Odds Heavily Against Carmelo Anthony Trade

The odds of the Knicks completing a trade this week involving Carmelo Anthony are very slim, a source tells Marc Berman of The New York Post. Anthony has said he prefers to remain with the Knicks through Thursday’s trade deadline, and that remains the most likely outcome.

Anthony, one of three players in the NBA with a formal no-trade clause in his contract, has been vocal about his preference to stick with New York. There are believed to be a small handful of teams, including the Cavaliers and Clippers, that Anthony might approve — Berman notes that Los Angeles is Carmelo’s preferred destination in a trade, and a weekend report indicated that the Cavs haven’t entirely closed the door on a possible deal. However, according to Berman, the Knicks haven’t discussed any trade scenarios with those teams that are attractive enough to make them ask their star forward to waive his no-trade clause.

[RELATED: Carmelo Anthony still pondering no-trade clause]

Anthony, who participated in All-Star weekend after being named to the Eastern Conference team as a replacement for Kevin Love, was happy that trade rumors involving him appeared to be dying down and weren’t a constant topic of conversation in New Orleans.

“Leave it like that,” Anthony said, according to Berman. “Things I’m dealing with, it’s good not to hear me in the media like that. This weekend was more about focusing on this weekend, having fun and getting away from that for a couple of days. I was in the moment just focusing on being here.”

Assuming Anthony finishes the season with the Knicks, he’ll head into the summer with two years remaining on his contract with the club. The final year is an early termination option, so he’ll have the chance to opt out and become a free agent in 2018.

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