Melo on Knicks' offseason: 'Honestly, I thought we did a great job'

Carmelo Anthony is unhappy with the perception that he's unhappy.

Sporadically painted by the media as something of a malcontent, Anthony has recently had to fend off harsh character judgments from fans, as well as reports of his displeasure with New York Knicks management and team president Phil Jackson - most recently, relating to the team's decision to draft Latvian big man Kristaps Porzingis fourth overall in June.

Anthony says he doesn't know where any of that came from.

"You know why I'm bothered by that?" he told Marc Berman of the New York Post. "Because I haven't said none of it. That's why I'm bothered. It's always speculation. I try to (keep the) summer to myself and get away from the media. Then somehow it comes back to me. I don’t get upset at that, but does it get overwhelming sometimes, yeah. But it's the life I live. I haven't said none of that (stuff). Whatever rumors you guys heard about me and Phil, about Porzingis, it's all false.

"Nobody talked to me. Nobody heard me say anything as far as me being unhappy. Life is too good to be unhappy."

That's a nice show of perspective from someone who will have earned some $260 million playing basketball once his current contract with the Knicks runs its course. At the same time, few would fault any professional competitor for being disgruntled because the organization he or she competes for has made it difficult to be competitive. And the Knicks went 17-65 last season, before whiffing on all their top free-agent targets.

For all that, Anthony insists the team had a productive offseason.

"Honestly, I thought we did a great job as far as putting the pieces we needed to put together," he said. "We didn’t get DeAndre Jordan, LaMarcus (Aldridge), (Greg) Monroe, but (Robin Lopez) is a great addition. (Arron) Afflalo I played with a long time (in Denver). (Kyle) O’Quinn is a great pickup, guys will like him as a big. Derrick Williams, we’ll get him right. He seemed focused."

As for Porzingis, Anthony appears to have high hopes for the youngster.

"I met him when he came in for the workout," Anthony said. "I met him again after. He’s a down-to-earth, humble guy. You can tell that he has a chip on his shoulder. I love that he has a chip on his shoulder. You kind of got to have that being in New York, that toughness. That's the first thing I saw when I saw him working out. He's a tough guy."

Afflalo has described Anthony as being "very, very, very hungry to succeed." But Anthony isn't getting ahead of himself. He knows the 2015-16 season could play out in any number of ways.

"It’s too early to say," he said. "It’s still August. We haven't had one practice. We don't know how guys are going to play with each other."

If there's a reason to take heart, though, it's that things can't get much worse than they were last year.