John Miller: Anthony Could Rescue 76ers From Purgatory
It’s been a good offseason for the Sixers. Adding Doug Collins, Rod Thorn and Evan Turner has folks cautiously optimistic. Saying goodbye to Sam Dalembert didn’t hurt either. These changes make it highly unlikely we’ll see a replay of last season’s disaster.
The hope is that the Sixers will bounce back from the Eddie Jordan debacle and be a nice, solid, 45-win playoff team. And that’d be a terrific improvement.
But so what? Let’s aim a little higher, folks.
Most of the NBA is stuck in purgatory. Right now, more than a month before training camp even begins, there are four teams that legitimately have a shot at the title 10 months from now. The Sixers are not one of them.
The NBA title formula is clear – you need a top-five player, another top-20 player, someone else who can claim to be in the top 40 in the league and some nice role players. It’s hard to get one of those top five players. The Heat have two of them, the Lakers, Magic and Nuggets have the others. One of those guys is available.
Go get Carmelo Anthony.
Anthony is very available. He has spent the summer shunning the Nuggets three-year, $65-milion contract extension. He was married in New York City, and the conventional wisdom is he wants to be in the City That Never Sleeps, where he can team up with Amare Stoudemire and where his wife LaLa Vazquez can live to her full B-list potential. Or maybe the Nets, who will be moving to Brooklyn in 2012, the Mayan calendar be damned. Or maybe Houston, although Yao Ming’s foot issues would seem to make that a lot less attractive. His agent, the infamous Worldwide Wes, is trying to dictate where Melo goes, but the Nuggets say they won’t be bullied.
Supposedly, Philadelphia is not a place he wants to come to. But until Anthony’s contract expires, he can’t dictate what happens. He can influence, but he can’t dictate.
Let’s examine this crazy notion from two angles. First, basketball-wise.
The Sixers are positioned and theoretically willing to make the Nuggets a better offer than anyone else in the NBA. How about Andre Iguodala, Marreese Speights and Willie Green for Anthony? Or maybe Thaddeus Young instead of Speights. Whatever your pleasure.
That’s not one of those ludicrous talk show trades. Denver would be getting real value for Anthony. Iguodala just made the U.S. National team. Speights is a young talent Denver could feel optimistic about. And Green’s a good locker-room guy whose contract expires after this season.
If the Nuggets could get a player like Iggy, plus some pieces, they’d have to consider it. They are faced with losing ‘Melo after this season for nothing – that’s the kind of soul-sapping occurrence that can wreck a franchise. Just ask Cavaliers fans.
For the Sixers, the upside is obvious: They’d have Carmelo Anthony. He’s one of the best players in the league. He can play inside and out. He makes your team a potential contender. The rest of the Sixers are too young for them to truly contend this year, but Anthony, Evan Turner and Jrue Holiday are something to be excited about. Especially down the road.
But here’s the second angle you have to consider on such a move: There’s a real good chance that you can’t re-sign Anthony after this season. He can opt out of his contract, and everyone in the NBA assumes he will and that he’ll head to the Knicks. Or the Nets. Or the Rockets.
But if you’re the Sixers, it’s a gamble you should take. Trading for Anthony gives you at least eight months to convince him to stay. Playing with Holiday and Turner should be fun – it’s got to be better than playing with J.R. Smith and Kenyon Martin, right?
Maybe he realizes Doug Collins is less of a pain the rear than George Karl. Maybe he realizes that Philadelphia basketball fans know their stuff and will appreciate his game. Maybe he realizes you can get to New York really fast from Philly. Maybe he realizes that the New York Times didn’t call Philadelphia “the Sixth Borough” for nothing. Maybe he realizes the rich hip-hop culture here makes him feel at home. Maybe he goes to a Phillies game and feels the thunderous love the fans here bestow on their favorites.
Or maybe he doesn’t. And maybe he leaves. But the Sixers can work a sign-and-trade deal and get something back or get salary cap relief, which is never a bad thing in the NBA.
But even if Carmelo is one-and-done, it’s a shot the Sixers should take. Pick up the phone and find out. At the very least, they’ll be a lot more interesting this season.
Or they can just accept being stuck in purgatory.
Contact John Miller at jmiller@phillysportsdaily.com.
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