Melo Wants Out, Knicks as Usual Will Be the Ones to Come Up Short

Before getting fired, Phil Jackson tried several circuitous methods to try and get Carmelo Anthony to do exactly what Anthony wants to do now, leave New York. From the looks of it, the New York Knicks have mutual interest in sending Anthony away, so it is probably good news for them that Anthony is willing to waive his no-trade clause, right? Well, that would be true if everyone else did not already know that the Knicks are desperately trying to make a trade happen and if Anthony did not limit the destinations to which he would waive the no-trade clause for. Those factors taken into account is how the New York Knicks find themselves in the dilemma that they are in now.
Anthony, likely to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in the future, could easily average 20 points a night and still has some good years left him, so under normal circumstances, the Knicks at the very least should be able to get some draft picks or young players to build around Kristaps Porzingis in return for a star, maybe superstar, player. The problem is that out of the teams that Anthony is willing to drop the no-trade clause for (Houston Rockets and the Cleveland Cavaliers) neither has very desirable draft picks to offer, and on top of that, these teams do not even know if adding Anthony would even be that much of an improvement. The Cavaliers are already well into the luxury tax for how much they are paying their players, and adding Anthony might require them to gut their roster to find the space. On the other hand, the Rockets are open to adding as many star/superstars as they can but it might not make sense to sacrifice some depth for a player who does not really fit into Mike D’Antoni’s system. Furthermore, both teams are well aware of the fact that the Knicks are trying to get rid of Anthony, and other than the possiblity of Lebron leaving next year from Cleveland, neither team feels that much pressure to offer more in the deal.
Even when they are trying to rebuild and restructure, it seems the New York Knicks will never catch a break.
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