Carmelo Anthony New York Knicks: Breaking Down the Blockbuster Deal

Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups were officially introduced as members of the New York Knicks on Wednesday, officially bringing this Melodrama to an end.

Or not.

The blockbuster deal that landed the superstar Anthony in orange and blue has been dissected and torn apart from every angle.

Some believe the Knicks overpaid for Anthony, while others could not be happier he is finally in New York.

No matter what side you may be on, one thing is for sure: this blockbuster deal has the potential to be one of the most disappointing trades in New York Knicks history.

I'm talking even worse than the Antonio McDyess debacle of 2002.

How?

Well even though the player breakdown of this trade has been exhausted to death, let's do a quick review.

New York sent Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari and Timofey Mozgov, along with a 2014 first-round draft pick and two future second-round draft picks to Denver.

The Nuggets, in return, sent Anthony, Billups, Shelden Williams, Anthony Carter and Renaldo Balkman to New York.

Many have argued that due to Chandler's impending free agency and Mozgov's rawness, that the Knicks essentially traded just Gallinari and Felton for Anthony and Billups.

This perspective is flimsy at best.  It is simply an attempt at justifying the amount of talent that the Knicks had to relinquish to obtain Anthony.

The fact of the matter is that the Knicks took a big risk going through with this deal.

The risk does not lie in Anthony's production.  His 25 and seven a game are guaranteed.

The risk does not lie in Billups' aging body.  He can still play.

Where the risk lies is in the future of this organization.  

New York pushed this trade through because it knew Anthony would sign an extension in New Jersey if it didn't make its move.  The Knicks knew that Anthony was uneasy about leaving millions of dollars on the table with a new, harsher-projected CBA imminent.

Anthony and the Knicks are basing all of their decisions off of one assumption: the new CBA will not affect current player salaries.

However, there is a very real chance that the new CBA will affect current NBA contracts.

And this is where the risk factors in.

Should the new CBA be implemented, and current players under contract be forced to adhere to the new contractual limits, and thus take a substantial pay cut, this trade becomes more than disappointing.

How are the Knicks and their fans going to feel when they realize they traded away four rotation players for a guy they could have signed without giving up anything over the offseason?

How will Anthony feel knowing he could still be playing for the Knicks, making the same amount of money, but that New York wouldn't have had to decimate its roster in the process?

The Knicks could have signed Anthony over the summer and retained all their young assets, but Anthony's concern over risking millions forced New York's hand.

Now the Knicks are the ones taking the risk.

They took a pretty big risk by making this trade for Anthony.  Not only did they restrict themselves cap-wise, but they gave up an awful lot of assets for a player who was universally known to have a strong desire to play for them.

As a result, the Knicks are at a disadvantage when it comes adding a third superstar.  

On one end, Knicks president Donnie Walsh may be a cap-handling genius, but even he will have his work cut out for him to clear enough space to sign Chris Paul or Deron Williams next summer, especially if the new CBA institutes a hard cap.

On the other end though, and as we have seen with the Utah Jazz sending Williams to the Nets, the more likely scenario is that Paul and possibly Williams will be put on the trading block before they have a chance to leave their respective teams via free agency.

After the trade that Denver pulled off, no other team in the NBA is ever going to allow itself to wind up like the LeBron-less Cavaliers.

And as it stands, the only assets the Knicks will have to offer in any trade next season is Billups' expiring contract and Landry Fields, who most believe New York will refuse to relinquish after having to part with Gallinari this season.

So advocates of this blockbuster trade can try and convince the rest of us that the Knicks really only traded Gallinari and Felton for Billups and Anthony, but that's far from true.

Walsh publicly acknowledged that the plan this offseason was to create enough cap space to sign Anthony and re-sign Chandler.  And Mozgov may be raw, but at 7'1" he is far from irrelevant.

Furthermore, Billups may be an asset next season because his contract comes off the books, but Felton, because of his talent and youth, would have been a bigger asset and a better replacement for a team relinquishing Williams or Paul.

And Gallinari is a future superstar.  True story.

So this trade was far from a safe one.

However, should the new CBA not affect current contracts, this can all be swept under the rug and the advocates will have greater success selling it to the rest of us.

But should the new CBA wind up reducing current contracts, then this trade becomes one of the most disappointing trades the Knicks organization has ever made.

That says a lot because we are talking about a team that employed Scott Layden and Isiah Thomas back to back.  

This trade cost the Knicks an abundance of young talent and possibly ruined New York's chances of adding Chris Paul or Deron Williams next year.

The Knicks may have gotten a second superstar in Anthony, but he came at a steep price.

And in the grand scheme of things, it could prove to be an unnecessary price.