2:11pm: Anthony is indeed out for the season, the Knicks announced (Twitter links). Team president Phil Jackson told reporters that he estimates it’ll be four to six months until Anthony is ready for action again, tweets Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv.
10:48am: The Knicks are set to declare Carmelo Anthony out for the rest of the season, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter links). He’ll be having surgery soon on his troublesome left knee, Stein adds. The news is no surprise, particularly since Anthony acknowledged last week that it was “very likely” he’d stop playing after the All-Star break, hinting that the All-Star Game would be his final action in 2014/15. Marc Berman of the New York Post wrote recently that the “prevailing theory” has been that the All-Star Game would be his season finale.
Two sources close to the veteran forward have confirmed that Anthony has elected to have surgery on his knee, Sam Amick and Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today report. The procedure is a knee debridement, which will remove scar tissue and calcification and other debris that is causing pain and discomfort, Amick and Zillgitt note. With the Knicks’ season a lost cause, having Anthony out for the remainder of the season should increase New York’s chances of securing the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft. The Knicks further improved their lottery odds when the team agreed to a buyout arrangement with forward Amar’e Stoudemire earlier this week.
Anthony is in the first year of a five-year, $124MM contract that he signed last July. In 40 appearances this season, ‘Melo has averaged 24.2 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 3.1 assists in 35.7 minutes per contest. His career numbers are 25.2 PPG, 6.6 RPG, and 3.1 APG. His career slash line is .455/.345/.811.