Here's the best analysis of the trade I've seen:
(http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insider/columns/story?colu...)Is it too early to call him Starmelo? Probably.
While the parallels between the Knicks' megadeal for Stephon Marbury seven years ago and the nearly completed trade for Carmelo Anthony are jarring -- from the involvement of Isiah Thomas, to the inclusion of nearly every useful New York asset going forward, to the bizarre justifications about "making New York matter again" and the like, to the acquisition of a player with great offensive value and minimal defensive motivation, this one has to give Knicks fans some trepidation. Especially if, as some have suggested, this trade ends up costing the Knicks GM Donnie Walsh and Isiah regains control.
There's one massive, glaring difference, of course -- Melo isn't Marbury. He's won playoff games, he has the best clutch stats in the business, and he's not going to spontaneously self-destruct in a live Internet performance. Anthony isn't the top-10 talent some have claimed him to be in the hours since the trade -- he's 22nd in PER in a fairly typical season for him, and nearly all his value is in his offensive stats so it's hard to argue my system is underrating him -- but he's durable and productive and, at 27, likely to stay that way for a while longer.
So you can spin this one either way, depending on what you think about the other pieces in the deal. Which takes us to today's big question: Who are all these other guys, anyway?
The Knicks gave up nearly half their roster -- six players -- in order to land Anthony from Denver, while four other Nuggets and a Timberwolf also changed uniforms. They may not want to make plans past Thursday, as at least a couple of them seem likely to be dealt again before the trade deadline.
Unlike Melo, whom we've heard about incessantly for months, we've learned almost nothing about the other 11 players involved in the deal. It's time to change that. Let's take a look at what New York gave up, and the other side players associated with today's trade:
Danilo Gallinari: The best "asset" in the deal besides Anthony, even if he isn't the best player right now. Gallinari is only 22 and will be on his rookie contract for another year; while he doesn't rebound much and is a below-average defender, he can play both forward positions and space the floor with his deadly outside shot.
Additionally, he's a much more potent driver than people realize, averaging six free throw attempts a game this season. Gallinari's outside stroke has abandoned him a bit this season -- he's at just 34.7 percent from downtown -- but looking at his release and his 89.3 percent mark from the line, I strongly suspect that's a short-term blip.
Is he a star? No. He's more like a really good third option -- a Rashard Lewis, let's say -- and a really easy player to fit into any system because he can play two positions and spaces the floor for everyone else. And with trade talk swirling around Gallinari already, his real value to the Nuggets might be the draft pick or other assets they can get in return.
Wilson Chandler: At 23 he's already a pretty good player and could get better. Chandler spent much of his time in New York paying either the 2 or 4, but his natural position is the 3. He'll line up there for the Nuggets, and although he's a restricted free agent after the season Denver has given every indication it intends to keep him.
Chandler is a strong driver who also has a decent outside shot, but two dimensions really hurt him. First, he's spectacularly bad at drawing fouls, generating just two a game on 14.3 field goal attempts. Second, he's not creating much for anyone else. Basically, he's a destitute man's Melo -- his best skill is creating a large volume of shots at a league-average efficiency rate. The Nuggets will get his prime years, but as with Gallinari his ceiling seems more like "good st