NBA Trade rumors: Knicks and Rockets restart trade talks for Carmelo Anthony

The New York Knicks and Houston Rockets are trying to come to terms on a deal that would send Carmelo Anthony to the Rockets.

Everyone in the world knows that Carmelo Anthony wants out of New York. It’s just a matter of the Knicks finding the right package to get in return.

Anthony has all the leverage because he’s holds a valuable no-trade clause in his contract. This states that Melo has to approve of the trade destination. Given that the Houston Rockets are atop his list, it makes sense for GM Steve Mills and the Knicks to start there.

The Rockets and Knicks were engaged in trade talks around the time of the NBA Draft and free agency, but those died down afterwards, with no imminent deal in place. The Rockets are desperate to do the deal to add a third star to the duo of Chris Paul and James Harden. GM Daryl Morey is all in on trying to push Houston into the upper echelon of the Western Conference.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Rockets and Knicks are re-engaging in trade talks to send Anthony to the West. So far, Houston is trying to engage a third team to entice the Knicks into completing the trade.

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The Rockets don’t have very many assets to send over to the Knicks to bring Carmelo Anthony to Houston. The piece that Morey is dangling is Ryan Anderson and his bad contract. But a rebuilding team like the Knicks won’t take on a bad contract unless there’s an attractive asset that’s attached with it.

Houston’s trying to use a third team to send those assets to New York. It’ll be interesting to see if they can get a deal done before the start of the regular season. The Cavaliers were also reportedly atop Anthony’s list, but with uncertainty around LeBron James and Kyrie Irving’s future, Melo would rather go to Houston.