How the Melo trade went dowm

[The Rebel]

https://nbanswers.substack.com/p/how-are-nba-trades-negotiated

Interesting little article about the deal from which half our team was obtained.

[Powder Blue]

That's a pretty good read. I didn't realize that the summer prior the wheels were churning on a trade.

Demanding a trade is never viewed as a good thing to fans but it seems like Carmelo didn't want to just screw over the Nuggets the same way others stars have screwed teams by just walking. I'll bet in hindsight he thinks the Knicks trade demand/signing the extension with them was not the smartest.

Ujiri was able to maximize the return the team received for Melo....Compare that to how the current regime has treated the Andre Miller, Ty Lawson, Jusuf Nurkic, Kenneth Faried situations and it's clear to see not paying Ujiri was a colossal mistake.

[The Rebel]

There were rumors that Melo wanted out even at the deadline a year before he was traded, but I remember the news about the wedding and knew he would be leaving after that. You do not openly allow and some reports said even encourage your friends to disrespect a team, city, and ownership like they did in front of the team owner and expect to stay there.

I get tired of all the revisionist history with the Melo trade. Melo wanted traded to get his max deal before the new CBA was put in place it was his wife that wanted out immediately. There were different proposals but I clearly remember a proposal from the owners cutting the max deal by 40% early in the negotiations which was the other big NBA story that season. I don't blame Melo or anybody else for wanting to get that max deal signed. The issue with the Knicks was not even the melo deal, that team fell apart after they picked up the Billups option and then amnestied him 6 weeks later to sign Tyson Chandler with no back court on the team, and Amare having his injury issues. Their problem was not the melo deal, but the movements they made the next couple of years.

You are right that Ujiri was a pro at getting the most out of deals, he found ways to win just about any trade he has done in the NBA including with the Raptors. I think our front office's biggest issue is that they try to use the Ujiri techniques of causing bidding wars and waiting another week for more in an offer and that it backfires on them. I have been told by someone who has access to front offices that there were several teams that wanted Nurkic, then he walked out in the middle of that game, and we were left with Portland being the only team that would take him and the Portland front office knew it. Same with Lawson for that matter, they knew he had a drinking problem and was spinning out of control with his girl, but they kept putting it off trying to milk that one more future pick or young player until the draft and I think we all remember his video coming out mid draft. Melo was a special case, he got along with ownership, he played hard every night, and his attitude was good enough that they could wait while the Knicks and Nets had their public pissing match and Ujiri could play them off each other. Most players are not like that and most situations are not like that, and our front office does not seem to grasp when it is time to make their move. The issue is that I do not know if it is a Connelly problem or a Kroenke problem, but at the end of the day this front office has to learn when to take the best deal you can get before those deals are no longer on the table.

[NuggetsWY]

Spoiler:

There were rumors that Melo wanted out even at the deadline a year before he was traded, but I remember the news about the wedding and knew he would be leaving after that. You do not openly allow and some reports said even encourage your friends to disrespect a team, city, and ownership like they did in front of the team owner and expect to stay there.

I get tired of all the revisionist history with the Melo trade. Melo wanted traded to get his max deal before the new CBA was put in place it was his wife that wanted out immediately. There were different proposals but I clearly remember a proposal from the owners cutting the max deal by 40% early in the negotiations which was the other big NBA story that season. I don't blame Melo or anybody else for wanting to get that max deal signed. The issue with the Knicks was not even the melo deal, that team fell apart after they picked up the Billups option and then amnestied him 6 weeks later to sign Tyson Chandler with no back court on the team, and Amare having his injury issues. Their problem was not the melo deal, but the movements they made the next couple of years.

You are right that Ujiri was a pro at getting the most out of deals, he found ways to win just about any trade he has done in the NBA including with the Raptors. I think our front office's biggest issue is that they try to use the Ujiri techniques of causing bidding wars and waiting another week for more in an offer and that it backfires on them. I have been told by someone who has access to front offices that there were several teams that wanted Nurkic, then he walked out in the middle of that game, and we were left with Portland being the only team that would take him and the Portland front office knew it. Same with Lawson for that matter, they knew he had a drinking problem and was spinning out of control with his girl, but they kept putting it off trying to milk that one more future pick or young player until the draft and I think we all remember his video coming out mid draft. Melo was a special case, he got along with ownership, he played hard every night, and his attitude was good enough that they could wait while the Knicks and Nets had their public pissing match and Ujiri could play them off each other. Most players are not like that and most situations are not like that, and our front office does not seem to grasp when it is time to make their move. The issue is that I do not know if it is a Connelly problem or a Kroenke problem, but at the end of the day this front office has to learn when to take the best deal you can get before those deals are no longer on the table.

Yeah, everyone wants to rewrite that whole Melo deal with NY. I think NY was foolish to send so much, but it was what they needed to do if they wanted a great star to add to Amare. They still had a few good pieces and their future looked good - until Amare was injured and they made some other deals.

All the posts are still available if anyone wants to go back to look at them.

Your analysis of our front office and Ujiri is fantastic! They seem to get a lot of credit for their drafting but the truth is, like most front offices, their drafting has been some misses with some hits and one unbelievably fantastically lucky grand slam (aka Jokic). But I'll give them credit for being slightly better than average at drafting.

On trading, I still think they over-value their players or at least they try to be the clear winner of each trade and that's hard to do unless the other team's front office is unintelligent.

Arturas Karnisovas is now the general manager and Tim Connelly is president of basketball operations. Dare we hope that Karnisovas will be able to make some kind of deals this off-season? Deals that might balance out our roster? Or will Connelly and Kroenke maintain control?

[TunaFish]

What an offer the Nets made. 4 firsts and Favors, now that was a package.

[The Rebel]

What an offer the Nets made. 4 firsts and Favors, now that was a package.

Harris was an all star PG at the time as well.

I still wonder what would have happened if they had pulled the trigger on that deal, the 2011 Nets 1st round pick was the 3rd overall pick that the Jazz got and reportedly the 27th overall pick in that draft would have been ours as well.

With KMart, JR, Afflalo, and Nene all expiring that following summer, all our picks, plus the 4 from the Nets, it would not have been hard to trade Harris and use the cap space and picks to quickly rebuild the team with Favors and Lawson as the only starters in place, which could have been an interesting team.

[Zaccaibone]

Miss this team when we used to have them.

[DaFan334]

Really good read. Interesting to hear this prospective and think of the possibilities of that Nets deal. This covered a lot of what was going on, but there were definitely several other angles involved from what I recall about how he handled everything that year.

The antics at Melo's wedding show some real lack of professionalism from James and Paul. Not that I am too shocked by that, but hey you never know who you might do business with in the future and how things like that might effect that. Same goes for Melo only texting an apology, but with how he is acting right now with his exit interview from the Thunder, I can see he just doesn't really get any of that. This solidifies my opinions of him though. Its nice to see karma is still working out for him.