10:05am: The Hawks have officially waived Anthony, per a team press release.
9:24am: Anthony has finalized a buyout deal with the Hawks, agreeing to give back the equivalent of the veteran’s minimum salary, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). The veteran forward will make that money back when he officially signs with the Rockets, while Atlanta opens up a small slice of cap room as a result of the agreement.
The Hawks should have about $2.9MM in space, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks, though it remains to be seen how the team plans to use it, with agreements for Len, Carter, and Hamilton still to be finalized.
8:05am: Now that all the physicals related to last week’s three-team trade are complete, the Hawks are expected to move forward with waiving Carmelo Anthony today, tweets Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports.
Assuming the transaction is finalized on Monday, Anthony will be on track to clear waivers on Wednesday. His $27.93MM cap charge makes a waiver claim by a surprise suitor essentially impossible, so he’ll become an unrestricted free agent. At that point, he reportedly intends to sign a one-year, minimum-salary deal with the Rockets.
Once Anthony is officially released, the Hawks will have 12 players on guaranteed contracts, but the team has lined up agreements with three players to fill its projected 15-man regular season roster. According to reports, Alex Len, Vince Carter, and Daniel Hamilton will all sign with Atlanta. The Hawks figure to finalize those moves soon now that the Anthony trade – which involved both the Thunder and Sixers – is formally complete.
There has been no indication that the Hawks will ask Anthony to give back any of his 2018/19 salary as part of a buyout. Still, the team will recover a small portion of that salary via setoff once the 10-time All-Star signs with Houston, as cap expert Albert Nahmad tweets.
Anthony’s cap hit for the Hawks will still exceed $27MM, and while the team could open up a huge chunk of cap room by stretching that figure over three seasons, that’s not expected to happen. Instead, Atlanta figures to simply keep Carmelo’s whole cap charge on its books for the 2018/19 salary, allowing the club to maximize its cap room in future seasons.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
I wish I could do nothing and get 27 million dollars.
Everyone wants millions but more money more problems dude. Sometimes it’s better to just work for it.
Well he gets paid for play, though he will play in Houston instead, so is not for nothing.
Though they are many players been paid for nothing, although there is not their fault but the teams, like Mozgov, Noah, Deng… good players ostracised by their teams, thank goodness they get paid at least.
With Melo he will be on the court earning that money, just as I said for Houston instead.
Unless the taxpayers stop agreeing to finance stadiums, and fans stop paying excessively high cable/satellite fees & ticket prices, this cycle will never end.
In other words, this cycle will never end.
Hope he’s not given the chance to get Hibbert’d in the playoffs with the Rockets.
You learn everything you need to know by age 12. The rest is being tall.
Somehow this is simultaneously the most brilliant and dumbest thing I have ever read.
Not for everyone…Tim Duncan was 13 before he started playing basketball.
Rockets are making a huge mistake just to try to keep Harden and Paul happy.
Good.
Anthony is very generous by giving back over $2 million. He truly is a team first person.
Carmelo Anthony to Lakers next year.
CHAMPIONS