NBA Rumors: How the Houston Rockets can land Carmelo Anthony
The Houston Rockets made by far the biggest move off the offseason in 2013, signing free agent center Dwight Howard away from the Los Angeles Lakers.
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Although the Rockets clearly improved last season, winning 54 games after winning 45 the year before, they found themselves in the same place as they didn’t a season earlier – going home after the first round of the playoffs. This year, it was the Portland Trail Blazers who took down the Rockets in six games.
That’s why the Rockets and the ways they can improve their team have been heavily discussed. The Rockets want to add a third star to the mix. There has been a lot of talk about the Rockets adding Minnesota Timberwolves’ power forward Kevin Love or New York Knicks’ forward Carmelo Anthony.
Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders explains why the Rockets are a real player for Anthony.
"Houston would trade almost anything not named Dwight Howard and James Harden to get at Anthony and they would go all in on a contract too. There has been talk that Houston has offered up Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin in a “give away” trade that could include their draft pick in the first round or a roster player like Terrence Jones to get those salaries off the books.If the Rockets can find a taker for those contracts they’d go from a best-case $56.9 million in salary commitments to $40.2 million, which means $22.7 million in cap space. That’s more than enough for Houston to get into the game in a serious way for Anthony."
Anthony averaged 27.4 points, 8.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game last season.