Carmelo Anthony’s last game of the 2014-15 season is almost certainly tonight, as he starts for the Eastern Conference in the All-Star Game.
I’ll be honest – it’ll be tough watching this over the SNL 40th Anniversary Special.
Let’s go East!
Author: Brian Cronin
From Ian Begley:
New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony said Thursday on ESPN Radio that it’s “very likely” he will shut it down after the All-Star Game.
Anthony maintained that he plans to play in Sunday’s game at Madison Square Garden, “even if it’s just a few minutes” — but could be done playing after that.
“It’s very likely. It’s very likely. Now I’ve got to start thinking about the future,” Anthony told Marc Stein, Marc Kestecher and P.J. Carlesimo in an interview on ESPN Radio. “This season is this season. So I really want to just sit down with my team and sit down with the proper people to just kind of plan this thing out and see exactly what I have to do to get done and just to fix it.”
While this seemed to be a near certainty, it is good to see Melo confirm it. Good, now he can hopefully be recovered to be at 100% for next season. And, of course, that should help the Knicks in their quest to finish with the worst record in the league, as Melo is their second-best player after Jason Smith.
The Knicks are going to find themselves hard-pressed to lose tonight against a reeling Orlando Magic team, even with Carmelo Anthony out (and possibly out for the season).
In much bigger news than Tankathon 2015, former Knick Sixth Man of the Year Anthony Mason suffered a massive heart attack today and after four surgeries, it does not look good. Our best hopes to the former Knick star.
This is going to be a tough game for the Knicks to lose, but hopefully they can pull it out with Philly and Minnesota both playing very losable games tonight.
Hassan Whiteside is luckily healthy enough to play.
And, of course, most importantly, so is Andrea Bargnani.
Let’s go! Knicks?
You really have to wonder if Steve Kerr will be able to keep a straight face tonight when he sees what he could have been the coach of if he had honored his verbal agreement with Phil Jackson (I don’t think enough is made, by the way, about him breaking a verbal agreement to coach the Knicks. That’s not cool).
We will get a chance to see a guy tonight that the Knicks might actually have an outside chance of getting this offseason, Draymond Green.
Maybe the Knicks will surprise us and win this one!
Let’s go Knicks!
On the one hand, we should likely be rooting for as many losses as this team can get, to best assure the worst record in the league.
On the other hand, wouldn’t it be fun to help the Nets not even make the playoffs? As bad as the Knicks’ future is, the Nets is that much worse, since they don’t own their own first round pick until…man, I don’t even know when (will we need a new rule, call it the Billy King Rule, where you can’t do first round pick swaps in consecutive years?).
So I’m going to root for a Knick victory tonight.
Let’s go Knicks!
Amar’e Stoudemire is pondering his future and whether to ask the New York Knicks for a buyout, he said.
“It’s not an easy decision to make,” Stoudemire told Yahoo! Sports. “Over time, we will see how things pan out. You give yourself a break during the All-Star break. You think about it with your family. … That will give me a good solid week on how to weigh out the rest of the season.”
The Knicks have had internal discussions about a possible buyout but have yet to approach Stoudemire about it, sources told ESPN.com’s Ian Begley earlier this week.
“I haven’t talked with Phil [Jackson] or [GM] Steve Mills yet about the future,” Stoudemire said Wednesday. “I’m sure we’ll have a conversation soon about it.”
“It’s a decision I have to make with my family to figure out the best scenario for the near future,” Amar’e Stoudemire said of his plan to use the upcoming All-Star break to decide whether to ask the Knicks for a buyout.
Stoudemire has recently talked to close friends about the possibility of accepting a buyout from the Knicks but the decision wouldn’t be made without “deep thought” from Stoudemire, sources told Begley, because of Stoudemire’s loyalty to Knicks owner James Dolan.
Buying STAT out would be a good sign that perhaps Bargs’ time with this team is not much longer, as well. I’d love to see some more D-Leaguers given a chance.
Tonight is a very important game in Tankathon 2015, as Danny Ainge has historically demonstrated an inordinate ability to have the Celtics tank really well. The Knicks are still seven behind the Celtics but the Celtics are 3-7 in their last 10 as opposed to the Knicks’ 5-5 and they are sinking fast. If the Knicks can pull off a loss tonight, that would be big in the tanking department.
Let’s go! Knicks?
Things are starting to get interesting in the great tankathon of 2015.
Last night, the Knicks continued their strong recent play (the only game in the last five that they lost they played without their second-best player after Langston Galloway, Carmelo Anthony*) with a victory over the Kevin Durant-less Oklahoma City Thunder. Tonight they go to Indiana to play against a Pacers team only 6.5 games ahead of them in the standings. The other two contenders for the worst-record “crown,” Philly and Minny, also won, so the Knicks begin today a half-game behind Minny and tied with Philly. It’s going to be a tight race to the bottom!
The Knicks will be with Carmelo Anthony tonight, as the theory is, I presume, that if you’re going to have knee surgery, you might as well destroy the knee entirely before the surgery or else you’re not getting the most out of the surgery, right?
The Knicks will also be with two other players for the rest of the season, as they are inking both Lou Amundson and Lance Thomas for the rest of the season (it doesn’t appear that they gave them non-guaranteed deals for next season, though, which is odd, as that would seem to be a no-brainer. Perhaps we’ll find out that they did later on. The contract specifics are still iffy).
Boy, these 10-day contracts sure have worked out, right? It’s almost as if they should try to get rid of more useless players on their roster and try out more 10-day contract guys.
Let’s go! Knicks!
*That’s a joke, ah say, that’s a joke, son.
Tonight we will all get to see a superstar point guard play.
Oh, and Russell Westbrook will also be in action tonight.
The newly-signed Langston Galloway has himself a tough matchup tonight. Let’s see if he can keep his strong play up. He’ll actually open the game as the off guard, as Jose Calderon has returned to hopefully pump up his trade value (come on, teams, you know you want Jose!).
Melo also returns to the lineup. He’ll be the starting three tonight, with Jason “Stretch” Smith and Lou Amundson forming the rest of the Knicks’ starting frontcourt.
Let’s go! Knicks!