Jim Boeheim says New York Knicks should have traded Carmelo Anthony
Syracuse Orange head coach Jim Boeheim took another shot at former New York Knicks team president Phil Jackson for how he handled the Carmelo Anthony situation.
One of the most outspoken supporters of New York Knicks small forward Carmelo Anthony has been Syracuse Orange head coach Jim Boeheim. Boeheim, of course, won his lone national championship with Anthony at the helm of his offense.
As Anthony prepares for what’s shaping up to be an eventful training camp, his college coach is wondering what could have been.
Perhaps the lowest point of Anthony’s career with the Knicks has been the public feud he was engaged in with former team president Phil Jackson. Who was at fault is a moot point at this stage, but it was an ugly situation for all involved.
According to Adam Zagoria of ZagsBlog.com, Boeheim believes Jackson should have been allowed to trade Anthony before he was fired.
"“I think in reality it would’ve been better if they let Phil make the trade and then got rid of him,” Boeheim, who coached Anthony to the 2003 NCAA championship at Syracuse, told me…“Now the new guys are going to be held responsible for the deal and nobody’s going to give much up [for Anthony in a trade]. So they’re going to end up not getting a lot for him and it’s really because of what Phil did in poisoning the air.”"
Whether or not you agree with everything Boeheim has said about Jackson, he raises some interesting points about Anthony’s future.
Due to the fact that Jackson publicly admitted a desire to trade Anthony, most teams around the NBA became reluctant to part with valued assets. Anthony being made available in such a public manner meant New York has informed all 29 teams that it wants to build without him.
Thus, basic knowledge of the benefits of negotiating leverage states that New York will be unable to acquire the value that it could have before Jackson’s comments.
Organizations would rather wait until Anthony opts out of his contract in 2018 or the Knicks buy him out than give up anything of importance to acquire him.
New York has attempted to improve Anthony’s market value by pausing trade talks with the Houston Rockets. Anthony has done the same himself by committing to a rigorous offseason training regimen.
Thus far, however, the Knicks have been unable to acquire the players or picks that they’d prefer in a potential Anthony trade.
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The question is: Will the New York Knicks be able to trade Carmelo Anthony before the 2017-18 NBA regular season begins?