With the news today that Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov has withdrawn his team from trade talks with the Nuggets, it appears that Carmelo Anthony is again available to the highest bidder. However, while that may be true, there are only a handful of teams that truly have a chance to acquire one of best scorers in the NBA.
At this point, there are probably only three realistic outcomes:
1) Carmelo resigns with the Nuggets, accepting the 3-year, $65 million extension that been on the table it seems like forever.
2) The Bulls or Knicks (two teams that Carmelo is known to want to play for) pony up and acquire the star. He then signs the same above extension with them.
3) A team like the Mavericks decides to blow the Nuggets away and take a chance with Melo as a rent-a-player.
That's really it. I guess a fourth scenario could play out, but I really don't know what that is (the Nets re-enter the bidding, but that doesn't look likely at this point).
Now, before I get to the real reason for this post, let me preface this by saying one thing: I fully realize that the Sixers have ZERO chance of ever getting Carmelo Anthony. I know it's not happening. They don't have the right trade pieces and Melo specifically put them on a list of teams he wouldn't resign with next summer.
HOWEVER...this isn't about whether the Sixers can realistically acquire Carmelo. It's about the fact that they don't even have the chance to try to acquire him. Where a bunch of other big market teams (Knicks, Bulls, Mavericks, hell even the f'in Nets) have a chance to get him, the Sixers have zilch. Our franchise is so awful, so unappealing, that they don't even have a chance to put out an offer. That's depressing.
Right now, every other team in Philadelphia is successful. The Flyers are the arguably the best team in the NHL, the Phillies have built the best rotation in MLB and just won 97 games and the Eagles might have the two most exciting players in the NFL. Things are good, they all sell out every game, and each has made the playoffs the past three seasons.
Things for our Sixers however, are terrible. The team is boring. Nobody, besides my brother and that guy in Section 205 that used to yell at Willie Green all the time, goes to games anymore. There are a few young players and a few extremely overpaid, under-performing guys. The rest, well, aren't even worth mentioning, seriously. They are a team that isn't awful enough to get another top pick, but they certainly aren't good enough to give you any hope.
I think what hurts the most here is that Carmelo is exactly what this franchise needs. He's a true superstar, someone that would immediately reinvigorate the team and the NBA lovers in this city (trust me, they exist). Remember the packed houses to watch Iverson? Yea...me too. Melo would go a long way to helping bring those crowds back. Maybe the Sixers wouldn't be a real title contender, but they would be a good team that would be worth watching again. Honestly, that looks really good compared to what we're staring at now.
So, yes, a lot of this was me just rambling about how depressing the current state of the Sixers is. The rest was how sad it is that a big-time player becomes available and our team doesn't even have smallest chance to get him. It's frustrating and it's disheartening. There really isn't much else to say.
At this point, all I can hope for is that in the not so distant future, when a big time player becomes available, that the Sixers might actually be a player in the sweepstakes. But, honestly, that reality seems very, very far away.
Sad face emoticon.
