ESPN Trade Machine: Finding the Right Carmelo Anthony Trade

The trading is the hardest part…

Carmelo Anthony wants out, and New York wants him gone too.

Either or both or neither of those statements may be true. New York wants to move on, but only if they get the right return. Melo wants to go because he’s still never found that perfect winning formula outside of every four years at the Olympics. Neither Melo nor the Knicks genuinely want a divorce — by all accounts, Anthony and his wife La La would love to live in New York — but the Knicks roster outside of Porzingis just isn’t good enough to win.

Phil Jackson has said it’s time to trade Carmelo, but that’s easier said than done. Any NBA trade is difficult because it has to favor both sides at once. This trade has to favor three sides — the Knicks, another team, and Melo himself because of his no-trade clause. It’s darn near impossible to please all three.

Another complication: Melo makes over $24 million a year, so the Knicks must receive comparable salary in any deal. The perfect deal would give the Knicks some steep expiring contracts to match Melo’s salary plus talented young players or draft picks. Even more ideal would be to offload Joakim Noah’s salary in a deal, but that means over $41 million in contracts exchanging hands and doesn’t seem super reasonable. The worst Knicks deal is one in which they get back more veterans on long, expensive contracts.