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Melo doesn't know what Knicks' plan is now

Adam Hunger / USA TODAY Sports

After a few weeks of frenzied rumors, amid a schism with the New York Knicks' front office that seemed to portend an inevitable trade, there was scantly any mention of Carmelo Anthony's name on deadline day.

Now that Anthony knows he'll be a Knick through the end of the 2016-17 season, he can focus on other things, like trying to figure out what the 23-35 team's plan is moving forward. Does he have a sense of the front office's vision?

"No, to be honest with you," he told ESPN's Ian Begley after Thursday's loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. "I think they were kind of planning on the trade deadline, whether they were trying to make moves. I think that was one plan. Now they've got to get back to the drawing board and come up with another plan about the future of this team."

Thanks in equal part to Anthony's no-trade clause and the tepid market for him, the Knicks seemingly made no effort to move him Thursday. They did, however, attempt to make other moves. They tried to deal point guard Derrick Rose, only to be rebuffed by the Minnesota Timberwolves on a proposed swap for Ricky Rubio. They reportedly tried to get a first-round pick in exchange for big man Kyle O'Quinn, and got some interest in backup point guard Brandon Jennings, but came up empty. In the end, they did nothing.

After making the playoffs in each of the first 10 seasons of his career, Anthony faces a fourth consecutive spring on the sidelines. He previously said he'd waive his no-trade clause to go to a contending team like the Cavaliers or Los Angeles Clippers, but the Knicks couldn't find a workable deal.

Anthony still has the no-trade, so he still has a measure of control over his basketball fate that virtually no other NBA player possesses. But the Knicks' future is still awfully hazy, which, in its way, means Anthony's is too.

"Nobody likes to be in limbo," he said. "We all want to know kind of what's going on, especially when it's involving you. But that's not the way it is in sports. I don't think I'm the only one that's going through that or feeling that way."

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