Carmelo Anthony is a black hole on offense. He holds onto the ball as valuable seconds of the shot clock becomes devoid. Amare Stoudemire is also a player whom is considered devoid of ball distribution skills.

Did anybody not see this coming? If you look at the Denver Nuggets, and how dramatically improved they are after shipping Anthony to the Big Apple, it reinforces the theory of Melo being cancerous to team chemistry.

Stoudemire has always had a rep for putting up tons of shots, and not passing the ball back out, or moving it in general. Unlike the example of Melo, the Knicks were actually playing an overall higher caliber of basketball while Stoudemire was the lone black hole on the Knicks roster. Then again, they had a solid supporting cast with Chauncey Billups, Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler to compensate as well as move the ball around the black hole (Amare) and pound the ball in when they deemed so.

In short, these two have been in the league far too long for this to work out, no matter what anybody is saying. These old dogs are too engrained in their ways, and it’s unfortunate that Tyson Chandler is going to spend the remaining years of a long contract having to watch the ball stop on offense. It could have been a good thing.

I do not think Baron Davis is going to be the man who steps in and turn things around. I don’t take crazy pills, so there is no way I am going to buy into this ideology. I’ve always liked Boom Dizzle’s game, but I think he has lost a few steps since the “We Believe” era in Golden State.

Something will have to give, or else Knicks fans will have to painfully sit through an interstellar collision of negative energy fields both highly consummate of the ball, with 3 teammates standing around watching things implode.

What must happen is the Knicks must trade one of these offensive black holes if they want to have a chance to make some noise this or any future year. It will likely need to wait for another season, in order for the post-black-hole-implosion-fall-out.

They can get a lot of players in return for either Stoudemire or Anthony. Draft picks, youth, expiring contracts. The brass has the skills to make something happen, and they should. Otherwise, this season will be further sucked into the black hole.

The amount of buzz surrounding the Carmelo Anthony situation could wake the dead. The Knicks currently are the main trade suitor who’s interested in acquiring Melo, but apparently Denver is asking for a steep price tag.

Allegedly, the Denver Nuggets want the Knicks to give them Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Eddy Curry’s crazy contract, and a future 1st round draft pick in exchange for Melo and Chauncey Billups. Seriously Denver? Are you sure you don’t want to go for Amare Stoudemire as well?

That is comparable to some of the pipe dream transactions my friends send me in my fantasy basketball league. Well, maybe not that bad. Someone did offer me Jonny Flynn for Carlos Boozer afterall.  Well, it is in the same proximity of insanity level to be sure.

If I am the Knicks I would do this: nothing. The Nuggets are and will be screwed once Melo leaves.

Without trading Melo, Denver loses completely, so they have to trade him. Besides that, his individualist style of play lately is killing team morale.

The bottom line: Melo wants to play for New York.

There’s no point to give up the future by losing standout players like Felton and Galinari, when they can keep them, let Eddy Curry head out to greener pastures, and then sign Carmelo after he plays part of a season wherever he is “rented out” for the duration of the 2010-11 campaign.

It’s quite a huge gamble that Melo will like where he ends up if it’s not New York. Perhaps Mark Cuban can pull the string to get Melo to Dallas, and maybe Melo will like it, but other than that I cannot see Melo signing anywhere else other than New York.

And if Carmelo does decide to play somewhere other than New York, the Knicks can chase after Chris Paul, whom is undoubtedly a far better pieze of the puzzle for the Knicks.

Knicks sharp shooter Danilo Gallinari has been recently seen living it up in on the New York scene with Gossip Girl actress Michelle Trachtenberg. The fledgling celebrity couple have been seen cruising night clubs, and Trachtenberg has recently been seen sitting courtside sporting the Rooster’s jersey.

I know she's no Serena........but.......

Now the gossip shifts from the show, and takes center stage at Madison Square Garden. Perfect timing too. With Tony Parker and Eva Longoria (minus-Parker) Splitsville, it allows Gallo to step up into the role of NBA player dating actress.

You will get no argument from me that Eva Longoria is definitely more famous and better looking, but you will get the argument that Trachtenberg has much more mileage in her tank than Longoria. I also give the the edge to Trachtberg in the category of overall acting ability.

Galinari will try to avoid two large distractions during home games.

Good work Rooster, hopefully the New York Gossip Girl lifestyle won’t interfere with any on court success or chemistry. Better leave that drama to the television show.

On another note, Greg Oden is sitting around somewhere, knee elevated, covered with ice, pondering how he can access Knicks star Danilo Galinari to find out the latest spoilers for upcoming episodes.

