With Tuesday's NBA free-agency period rapidly approaching, Knicks team president Phil Jackson admitted he isn't sure what Carmelo Anthony will do, but he's hopeful he'll remain in New York.
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Anthony could make the most money by remaining with the Knicks but also wants to go to a place where he has the best chance to win, and with LeBron James also on the market it has thrown a wild card into the mix as speculation persists that the two could end up in the same place.
Though Anthony can make the most money by remaining in New York, Jackson said he was hopeful Anthony would be willing to take less money in order to help the Knicks have the financial stability to acquire the right pieces for a potential championship run.
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"It's a big question because there are so many things that can happen out there," Jackson told reporters when asked about how optimistic he was about re-signing Anthony per ESPN. "We really don't know. With LeBron getting in this free agency, and all this stuff, kind of tipsy and turvy right now."
Despite the uncertainty, Jackson remains confident that Anthony will remain in New York.
"We don't know what all that means," he said about James and Anthony hitting the open market. "But we have every confidence that Carmelo is good for what his word is, that he wants to be in New York, he likes playing in New York, he wants to compete, he wants to be part of a playoff team that is competitive toward a championship."
Anthony had said during the season that he would take less money if it meant the team had a better chance of winning. Team owner James Dolan considered the Knicks a championship caliber team heading into the 2013-14 campaign, but the team finished at 37-45 and failed to make the playoffs.
Jackson is hopeful that Anthony will stick to his word.
"When I take his word, he's the one who opened that up, that it wasn't about the money," Jackson said. "So I challenged him on that, because I wanted our fans to see he's a team player, that he was going to do what's best to get our team ahead farther and faster.
He added: "But you know, that's not going to be an issue. I think there's gonna be things happening in the league in the near future in the NBA that's gonna grow this league, and monetarily it's not going to be an issue for us to do it."
Anthony plans on meeting the Chicago Bulls, Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets next week when the free agency period begins, but the seven-time All-Star can make at most $95.9 million over four years from those teams while the Knicks could offer him a max deal of $129.1 million over five seasons. Jackson was asked if New York would offer that much.
"We haven't come to that," Jackson said. "But the perception is we want Carmelo to be as interested in winning. When saying he's competitive and wants to be on a competitive team to also being able to demonstrate that if push comes to shove in a situation where he may have to take a little bit less and we're more competitive to bring in another player to help us bring this concept along."
It will be an interesting offseason in the NBA, especially for Anthony and the Knicks.
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