The Future For Carmelo Anthony In New York
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
The NBA news of the day is the prevailing trade rumors surrounding the New York Knicks and their maligned star, Carmelo Anthony. The team has been rumored to be shopping the elite scoring forward to a few teams, but the move is a complicated one because Anthony has a no trade clause in his contract.
Therefore, any trade that Knicks President Phil Jackson can engineer must be signed off on by Carmelo, he would have to agree to waive that clause in his contract to be dealt. The options are limited and the rumor mill spouted that the Cleveland Cavaliers already rejected the Knicks proposed trade of Anthony in exchange for Kevin Love, which surprised very few people in NBA circles.
The Cavs need a point guard and do not need Anthony after obtaining Kyle Korver in a recent trade. I mentioned to someone a couple of weeks ago as I saw this situation looming with Anthony, Phil Jackson, and the Knicks that the only place that made sense to me was the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Clippers play in a market that Carmelo would agree to be traded to (L.A.) and they have some assets to expend to make the deal work. The Clippers are also a team that is close to breaking through to the next tier of NBA teams, and that is the ideal place for Anthony. The team on the other side of this deal with the Knicks has to view Anthony as the player that they need to add to take the next step toward being an elite team. The Clippers check off those boxes.
The added bonus for Anthony on the personal level is that he can become teammates with close friend and Clippers point guard, Chris Paul. He can fit within that roster and would be well coached by Doc Rivers.
The Knicks would be able to divest themselves of Anthony’s huge contract, and begin a full rebuild of the team around young star Kristaps Porzingis. It is probably the right move at this point with New York fading fast out of the playoff picture in the East.
The Knicks tried to make a playoff push this season by adding a few veteran players and it back fired on them. The 2016-17 season has been a mess for the team and they have to just push the reset button and look to the future. That obvious sentiment is made complicated by the fact that Carmelo has a great deal of control and leverage in the situation with a no trade clause.
The fans in Boston are without a doubt holding their collective breath that the Celtics do not engineer a trade for Carmelo. The team is in the rumor mill mix for him, and his scoring and experience would be of potential benefit to that roster. However, the Celtics would probably have to give up significant assets to swing the trade, and Carmelo can go up there and tying up the ball on the wing.
The future for Carmelo Anthony in New York is unclear. He is either going to be traded between now or by the late February trade deadline, or he will remain in New York and the Knicks will have a nightmare on their hands very similar to the “Melo-drama” scenario with Anthony and the Denver Nuggets.
The Knicks need to begin to rebuild but Carmelo remains the stumbling block in that process, and until that changes, the team and the fans will remain in limbo. I am a huge Carmelo Anthony fan and I was a proponent of the Knicks bringing him here, but it just never clicked, it never worked out.
The situation has devolved into one where it is unfair to both the player and the team in this situation. I hope a resolution can be found, but the pathway to a trade is going to be difficult for Jackson to put together at this point. The next few weeks will be very telling and the future of one of the league’s flagship teams hangs in the balance.
