If the New York Knicks were ever to trade Carmelo Anthony, it was always going to be in the 10-time All-Star’s hands of where he would end up going. That’s the fun provided by no-trade clauses.
Over the last few weeks, Anthony claimed that he would waive the clause if the Knicks were able to work out a deal with either the Houston Rockets or Cleveland Cavaliers. It was even reported that he and the Oklahoma City Thunder had a mutual interest in each other.
Not anymore.
Anthony’s top choice is to land in Houston alongside Chris Paul and James Harden while the Rockets remain interested in bringing him on, ESPN’s Ian Begley reported on Wednesday morning.
The 33-year-old’s views on the Cavaliers took a turn when Kyrie Irving requested to be dealt away from Cleveland, denying the Eastern Conference juggernaut to create a big four of its own alongside Anthony and LeBron James.
However, the Cavs might not be extraordinarily interested in Anthony anyway, as Frank Isola of the New York Daily News reported on Monday.
It leaves the Knicks with extremely limited options seeing as the Rockets gutted most of their team to acquire Paul from the Los Angeles Clippers. Their only viable option that could yield somewhat similar value to Anthony’s would be power forward Kyle Anderson. But we all know that the Knicks don’t need a power forward with Kristaps Porzingis at the helm.
So, like it was a couple weeks ago, the Knicks will likely have to look for a third or fourth team if they really want to ship Anthony out of Manhattan.
