Trading Carmelo Anthony out of New York may not be as easy as team president Phil Jackson is hoping, writes Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News.
Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith, two of Anthony’s friends and former teammates, believe he wants to remain with the Knicks and will use his no-trade clause to veto any deal.
“Sometimes you feel like it’s just unfinished business, and I feel like that’s what it is with Melo,” Shumpert said, referring to the Knicks’ 31-51 season. “He don’t want to leave on that note.”
Smith noted how hard Anthony worked to get to New York, forcing the Nuggets’ hands in a 2011 deal so he could be part of the league’s biggest market.
“He does want to stay in New York. He made the effort to get to New York,” Smith said. “Granted, it hasn’t gone as well as he hoped it would. But I’m sure that’s where he wants to be.”
Anthony will make more than $26.2MM next season and has an early termination option for his nearly $28MM salary in 2018/19. Jackson would like to get those figures off the Knicks’ salary cap, and contacted the Clippers, Cavaliers and Celtics before February’s deadline in an attempt to work out a trade.
Any team that does deal for Anthony would have to absorb his 15% trade kicker, which would bring his total cap hit to about $30MM.Anthony hasn’t made any public appearances since the season ended, Bondy notes, apart from a single workout session. He has also stopped posting on social media since mid-April.
While Anthony has chosen silence, Jackson has remained persistent about his desire to find a taker for his star. He began with a postseason press conference in which he stated that Anthony would be “better off somewhere else,” then repeated those sentiments to the media at the draft combine.
“I don’t think [Jackson] should’ve been so vocal about [wanting to trade Anthony],” Shumpert said. “That’s just me. I think a lot of stuff is better if everybody just assumes what’s going on and they don’t really know what’s going on. I didn’t like that it was publicized, but what am I going to do? He said some stuff about me too.
“I know it’s not going to bother Melo’s jumpshot next season. Melo is going to continue to work and get better, and continue to try to win. That’s all he can do.”
What a joke
If Melo really cares about NY he will waive his NTC for the good of the franchise. It could be his biggest achievement for the franchise if he can net future picks or a young player.
y would u cling to ah team and City that doesn’t want u their???? just leave while u still have worth dude
Maybe Melo could be traded to the Nets?
He would look good with Lin and Lopez, he could possibly push him into a shot for a 7th-8th spot
Melo might try to get Phil fired through Dolan. No Melo means less attendance at games, call the dude what you want but he’s still a great offensive talent and is not scared of the big moments, thats why he should stay put and retire a Knick.
Melo can only shot the ball boringgg
You boring lol
I doubt Melo wants to go to the Nets. But they’d have to do a Lopez for Melo 1 for 1 deal most likely. Lopez has a huge contract too, which is hard to move, but Melo has a 15% trade kicker so 30.13M 2017-18 and 32.1M 2018-19. I mean the only team that can take that on and just waive him, without really interrupting their ‘process’ is the Sixers. Then Melo can go wherever he wants, which would make him lift the NTC. Only Embiid has to get paid during the 2 years they’d have Melo’s cap hit.
But to do that, as the Sixers you’d need to get at minimum Kristaps Porzingis and send pretty much nothing back. To me, Melo Wavie + Kristaps is worth it. They have enough picks in 2018 and 2019 to supplement the team through the draft. And the ability to deal away players for future picks to ease the cap when Embiid, Porzingis, Saric, and Simmons all need to be paid.
Any other team that is dealing for him would need to do a sign-n-trade or dump other assets on the Knicks with multi-year contracts.
Like LAL – you’re sending both Mozgov & Deng, wouldn’t entertain sending just 1.
LAC – you’re dumping Crawford, Rivers, and Johnson.
Cleveland you’re sending Love and Frye but probably need that #8 pick as well b/c Love is in his prime, Melo is at the end.
Celtics – They’d have to do sign & trades with Johnson and Jerebko right? More work than all the other teams to do this.