NBA Trade Rumors: Carmelo Anthony and 10 Trades That Won't Lead to a Ring
Carmelo Anthony is the trade flavor of the month at a point in the season for the NBA where we (myself included) spend three months speculating, putting forth hearsay and guessing where certain players will be dealt in trades.
The biggest problem, however, is that there are very few examples in recent history of a team trading for one good player during the season and winning that year's championship due to that player's arrival.
2004 is the last time this happened. That's when the Detroit Pistons traded for Rasheed Wallace after he played one game with the Atlanta Hawks, immediately making him one of the top three players on that team to help Detroit win a title.
This was the perfect storm: The Pistons knew exactly what they wanted and went out and got it, and with that they got a guy at the height of his "I'll do anything for a ring" phase of his career.
Other than that, the only time one headline person made a huge difference in an NBA Finals is in 2006, when Pat Riley took over the coaching duties in Miami midway through the season.
The best routes to go are to pick up a few role players (San Antonio, 2005) or just do nothing and keep the chemistry that has been built over the season. Major moves are best kept to the offseason (Boston, 2007).
So, here are 10 players that would not directly lead to a title in June but still could be good pickups for seasons down the road.
10. DeSagana Diop
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For some absurd reason, Diop has had his name thrown around in the past few days as a possible trade piece to (gulp!) good teams.
Diop is probably my least favorite player of the last decade (so I may be a bit biased) due to the fact that he weighed roughly 598 pounds on the Cavaliers from '01-'05, and is one of those guys who is in the NBA strictly due to his height.
Both Orlando and Portland have kicked Diop's tires with the hopes that he would replace players who are now gone (Marcin Gortat in Orlando via the Phoenix trade and Greg Oden in Portland from his knee explosions).
Let's get one thing straight: Diop is going to put no team over the top; in fact, he may keep a team from going over the top.
At the height of his career, he was terrible; I mean, this dude shoots 43 percent for his career, and he is 7' tall!
Why any potential playoff team would target him with the intention of giving him real minutes baffles my mind.
9. Gerald Wallace
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Wallace is another guy from Charlotte who has recently fallen into trade rumors due to Larry Brown's exit and Michael Jordan's disappointment with the season so far.
Wallace is a terrific defender and a great rebounder, but can get into shooting funks that can kill his team, and he may have been thriving on a Bobcats team due to their lack of scoring threats, kind of a big fish in a small pond-type guy.
It's hard to say how his game will react to a trade, as he has only moved teams once and that was through free agency before he was an established player, but he could easily get down on himself if he is moved to a good team and he is forced into a lesser role.
He's a 50-50 guy at this point to me, any team should love to have him for the next three or four years of his career, but he probably won't lead directly to a title by grabbing him this season.
8. Richard Hamilton
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Hamilton is a guy that would be a fantastic number two or three option on a team if we were having this conversation three years ago.
However, after two seasons shortened by injuries, a tumbling field-goal percentage, an unpredictable three-point percentage and a defensive decline, he would do more harm than good.
He is still a main option on Detroit, and whether he can subscribe to a lesser role remains to be seen.
Hamilton has lost a step or two since his team won the championship in 2004, and is not a guy that would put your team over the top this season, unless he adopts a role player role (that seems redundant to write).
7. Mo Williams
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I have a big problem with trading for any point guard not named Steve Nash and expecting them to be the player they had been on their old team for their new team.
Running an offense (which Mo isn't great at) is one of the hardest things to do in the NBA, and to move to a team midway through the season who already has an offensive rhythm that is unique to them and expect to fit right in is insane.
Mo will be a great point guard for any team down the line, but they'd be better off trading for him in the offseason so he has a summer to learn the system.
6. OJ Mayo
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I learned something today. OJ, in OJ Mayo's name, stands for Ovinton J'Anthony. Awesome.
Aside from that I don't find anything to be too great about trading for him, he is a guy that the league seems to have figured out.