Chris Paul is unhappy in New Orleans. Over the past three years the Hornets have fired the coach CP3 loves and traded away his good friend Tyson Chandler. They are in complete dissaray. and based on the way the Hornets management has made their moves, who can blame CP3 for wanting to leave?

You can only take so much James.......

In light of what has been happening in Miami, CP3 is now letting it known he wants out of New Orleans. It is fair to say he was patient, and gave them plenty of opportunities to make something happen with the franchise, but it is quite clear that the Hornets failed to deliver.

Now the Hornets face the sad reality that Paul wants to be sent to a team with a future. He wants the New York Knicks, and has a short list of other teams he will play for that includes Orlando, Dallas, and Portland.

New York Knicks

Oddly enough, if the Knicks could make the play for Paul, they could have quite a turnaround season. Paul would fit well into an uptempo system with Amare Stoudemire. Young gun Danilo Galinari is like Peja on steroids, but unlike Peja, he also rebounds and plays defense a ton better.

Newly acquired Anthony Randolph could represent CP3s new alley oop partner, and that combo has thepotential to give birth to a new brand of basketball in Madison Square Garden.

Orlando Magic

CP3 could join Dwight Howard to be the best big man and little man combination in the league. Hard to see this happening though, unless the Magic can convince the Hornets to take on some more bad contracts in exchange for CP3. See: Emeka Okafur.

Who in their rightful mind woudl want Rashard Lewis or Vince Carter at this point in either of their careers? Odds are one of these guys, if not both, would be packaged into the deal to make this happen. Can’t see the Hornets allowing that to happen.

Dallas Mavericks

Look for Mark Cuban to do everything in his power to make this happen. Paul is the caliber of player Cuban needs to put around Dirk Nowitski in order to give the Mavericks a chance to make something happen in the west this season.

Can you imagine the damage CP3 could cause as a Maverick. The tutelage he would recieve from Jason Kidd, and having Kidd as a backup gives Dallas a disctinct advantage at the PG position. Kidd as areserve would create the most dangerous second unit in all the NBA.

Portland Trail Blazers

There have been murmurs of CP3 being coveted by Portland for years now. Out of all the teams on Paul’s list, the Blazers have enough desirable assets to help facilitate this trade.

Rudy Fernandez, fan favorite and oft under-used, is unhappy in Portland. The Blazers have 3 starter-caliber centers in Greg Oden, Marcus Camby, and Joel Przybilla. All three have great trade value.

They also have PG Andre Miller.

A package with Andre Miller, Przybilla, Rudy Fernandez and could very easily work in matching the numbers. Portland would also be willing to take a bad salary back like that of none other than: Emeka Okafur. Sorry, it’s just too hard not to pick on that contract.

At the end of the day, when you look at all of these teams, Portland seems to be the best fit for making CP3′s desire for immediate title contention into a reality.

Pairing  Chris Paul with Brandon Roy, Lamarcus Aldridge, Greg Oden, and Marcus Camby gives the Blazers the best squad to contend for a title. The Blazers are also the only team with enough quality assets to have the largest potential impact after a trade.

Orlando, Dallas, and New York would all have to give up too much talent to get Cp3, inevitably thinning their roster to their own detriment.

The Golden State Warriors have a new look, new ownership, and added a few new faces after clearing roster space to acquire David Lee via a sign and trade deal with the New York Knicks. Unfortunately, some of the Warriors misfortunes have followed them into the new look era. 

Ekpe Udoh, the number 6 overall draft selection in the 2010 NBA Draft has injured his wrist, becoming yet another Warriors draftee being injured. He is not expected back for at least 6 months. So the 6^th pick is injured for 6 months? What an unfortunate coincidence. 

Meanwhile, Greg Monroe has used his opportunities this summer to awe with his post and passing skills.  Oh yeah, he is healthy too. Hard to think about how the Warriors passed on his talents when they are relying on Andris Beidrins to hold down the middle. 

The biggest loss for the Warriors will be Anthony Randolph. Sure Don Nelson had zero faith in him, but when the kid played, he played hard. Sure he made mistakes, but it is hard to argue anyone in the league plays as hard as Randolph does. 

Randolph is now destined to follow the path of many ex-Warriors who will develop into NBA all Stars and have great success with a new team. Maybe he will be the latest ex-Warrior to deliver New York success a la Latrell Sprewell.  He is too multidimensional not to excel under a nurturing and understanding coach like Mike D’Antoni. 

The Warriors gave up a lot to get Lee.

