cgmw wrote:^
Any advice he gets is mere speculation. That's the point.
To me, panicking is making an obviously incorrect decision out of uncontrollable fear. There is not an obviously wrong choice here. There is only a definite and an indefinite. A sure thing and an unknown.
At this point, Carmelo has had enough time to weigh the pros and cons. If he isn't afraid to deal with the unknown risks of a new CBA, then good for him. I would be, and I'm not ashamed to say it. Frankly, every other player in the league who had an opportunity to avoid this problem did. They don't seem to ashamed of their decision either.
Well, panicking does not happen when someone knows for sure they're making a bad decision. It's only when in hindsight you see that you had poor judgment and acted prematurely. This would be just such a situation. I mean arguably, Walsh panicked when he traded away picks to dump Jeffries. It wasn't OBVIOUS at the time that he made a bad decision (and it hasn't turned out that badly for the Knicks and probably won't) but in hindsight, the decision looks a little panicky.
Similar to Melo's situation. If he signs the extension, he'll be "overpaying" to get that extension. In this case, the overpaying will be in the form of accepting a decision to play somewhere he really doesn't want to play (New Jersey). That's panic ... to me.
Listen, you may be right that he will sign the extension no matter what. I don't deny that. He said "Screwed." He is clearly not well informed. It will prove to be a bad decision unless that extension is with the Bulls or Knicks, because he'll end up regretting it.
This is vindictive of me -- but it's partially because I don't care that much whether we get Melo or not anymore, I think the Knicks have bigger needs -- but it would be fun for me if he ends up in NJ or Houston and then when the new CBA rolls around, Leon Rose looks terrible when it becomes obvious for all to see that Melo could have had the same dollars in New York. It will happen. I believe it's almost guaranteed that Melo will be subject to partial or full Grandfathering *OR* there will be a partial or full rollback of contracts.
I've said this before but I believe the absolute greatest difference in salary between Melo and, say, Gay would be small under a new CBA ... about $500,000 to $1,000,000 per year at most and I think $1M would be pretty unlikely because it creates a $5M gap over 5 years that is pretty unjustifiable. They could justify about $500K as close enough. But if I'm betting, I say they will allow Melo to make 105% of his previous salary. This is the same Grandfathering, I believe, they gave Michael Jordan. We'll see if I'm right.