He has regressed since his excellent rookie season, going from 18 points on 44-percent shooting and a steal a game to 13 points on 42 percent shooting and less than a steal a game.
Compare him to his rookie self and you will see a less secure, less confident player, something that will not propel your team into the finals.
5. J.R Smith
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J.R Smith has been pushed to the top of the Chicago Bulls wish list this holiday season, but they should really sleep on trading for him.
He is going to be a free agent at the end of this season, and the Bulls have a slim chance at a title this year, so why give away valuable pieces to get a guy for half a season more than you could have him?
The prudent thing to do, rather than expecting him to learn the system on the fly, and give up players and picks in the process, is to sign him in July, give him the summer to learn the system and start fresh in October (if the lockout is avoided).
4. Andre Iguodala
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Andre Iguodala is the classic example of a guy that could screw with a team's chemistry.
I have no complaints about his game this season, by all means, he has been a great player on a terrible team, but moving to another team mid-season may breed bad bygones for his new teammates.
He has been called a bit of a ball-hog at time, but with him being on the 76ers, can you really blame the guy? Nonetheless, the ball-hog tag is a hard one to shake.
His title of top dog in Philadelphia, and his ego that has come with it will not translate easily to a team where he is expected to be a number two or three option.
Iggy will want his shots, and any time one good player is taking shots away from another good player, bad blood can't be far away, especially in the NBA.
3. Antawn Jamison
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People have looked at Antawn Jamison and thought that maybe Cleveland just wasn't the right team for him or that he just couldn't get accustomed to a team that was (or at least seemed like) such a tight-knit group a season ago, and with the off-season turmoil it's been even harder.
Well, I can tell you first hand that the guy will not find his role with a team as soon as he is traded to them.
From the time he was acquired in Cleveland he looked lost with regard to what his role on the team was (even confirming this by actually saying in an interview a few months ago something along the lines of "I don't know what my role is.") leaving him constantly out of place on each end of the floor.
Along with that, he still fancies himself to be a top option, and is a shoot first type of player at this point in his career.
He will kill your team.
Plus the way he spells his name bothers me, you can either have it spelled Antwan and pronounced as such or Antawn and have it pronounced An-Tawn, you can't have both.
2. Baron Davis
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Save for one helluva beard, B-Diddy (lazy nickname alert!) brings very little to a team in the middle of the season.
Along with the stigma of a point guard learning in stride as mentioned with Mo Williams, he brings the inability to pass up a three-point shot (shooting three a game despite shooting 19 percent from downtown, and I rounded up to get 19 percent...so yea, he kinda sucks from outside this season), a terrible shooting percentage (36 percent), terrible free throw shooting (65 percent) and indifferent defense.
He is a shell of his former self, which was really a shell of his former self, so that makes him a shell of a shell, and there is no way a shell of a shell is going to help a team win a title.
1. Carmelo Anthony
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Putting all of your chips into the 'Melo basket is potentially a franchise-crippling move.
Let me start off by saying New York would be smart to avoid grabbing Carmelo during this season, and wait until he is a free agent to give him a big contract, that way they still have a strong base of supporting players around him and Amar'e Stoudemire.
For any other team looking to ride half a season with Carmelo to a championship, it could end with their team in the depths of the standings in the future.
First, a number of players, picks and cash will have to be moved to get him, which already takes a big hit on the team, as they will inevitably lose players that were a productive part of the team in the fist place.
Next, Anthony would be coming in with fanfare as the guy who is going to bring a title to his new team, giving his new teammates the feeling that the front office didn't think they were capable of it on their own, denting their egos.
He would need to go to the right team for something like this to work, a team that runs through a Steve Nash-like point guard who is the offensive facilitator, emotional leader and an accepting guy all at the same time, that way he could be the buffer between the newly acquired superstar and his team.
Am I saying that the only team he would work on would be the Suns with Nash? No, but I do believe that there are more teams that he would harm than help if he were dealt to them.
