Carmelo Anthony’s time with the Knicks might be coming to a close.
In recent seasons, Carmelo has been hesitant to waive the no-trade clause that he has in his contract. Even though now-former Knicks team president Phil Jackson did everything in his power to let Carmelo know that he didn’t really see much of a future for him in the Big Apple, Carmelo contended that he wanted to remain with the Knicks through the end of his career. But now that Jackson has left the team, it seems Carmelo would be open to waiving his no-trade clause—if the Knicks can find a way to send him to one of two teams.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Carmelo has told the Knicks that he would waive his no-trade clause if the team works out a trade to send him to either the Cavaliers or Rockets. There have been rumors about Carmelo potentially playing in Cleveland for months now, and Houston has reportedly reached out to the Knicks in recent days about making a deal for Carmelo. And Wojnarowski is reporting that Carmelo wouldn’t be opposed to heading to either of those two destinations, since it would give him the opportunity to play alongside either LeBron James or Chris Paul.
The problem is that the Cavaliers and Rockets would both need to get pretty creative to complete a trade for Carmelo. The Cavaliers would likely need to put together a package that includes Kevin Love, and that seems like a longshot right now, seeing as how they don’t have a general manager in place at the moment. And the Rockets would likely need to figure out a way to convince the Knicks to take back Ryan Anderson and the $61 million he has remaining on his contract in a trade.
The Knicks are also, like the Cavaliers, working without a permanent GM at the moment, so we wouldn’t expect a trade involving Carmelo to get done anytime soon. But at the very least, Carmelo seems more open to a trade now than he has in the past. So something could get done sooner than later.
