New York Knicks president Phil Jackson appears to be steering the team to a different direction, eschewing the old administration's penchant for short-sighted moves in lieu of battling for a low playoff seed. Jackson traded away J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert to the Cleveland Cavaliers, let Samuel Dalambert go, and virtually went into full rebuilding mode in the middle of last season.

One factor, though, remains contradictory to a full rebuild"”the presence of a still in his prime superstar, Carmelo Anthony. Last offseason, the Knicks locked up the All-Star forward to a five-year max contract. And now, rumors are surfacing that the Knicks may be open to looking at trading their superstar.

Zach Lowe of Grantland, for one, thinks that the pairing of Anthony and New York may not be the best for each other and points out that the Knicks might be wise to look into making a deal with a team like the Phoenix Suns, who has a talented, albeit disgruntled asset in Markieff Morris.

"The Kings and Knicks should take a look, even though neither has movable assets that would interest Phoenix - unless the Knicks are ready to engage in Carmelo Anthony trade talks. (They're not there yet. But they're getting closer.)" Lowe wrote.

But as CBSSports.com opines, making a franchise-altering move may not be in the works, at least not this season. The Knicks don't have their first round draft pick next year, so a full rebuild would not help. They appear setting themselves up to make a marked improvement from their 17-win total last season with the acquisition of 27-year-old Robin Lopez and 30-year-old Aaron Afflalo.

Ken Berger of CBSSports.com also points out a few deterrents in a potential Anthony deal. One is the explosive scorer's no-trade clause and the other is his $124 million price tag.