Carmelo Anthony may not be far behind former New York Knicks coach Mike Woodson out the door at Madison Square Garden.
A source told The Sporting News on Monday that Anthony will not be swayed one way or the other by the firing of Woodson in New York.
"He wants to be in a situation where he can start winning, and he is going to look at teams based on that," the source told The Sporting News. "Coaching is only a part of the equation. What they do now is not going to be as important as can they win?"
Anthony's wish, the source said, is to emulate the free-agency process that Dwight Howard navigated last offseason, which took him out a toxic situation with the Los Angeles Lakers and put him on a team where he feels more comfortable in the Houston Rockets.
Anthony wants "the Dwight Howard treatment," the source said.
According to The Sporting News, "That means he wants to go through the same sort of process that Howard went through last summer, when Howard set up shop in Los Angeles and set up meetings with five teams-Houston, the Lakers, Dallas, Golden State and Atlanta-each of whom came in and made formal presentations."
In other words, Anthony wants to be in a situation where teams will pitch to him the idea of how they can win with him as the focal point.
The Sporting News listed the Knicks and the Chicago Bulls as two teams certain to be on the list, but if those are the only two teams, then determining what Anthony means when he says he wants to win would be based on which of those teams he selected.
If he simply wanted to win, the easy choice would be the Bulls, who have the ultimate team of complimentary role players for when Derrick Rose returns from his second knee surgery.
Anthony's shooting touch would fit the offensively challenged Bulls perfectly and take pressure off Rose to carry the team on a nightly basis. But choosing the Bulls likely would require Anthony to cede leadership to Rose and Joakim Noah.
He would be a complimentary player on that team.
If he were to choose New York, it would be because the Knicks would try to fit their talent around him, which would take much longer, given the current state of the Knicks.
So really, Anthony's wish to emulate Howard indicates that he will choose the team that encompasses both a solid nucleus and a willingness to suck up to him.
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