Will Don Nelson be sacked? Let’s all hope so. Watching him coach has been nothing less than absolute torturous the past few seasons. It worsened once the league official informed him he could not be soused during his post game press conferences.  

Nelson has influenced too many bad personnel moves, the most recent including the banishment of Randolph. Rather than trade Randolph when he could have gotten higher value last year, he places him in the doghouse and lowers his value. Typical Warriors of old. 

To be fair, David Lee stands to benefit within the Warriors system, especially when you pair Lee with a backcourt containing Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry. 

Lee is be a beast on the boards and can flat out fill the lane on the break. This looks to be a match made in heaven. I still cannot condone giving up Randolph. He is far too promising and young to let go. 

If Biedrins shows up and avoids getting to the free throw line, the Warriors could have some serious rebounding on both ends of the glass. 

But with Ekpe already down, and with Brandon Wright with a separated shoulder away from joining him on the sidelines, what will the Warriors be able to do to in order to avoid over-exhausting their stars before the All Star break? 

Amare Stoudemire’s days as a member of the Phoenix Suns are coming to an end.

Amare had played all 8 years of his NBA career with the Suns but will now be playing in New York after allegedly agreeing to sign a 5-year fully guaranteed contract.

Miami had displayed interest but also addressed concerns about all 5 years being guaranteed, based on Stoudemires history of injuries.

So, is New York’s move wise?

Will the ghost of Isiah Thomas haunt the Knicks again?

New York basketball just got a lot better.

If not, The Knicks have acquired a premier power forward to play alongside sharpshooter Danilo Gallinari, and it will be interesting to see what other moves the Knicks will be able finagle once Amare is secured.

Then again, Isiah’s ghost my pop out of nowhere and poke Amare in his good eye or kick him in the knee. Stranger things have happened.

The main question this raises is whether or not this rule LeBron James out of he Knicks future.

All rumors indicate emphatically towards a big “YES” on LeBron being a “NO.”

The saddest thing for me will be seeing how Steve Nash is going to cope with life without Amare. Sure Hakim Warrick is decent, but come on!

Tracy McGrady’s first game as a New York Knick exceeded expectations for both minute allotment and overall performance. T Mac played a staggering 32 minutes dropping in 26 points on a variety of jumpers, slashing moves to the lane, also adding 5 assists and 4 boards while shooting 58.8% from the field.

However, McGrady had to sit the majority of the overtime period due to (He admitted post-game) being exhausted.

Considering the duration of time missed over the past two years and how he was underutilized in Houston this season, it is unimaginable to have foreseen this type of breakout performance in his first outing for the Knicks.

McGrady is looking to make New York fans believers.

McGrady’s 32 minutes are the first true starter-caliber minutes he’s played since February 9th, 2009.

McGrady’s shocking and inspirational game combined with David Lee to form a competitive dynamic duo, producing one of the Knicks’ most memorable games. Unfortunately, they lost in overtime. They are still the Knicks.

Had McGrady not run out of gas, and played more during overtime, a different outcome might have halted OKC’s current 9-game winning streak. But hey, the guy missed a lot of time and is coming back from microfracture surgery, so 32 minutes in a close overtime loss is good enough for his first game.

The Knicks showed up and competed against OKC and are a better team with McGrady starting. The 1-2 punch of T Mac and Lee has the potential to make attending a game at the Garden a worthwhile experience again for Knicks fans.

What I wonder now, especially since T Mac opened all of our eyes wide open on Saturday, will be how well will he performs in Madison Square Garden tonight against the Milwaukee Bucks.

How well will he bounce back after logging heavy minutes against an extremely athletic Thunder team? Will muscle fatigue and soreness in his knee render the second game back a dud, cause a reduction in minutes, or can he “will” himself to a solid performance?

The Knicks match up against a competitive Milwaukee Bucks team currently hovering around .500 (26-28), who, like New York, completed a trade prior to the trade deadline, acquiring John Salmons from the Chicago Bulls.

Like McGrady, Salmons has paid dividends for the Bucks, averaging 19 points in his first 2 games for the Bucks, both wins.

If he continues to play pain free, and conditioning improves, McGrady will continue to regain the skills he possessed prior to his derailment from the knee injury. If so, look for T Mac to have consistent and solid performances over the final stretch run.

Mark Stein of ESPN and Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports have both mentioned breaking news via their twitter feeds that a deal has been made involving Tracy McGrady and Kevin Martin.

According to the twitter reports, the three-team deal has Kevin Martin, Jared Jeffries, Hilton Armstrong, and Jordan Hill heading to Houston. Additionally, New York agrees to swap first-round picks in 2011 and gives Houston their first-round pick in 2012. The 2011 pick is Top-1 protected and 2012 is Top-5 protected.

