Avery Johnson Happy Nets Did Not Trade for Carmelo Anthony

Before ultimately being traded to the New York Knicks last month, media reports had Carmelo Anthony traded to New Jersey about a half dozen times. We had a report of a trade in September, January, and February, but Melo wound up with the Knicks, not the Nets.

Now, a month after missing out on the forward, Nets coach Avery Johnson says the team is better off not having pulled the trigger on the trade.

Speaking at New Jersey’s practice Wednesday, Johnson reflected on the status his team. “Sometimes the best trades are the ones you don’t make,” Johnson said. “And that prospective trade that was reported where we were going to supposedly lose basically eight players, man that would have really gutted our team. So we’re glad that that didn’t happen.”

Of course he’s happy! The Nets had won five in a row when he made the comment, so he feels like they’ve improved. And by acquiring Deron Williams, maybe they did get a deal that improves their team more than the Melo trade would have. But I have two reasons Avery should be cautious. One, New Jersey only beat one good team during their streak (Boston), so it’s not like they’re gods. Two, I still bet Deron Williams leaves them in 2012 — they just don’t have enough on the team to keep him around.

Still, Avery may be right — the team could very well be better off with the Williams trade than they would have with Melo.