Carmelo Anthony to opt out of contract with New York Knicks; Los Angeles Lakers in play?

Superstar players build opt-out clauses into their contracts for a reason. There are some rare instances where they accept the player option, though, more times than not, star players decline the player option and enter free agency.

That’s what New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony plans to do, this according to Frank Isola of the New York Daily News:

"But the clock is ticking on Anthony’s career as well as his time in New York. The All-Star forward can become a free agent on July 1, and he will almost certainly opt out of his contract because it makes financial sense.The Knicks can offer Anthony the most money but the Los Angeles Lakers will be players in the free-agent market next summer and there has already been talk of Anthony joining Kobe Bryant, and even Anthony and LeBron James joining forces in the purple and gold."

As for joining the Lakers, the Los Angeles franchise has only $10 million dollars in guaranteed contracts for the 2014-15 season and could conceivably sign two max free agents and keep Bryant, assuming he takes a hefty pay cut. Of course, who knows how well that would work out.

Either way, it looks like Melo will become a free agent at season. That doesn’t mean he wont return to New York, but, he’ll certainly be on the search for another lucrative deal.