Tracy McGrady and Sergio Rodrigez will be sent to New York.

Carl Landry, and Joey Dorsey, and Larry Hughes end up heading to the Sacramento Kings.

McGrady will likely seek a buyout. (Credit: picapp.com)

A important question remaining unanswered is the level to which T Mac can play at. For the season McGrady was limited to 6 games with averages of 7:35 minutes and 3.2 points. The Knicks better hope T Mac has gotten remarkably improved during his time off.

Rockets GM Daryl Morey is legendary for crafting this deal. Obtaining Kevin Martin is huge for the Rockets, almost more so than the dumping of McGrady’s insanely large contract.

In addition,  Houston acquires New York’s draft picks, which project to vital lottery picks.

One door closes, a much nicer door opens. (Credit: picapp.com)

Kevin Martin has the opportunity to revamp the Rockets offense, and will no longer compete with Tyreke Evans for the ball. He must be extremely happy.

He gives a tough defensive team a scorer capable of 20 or more points a night. With the Rockets currently ranked 9th in the Western Conference, Martin is the type of player that can create separation from Memphis and New Orleans and into the 8th playoff spot.

Kevin Martin had this to say to Yahoo Sports’ Marc J. Spears:

• “I’m definitely excited for a new opportunity with my old coach. That’s the funny part.”
• “Sacramento gave me an opportunity. I was a late first round pick. I could have been playing overseas.”
• Let the young guys develop. I appreciate them letting me go to a playoff caliber team at this time of my career.”

Martin will likely go ballistic offensively in Houston with his old coach, Rich Adelman, who is fully knowledgeable on how to utilize his talents.

The Boston Celtics and New York Knicks have rekindled talks and are on the verge of making a deal landing Nate Robinson in Boston. According to the Boston Herald, the deal will likely be for Eddie House, whom has played for Mike D’Antoni previously in Phoenix.

Nate will bring Celtics fans excitement and bench scoring. (Credit: picapp.com)

Robinson has the chance to play a meaningful role for a title contender, rather than settling for life as a slam dunk champion on a horrible New York Knicks team.

“Krypto Nate” represents a significant acquisition for Boston and will reinforce glaring needs for the Celtics: youth, athleticism, speed, and quickness. Also included, electrifying offense. Nate has a career average of 12.5 points in 24.8 minutes, which is the type of productivity Boston sorely needs.

Nate has a reputation for being detrimental to his team, evidenced by his rift with D’Antoni involving the infamous “shoot the ball at the opponents basket” incident earlier this year:

If Robinson does something like that in Boston, odds are good Rasheed picks up a technical for fighting his own teammate.

Playing for a team like the Celtics, and with the support and comradeship Kevin Garnett instills in his teammates, Robinson will have the environment and opportunity to mature into a well rounded player. (On that note, J.R. Smith is probably the only player in the NBA who could come to the Celtics and ending up worse, just had to get that out.)

Nate does have a clause in his contract allowing him to veto a deal if he dislikes the destination, but it’s doubtful he’ll exercise it with a trade destination like Boston.

Trade talks involving Tracy McGrady heading to the New York Knicks have been thrust into overdrive today.

The deal, according to a report on Yahoo, is a blockbuster including McGrady, Joey Dorsey, and Brian Cook being shipped to the Big Apple in exchange for Jared Jefferies, 2009 draftl pick Jordan Hill, and possibly Al Harrington. Larry Hughes is also being mentioned, as well as a plethora of future draft pick considerations.

Can McGrady return to the Eastern Conference elite? (Credit: picapp.com)

McGrady and his $23 Million expiring contract represents a glimmering spark of hope for Donnie Walsh to purge his roster of the  aftermath of Isiah Thomas’ atrocious tenure as a General Manager.

Acquiring McGrady allows the Knicks to evaluate T Mac to determine if he has anything left in the tank.

Regardless of McGrady’s abilities, the Knicks get to maneuver tons of salary cap space to go after LeBron James and the amazing class of 2010 free agents.

With New York faltering out of playoff contention and currently ranked 11th, they will likely  give McGrady the opportunity to play, which is something Houston was not interested in doing.

The question is, will McGrady actually be able to play? Is he capable of still playing?

He has missed a lot of time, and allegedly is in Chicago training hard and regaining strength with legendary trainer Tim Grover.

At the very least, New York fans can have something to cheer about: Donnie Walsh successfully dumping out Isiah’s trash.