us around 55 Mill or so? Not ideal for adding role players but with a couple sharp draft picks and health, we’d be in with a serious chance…

Or we could sit on Gallinari, Felton, Chandler and Fields and hope to strike lightning…

Before the trade having the room to be able to sign Paul or D-will was an easy thing to accomplish, in fact unless there is major changes to the CBA it would have been easy to keep
Gallo, Fields, Douglas, our 2011 1st rounder and still have more than enough room to sign a max guy in 2011. Whether or they would want to come is an unknown. But getting the cap room was easy.

Now with this trade the only way to even be able to come close to signing a max guy is to dump everyone, I mean everyone in 2012 and then hope that the draw of Melo + Amare is enough for D-Will or Paul to leave 30%+ of the possible money on the table. Amare + Melo + Minimum cap holds equals about 46.5 million. So unless the cap is well over 60 million I don’t see how we can do it.

Plus we would have absolutely no one but minimum contracts to fill out the team. Go look at Miami’s team the only minimum players they signed that are actually getting major playing time are Big Z and House. Every other important person on that team is either making more than the minimum (Miller, Anthony, Haslem) or was already signed to small contracts (Jones, Chalmers, Arroyo). You can fill out a position or two with vet min contracts but no way that you can fill a whole roster.

Brian Cronin:
I’m pretty sure everyone would be offering the same, so his concern would be more about the offseason when he’s a free agent. So which team puts him in the best position to get a good contract?  

Was tongue in cheek. But to honestly answer your question, I think a player, almost always, prefers to play. In particular if the one team is a borderline contender. Another thing that Melo does is that even if Dave Berri and all the stat heads don’t think it makes us any better – players are looking at us as a legitimate threat and I think players will definitely want to be a part of something like this in NYC.

Would love to get Troy Murphy. What a nice fit that would be.