Carmelo Anthony won't stop putting his balls in Phil Jackson's court

With the New York Knicks all but mathematically eliminated from the playoff race, Carmelo Anthony is thinking about the future -- specifically the 2016 free agency period. He reiterated his faith in team president Phil Jackson, but stressed the need to make some serious waves. Per Ian Begley:

"It's in their court. The ball is in their court. They have an opportunity, we have an opportunity to do something this offseason. We gotta do something. It's there."

If Melo's words sound familiar, well ...

Carmelo said the exact same thing last season pic.twitter.com/vDGMmayNPB

— Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) March 14, 2016

You gotta hand it to the guy: He stays on message.

The meeting of star and executive went down last week in Denver (insert Zen Master/legalized weed joke here):

"I thought it was good timing for us to sit down and talk," he said, adding that Jackson requested the meeting. "... I won't go into the details of [questions he asked Jackson], but it was just good for me to get it out there, talk about it, get his response, get his feedback, and that was that."

He later added: "I got some answers that I was looking for, and I'll leave it at that."

The Zen regime has become a punching bag yet again ever since the Derek Fisher firing/Kurt Rambis coup ... seriously, bro, why Rambis? Still, if there has been one consistently positive trait of the Jackson Era, it is that they've been fairly patient and prudent in acquiring free agents who are either building blocks (Robin Lopez) or short-term stopgaps (Arron Afflalo). Phil probably isn't going to toss out crippling 4 or 5-year deals in a weak 2016 market simply because Melo thinks it's a good idea. If he wants to stay a Knick, Melo may just have to keep the faith a little longer.