Carmelo Anthony rumor: Deal to Rockets still likely
By John Buhler
Will the Houston Rockets be getting a third star? It doesn’t seem like the Carmelo Anthony trade rumors are going away anytime soon, deal is still likely.
As 2017 NBA free agency has slowed down to a crawl, a major NBA trade rumor is not fizzling out all that easily. After Chris Paul was traded from the Los Angeles Clippers to the Houston Rockets, it seems that the Rockets are on the verge of prying Carmelo Anthony away from the New York Knicks, too.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Knicks front office will meet with Anthony over the next few days. All signs point to the organization “to carry out its previously agreed upon mandate to trade him to the Houston Rockets.”
The reason for this supposed delay in trade stems from the Knicks hiring former Sacramento Kings front office executive Scott Perry. Former Knicks general manager Steve Mills has been promoted to Phil Jackson’s old role of team president. Perry replaces Mills as general manager.
Overall, this feels like way too smart of a business decision for the Knicks to make. Trading away Anthony before they would have hired a general manager would have been ludicrous. Bringing in Perry to assess the situation before pulling the trigger on an Anthony deal to the Rockets is actually logical.
New York won’t be getting the same return the Denver Nuggets did for Anthony in that blockbuster trade six years ago. However, Rockets general manager Daryl Morey hasn’t been gun-shy about getting a trade in motion to help his team for some time now.
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Anthony as the third-best player on the Rockets has to make them the biggest challenger to the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference. With the Knicks going nowhere in 2017-18, it is in their best interest to rebuild around power forward Kristaps Porzingis. If that means parting ways with Anthony, do it.