“The problem is I grew up in the 80’s and saw all these teams just keep their players. But my league is gone. I’m watching the Microsoft league now. The Knicks will have KP and KD and Buddy Hield (because Simmons is already and Laker) and fuckin Exxon Mobile patches on their jerseys Fuck My Life”- Jorell Whitfield

I have weekly sometimes-daily conversations with my brother Rell and a lot of times we talk about sports. So on Friday night it was no different especially with the sports world being sent into shock. It wasn’t because Kevin Hart came out of retirement in the Charity league. It wasn’t because of the Cement 4’s coming out again. The world went into shock when Bleacher Report released an article, which could change the landscape of NBA basketball. There are preliminary talks between the Knicks, Celtics and Cavs.

Proposed Trade:

Cleveland- Carmelo Anthony

Boston- Kevin Love

New York Knicks- God knows what hopefully not pain and anguish and more Spike Lee memes looking like the church mother

This is all preliminary and no major progress has been made so this is just conversation amongst sports fans from all across the globe. Carmelo wasn’t surprised by the trade rumors. Here was his response to the latest rumor: “I aint going nowhere. They always making trade shit up” Boston has the same amount of power as Ghost after he killed the connects before meeting with Lobos. Boston has 7 picks including 3 first rounders’ this year and with one of them being Brooklyn’s pick that could end up being a top 5 pick. Danny Ainge is whom Kanye was talking about when he said, ‘No one man should have all that power’. Phil Jackson is a mad genius and he realizes that with no first round picks until 2019 dangling Melo as bait may be his best chance to get rich through the draft. This brings up the conversation: do you trade a known for an unknown? We know Ben Simmons, Buddy Hield, Kris Dunn are stars in the college ranks but how their game translates to the NBA will be the ultimate question. Do you trade one of the best scorers in the league for an unknown? This makes or breaks the franchise as well as the legacy of Phil Jackson as a GM.

I grew up watching basketball and I always looked forward to the draft because it was like the graduation of college players going to the pros. I think that’s why I like the Spurs, Thunder and Warriors organization because they built their teams through the draft. If you look at OKC they drafted the Fantastic 4 in Durant, Westbrook, Harden and Ibaka. Look at the Spurs beside Duncan being the number one pick, they grabbed Tony Parker at the end of the first round, Ginobili was drafted with the second to the last pick of the draft and their success rate with foreign players is uncanny. Recently take a look at the Warriors. They drafted Curry, Thompson, Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes and right now they are on pace to win the most regular season games in NBA History. I still think the 95-96 Bulls will beat them by double digits but I digress back to the topic at hand. The free agency splash isn’t as rewarding as you think unless you’re Miami and you’ve been in the Finals 4 straight years but other than that what has been the success rate of trying to create mega teams.

From a financial standpoint the Knicks trading Melo wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Carmelo is 31 years old coming off of knee surgery and is currently making almost 23 million a year. Even with the NBA salary cap increasing Melo is a financial handicap on the Knicks chances on acquiring free agents. By the time he turns 33 he will be making almost 28 million a year. Face it Carmelo can’t lead a team by himself anymore. He’s a great scorer but not as great on defense so he’s a defensive liability and the future of the Knicks is Porzingis. You can build a team around Porzingis especially if they can acquire Durant or Westbrook or both. With Melo’s salary increase every year so does the restriction of the Knicks. Even if the salary cap were 90 million per team, Melo would be eating up almost 33 percent of the team’s salary and at his age that can be a financial burden. But what can you receive in order to make this trade make sense to the fans of New York City. If you get 2 to 3 first round picks in which one of them is a top 5 pick you could possibly pair Porzingis with Ben Simmons or Buddy Hield and acquire a free agent like Durant who is still young and now the Mecca of NBA basketball becomes relevant. This will be play out like an episode of How to Get away with Murder because somebody is going to get killed and someone will get away with it. If you were the GM’s of these perspective teams what would you do?

Pairing up Melo with LeBron and Kyrie could create a Big 3 from Hell but will it provide a chip for the Land that LeBron is so desperately trying to get. Let’s not forget about Kevin Love in this equation because before Cleveland signed him to his extension he was considering the Celtics so maybe this can be a win-win-win for everybody or another episode of Three Stooges. But what if you trade Melo to the Cavs and the Knicks strike out in free agency or even worse strike out with their draft picks. But the risk of trading a known for an unknown can be so rewarding. Remember the Lakers traded for an unknown kid named Kobe Bryant and we’ve seen how that turned out. With high risk comes high reward. It’s like when you bag a girl after everyone tells you she’s unattainable just for you to have her lying on her back with her legs open like the peace sign. Is that what Phil Jackson or Danny Ainge or David Griffin feel right now? Only time will tell but for right now this is all just barbershop talk yo.