Knicks trade options with the Rockets for Melo
The Houston Rockets are trying to compete with the Warriors, they added Chris Paul and with Carmelo Anthony waiving his no-trade clause, they want to add him as well. Paul and Melo are really close friends and so they want to play together. I expect the Rockets to be the favorite to land Melo because the Cavs feel like a team that is not sure of what they want to do, while the Rockets have been pushing to get better at whatever cost. So what can they offer the Knicks?
That is the big question. The easiest would be Ryan Anderson for Carmelo Anthony as they have basically the same contract. Rumblings around the league is that the Knicks are hesitant to take his contract on. I will say that with Anderson and Porzingis in the front-court they would be hard to stop even though they would be horrible on defense.
The Rockets really have Capela, Gordon and Anderson as trade pieces. I don't think the Knicks wants any of them. But because all of them are valuable, it would not be hard to send them to a third team. Thats the part that will take time as the Knicks would have to agree to the pieces with that trade but with the Rockets having a few pieces and their desire to get better, makes them the better trade partner.
A few teams that make sense as a trade partners are the Sixers, Bucks, Raptors, Wizards and Pistons. All those teams need shooting, both Gordon and Anderson are some of the best shooters in the league. A possible trade could be Marcus Morris and Stanley Johnson to the Knicks, Melo to the Rockets and Anderson to the Pistons. Anderson is very good fit next to Drummond or maybe replace Morris with Tobias Harris. Would the Wizards swap Otto Porter or Markieff Morris for Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon, giving them more depth and another play-maker. How about the Bucks swapping Middleton for Gordon and Capela? or the Sixers swap a few of their young pieces to add Ryan Anderson to help improve their perimeter shooting.
I think with the Rockets ability to trade a few of their pieces it opens up the possibilities for the Knicks. The Cavs biggest problem is that outside their Big 3, they don't have any players that interest other teams. I expect the Rockets to land Melo with some sort of creative trade, getting a 3rd team that need shooting or a starting center.
