Carmelo Anthony Drama In New York Heating Up

Published in

The Unprofessionals

6 min readSep 23, 2017

Legend has it, there was once a time when Carmelo Anthony wasn’t in the middle of a high-profile NBA drama.

It seemed like a lock earlier this offseason that he would begin the season as a Houston Rocket- but then rumors about him teaming up with Chris Paul and James Harden came to a halt, as the Knicks and Rockets failed to find a third team able (and willing) to take on the remaining three years and $60M of Ryan Anderson’s contract.

Carmelo once was willing to waive his no trade clause if dealt to Cleveland, but set his sights on Houston and Houston only amid the rumors about LeBron James’ seemingly inevitable 2018 departure.

But now, everything has changed.

With Anthony and the Knicks both desperate to move on before training camp begins, New York has ramped up its attempt to deal him- and he is finally helping them out.

Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Anthony submitted a shortlist of teams he’d be willing to waive the NTC to go to, including the Cleveland Cavaliers- Carmelo’s buddy LeBron James and his team are seemingly back in the running, despite likely not having the proper assets to make a realistic deal work.

And then Ian Begley of ESPN later reported huge news- the Oklahoma City Thunder are on Anthony’s list of teams he’d be willing to play for. The two parties have been linked before, but now the Knicks have the green light to pursue a trade with OKC, among other unknown teams.

These reports beg the questions: what could these trades look like, and what other teams are Carmelo Anthony willing to play for?

Houston Rockets (With Help From Indiana Pacers)

Knicks get: Ryan Anderson, Trevor Ariza, Al Jefferson, Cory Joseph, Glenn Robinson III

Pacers get: Courtney Lee, Kyle O’Quinn

Rockets get: Carmelo Anthony

Thus far, the Knicks have been adamant that they will under no circumstances eat Ryan Anderson’s contract to make a deal work- but if you bring in a third team, they may be able to be convinced. Because if someone can take on Courtney Lee’s horrid three-year deal, the Knicks could take on Anderson’s salary at a discount of sorts. And there’s no team in the NBA more likely to be willing to trade for Courtney Lee than the Indiana Pacers- nobody loves paying a heavy premium for mediocre players more than them (seriously, look at their roster). If the Knicks replace Lee with Anderson, they will owe an additional $7.9M over the next three years, but they should do if it enables them to get a formidable package for Anthony.

Cleveland Cavaliers

Knicks get: Tristian Thompson, JR Smith

Cavaliers get: Carmelo Anthony, Kyle O’Quinn

Here’s where things get interesting- because if this trade were to go through, Cleveland would likely try out a super-small-ball lineup with Kevin Love in the middle. And that lineup may be bad defensively in the regular season, but it’s exactly what they need to do against the Golden State Warriors. Even if they used Kyle O’Quinn an his excellent rebounding in the starting five until the postseason began, this would better suit them for the NBA Finals. And the Knicks would get a quality big-man next to Kristaps Porzingis who could either be their long-term solution inside, or a trade asset- while also bringing back JR Smith, whose shooting alone makes him a valuable trade piece come the Trade Deadline.

Oklahoma City Thunder

Knicks get: Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott, Terrance Ferguson

Thunder get: Carmelo Anthony

This may be the most realistic package out there for Anthony- a good player in Kanter, along with two prospects- one (McDermott) who needs the opportunity to prove himself, and one (Ferguson) who is going to need time to develop his skills. The duo of Kanter and Porzingis would be lethal on offense, but any lineup with Kanter is bound to struggle mightily on the defensive end- every year he is one of the league’s very worst interior defenders. However, his scoring punch and rebounding ability provides value for the Knicks, or any other team they might be able to flip him to later on.

Portland Trail Blazers

Knicks get: Maurice Harkless, Al-Farouq Aminu, Noah Vonleh, Pat Connaughton, Jake Layman

Trail Blazers get: Carmelo Anthony

Portland’s dynamic backcourt of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum have reportedly done a fine job of getting on Anthony’s good side in hopes of convincing him to okay a deal to the Blazers. It’s not unreasonable to imagine that they have succeeded, and he put them on his list of teams he is willing to go to. However, their increasingly horrendous 2016 offseason in which they paid too many people too much money comes back to bite them- this unappealing package is the best they can do. Their only other sizable salaries that could be used to obtain a player of Carmelo’s value are players who are on simply horrible contracts. Dame and CJ may or may ot have convinced ‘Melo that he should want to be in Portland, but in the end it is not going to matter- they don’t have the bandwidth to pull off such a trade.

Miami Heat (With Help From Denver Nuggets)

Knicks get: Kenneth Faried, Trey Lyles, Justise Winslow, Tyler Johnson

Nuggets get: Goran Dragic, Wayne Ellington

Heat get: Carmelo Anthony, Emmanuel Mudiay, Jameer Nelson

This trade is very complicated, I know- but hear me out: there is no way that Carmelo does not have some interest in playing in Miami- everyone does. And if this offseason’s spending spree was any indication, Pat Riley seems focused on winning as many games as possible in the next four years. Unfortunately, they’d have to move on from Goran Dragic to make this deal work- but getting two capable replacements back, including a somewhat promising prospect in Mudiay, makes this trade much more reasonable. For Denver, this is their first of what will be many consolidation moves- they have so many assets, it’s time to cash in to get very valuable ones. And for the Knicks, this is a dream- three quality young prospects as well as a trade piece in Faried for their disgruntled star.