NBA Rumors: Jeremy Lin Doesn't Make Carmelo Anthony Expendable to Knicks

Everyone, at some point or other, has wondered if Carmelo Anthony truly fits with this New York Knickerbockers basketball team.

It doesn't just have to do with Jeremy Lin either. In fact, it has to do with Mike D'Antoni.

Melo has won only 22 games since joining the Knicks one year ago, and he's lost 31. The 27-year-old scorer is hardly to blame for all the Knicks' struggles, but he is part of the problem simply because he doesn't fit his coach's offense.

Not Lin's offense, but his coach's offense.

It is true that Melo doesn't do much for his team defensively, but he also doesn't like to get out and run. Melo thrives in isolation, especially from the wing and corner, and unfortunately has a knack slowing down the tempo of the game to fit his style.

Before Lin found his way to the court, Melo was running some point-forward and trying to do way too much. Now, with Lin and Melo both in the lineup (and J.R. Smith and Baron Davis for that matter) the chemistry on this team is going to take time to iron itself out.

All that aside, if the Knicks do struggle to come together as a team, Lin's emergence still doesn't make Carmelo expendable. Marc Berman of the New York Post talks Melo and D'Antoni's future with this club if things don't pan out:

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The Knicks could attempt to trade Anthony next summer if it does not mesh, not necessarily for another star but a few key role players who combine to make equal his $19M contract. Anthony has never embraced D’Antoni’s system and there seems a disconnect between the two. D’Antoni wouldn’t even confirm Anthony’s assertion he lobbied the coach to play Lin, saying he couldn’t recall the conversation.

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In almost every instance of star player vs. coach, the star player wins. Knicks fans are excited, and reasonable so, about Lin, but the body of work isn't close to comparable between Melo and Lin.

While the latter is the perfect fit for D'Antoni's offense, especially with the likes of Amar'e Stoudemire on the court, it is Melo that will ultimately win out.

The Knicks traded away another potential superstar in Danilo Gallinari as well as countless others to land the superstar forward. He's played on US national teams, won Gold in the Olympics and is a five-time All-Star.

That isn't easily forgotten, not even for Linsanity.

The city of New York and Knicks fans across the globe have been clamoring for any type of success possible for a number of years now. They have every right to be excited about Lin running point, but it doesn't make Anthony expendable. 

The Knicks gave up too much to get him and, in all honesty, he's too talented to simply give up on. New York decision-makers have flushed the Knicks with different pieces to the puzzle each and every year. In Melo's one year with the team he's already played with three different point guards, three different centers and could even see a new shooting guard take over (although D'Antoni would have to give into madness to plug in J.R. Smith as a starter).

The only reason trading Anthony or axing D'Antoni is even talked about is because of the Knicks' inability to be patient.

Time will tell what type of player Lin truly is, but he's not going to force Anthony out of New York just yet.