Who's Really the Winner?

In case you haven't noticed and you've been living under the rock, the New York Knicks are beyond struggling so far this season.  The Knicks went into this season being one of the favorites in the Eastern Conference and they have failed to live up to that expectation.  Then on the other hand you have the Denver Nuggets who were thought to be doomed and would be a while before they bounced backed are having an amazing season thus far and playing really great basketball.  So this has me thinking...

Who really was the winner out of the Carmelo Anthony trade?




So lets jump back to the end of All Star Weekend last year when it was announced that the trade had officially been down and Carmelo Anthony was finally going to be traded after all of the drama and publicity the trade had become.  A lot New York fans were thinking yes Melo is finally returning to the Big Apple.

Now lets fast forward a few months to the NBA playoffs of last year, yeah the Knicks made it to the playoffs but were swept in the first round to the Boston Celtics.  Now you can say that the reason the Knicks loss during the playoffs last year is because the team hadn't had time to develop a chemistry since the team hadn't been playing together all season like the other big teams in the East.

Finally we're going to fast forward to now, the apple isn't looking so big for the Knicks.  If the season was over with today the Knicks would now make it in to the playoffs as they are sitting in 10th place in the Eastern Conference.  Now the team has now been playing together a year and they are still struggling to look like there is any chemistry between the team.  The Knicks added Tyson Chandler, who played for the world champion Dallas Mavericks, last season and everyone thought adding Chandler would be able to help the Knicks bt adding a great defensive big man to the team.  But the Knicks looks like they are struggling to find themselves as a team and are currently 7-12 so far.

The Denver Nuggets on the other hand are playing great as a team, their defense is great, and they handed the front runner for this season (the Miami Heat) one of its 5 losses thus far for the season.  The Nuggets are currently #2 in the Western Conference with a 14-5 record behind the OKC Thunder.  The Nuggets have really stepped their game up since the trade and are giving a lot of teams a hard time, ask the 5 teams that have beaten them so far.  Denver has proved to the fans that there is life after Melo.

It's no doubt in my mind that once the Knicks figure themselves out they will be a great team in the Eastern Conference with A'mare Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony and Tyson Chandler. I'm just wondering will they be able to get it together this year.  With the shorten season due to the lockout if the Knicks plan on making a run for the playoffs this season they need to get it together as soon as possible.  It will be interesting to see whether the Knicks are able to over come this rough start this year once Baron Davis is able to begin playing and Carmelo Anthony is back from his thumb, wrist, ankle injury and is well rested.  I'm started to wonder if maybe Carmelo was actually holding the Nuggets back from being great?

Stay Tuned for the "Melo Drama"