Knicks open camp looking past acquiring Carmelo

GREENBURGH, N.Y. - As the Knicks began a new era with the opening of training camp Saturday, they were met with the same inquiries from the past season about players who aren't here rather than the ones who are.

The hope of someday seeing Carmelo Anthony in a Knicks uniform rides on the results of four-team trade talks that would send the three-time All-Star from the Nuggets to the Nets.

According to multiple sources, it is unlikely to turn out with Anthony on the Knicks in the near future, but it's still not a given that the four-team deal will go down. Anthony has not committed to signing an extension with the Nets, and the Nuggets also are hedging.

An NBA source said the Nuggets told Anthony that they would try to move him before training camp, but there is debate within the organization as to whether they might be better off waiting until during the season to get a better offer. Another factor, according to a second NBA source, is that ownership would prefer to come out of the deal with a lower payroll.

The Knicks are talking as if they already have moved on and are content to go ahead with the team they have.

"I don't think it's over yet, but there's no disappointment at all," said Amar'e Stoudemire, who has openly tried to recruit Anthony. "We made great strides this summer with the players we have and we're in a great situation right now."

Among those players is budding young talent Danilo Gallinari, who would have been a major piece in the type of package it would take to get Anthony. But the Nuggets have shown almost no interest in even talking to the Knicks about a trade - team owner Stan Kroenke is said to be steadfast in not wanting to send Anthony where he really wants to go - so Gallinari feels confident that his career will continue in New York despite the rumors that have attached him to a potential blockbuster trade.

"I was assured to be here, and I'm here," he said. "I'd love to stay here to play in New York. I'd love to play here for my whole career, so I'm not worried about what they're saying in the papers."

An NBA source insisted the Knicks have made it clear that anyone on their roster, including Gallinari, would be available if it meant they had a chance to acquire Anthony. The fact that the Knicks don't have a first-round pick to trade until 2014 is not an issue because the team has a few scenarios - Anthony Randolph to the Pacers, for instance - in which it could move a player to another team to get a pick if necessary.

Mike D'Antoni, however, covets Gallinari, and team president Donnie Walsh believes Randolph has great potential. The Knicks have the seventh-youngest team in the league (an average age of 24.6 years) and their youngest roster in three decades. Call that Plan B, which was executed after Plan A (LeBron James) declined the opportunity to play for the Knicks and joined Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami.

Anthony, of course, would change the philosophy to more of a contend-now scenario that obviously would be more appealing to Stoudemire, 27, the second-oldest player on the roster.

The issue, however, is how it impacts the team in the future, such as when Chris Paul and Deron Williams become free agents in 2012. At Anthony's wedding in July, Paul openly talked about teaming with him to join Stoudemire in New York and form another Big Three to take on Miami's superstar trio.

The best-case scenario for the Knicks has always been to sign Anthony, who can opt out of his contract after this season, as a free agent in 2011 without losing any talent off the roster. But with a new and potentially restrictive collective-bargaining agreement on the horizon, Anthony is concerned about leaving a maximum contract extension of three years and $65 million on the table.

"Carmelo's decision is based on him and his family," Stoudemire said. "We'll remain friends regardless of the situation. We've got to focus on the team we have here."

"I'm really excited about these guys right here," D'Antoni said. "That's as far as I'm going . . . Donnie will do his job and I'm sure he'll be all over everything. My focus is these 15 right here and I'm as excited as I've ever been."

Walsh traded jabs with members of the media about the Anthony rumors. "I think there could be some validity to [the recent reports about a four-team trade],'' he said, "whereas before that, it was a rumor a day. I have to see how all this turns out."

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