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Knicks Rumors: Carmelo, Noah, Hernangomez

January 26th 2017 at 8:57am CST by Luke Adams

In the wake of an ESPN report suggesting the Knicks were rebuffed in their efforts to engage the Cavaliers in a discussion about a possible Carmelo Anthony/Kevin Love swap, Anthony told reporters on Wednesday night that he’s unsure whether his club’s front office is trying to push him out the door. “I honestly don’t know,” Anthony said, according to Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News.

“If they want to go in a different direction, that’s something I have to consider,” Anthony later added, hinting again that he’d open to waiving his no-trade clause in certain scenarios. “I think I would have to consider that. All the talk that’s going on, that’s out of my control. Nobody contacted me, nobody contacted my representation or anything like that. So it’s something that I’m not worried about.”

ESPN’s report on the Knicks’ failed pitch to the Cavs suggested that New York’s front office wanted to see if a deal with Cleveland was possible before bringing it to Anthony. So it makes sense that the nine-time All-Star says he had and his reps weren’t contacted by the club about a potential move to Cleveland, since those talks went nowhere. Still, the fact that the Knicks are exploring the possibility of a trade is worth noting.

Here’s more on the Knicks:

  • The odds of Anthony being moved before the traded deadline appear remote, but it’s not out of the question if the Knicks lower their asking price, writes Frank Isola of The New York Daily News. While Isola declares that team president Phil Jackson seems to have “no use” for Anthony, the Daily News scribe observes that the Knicks forward has the leverage in the situation due to his no-trade clause.
  • There’s a belief that Anthony would be more inclined to approve a deal to a team like the Cavaliers or Clippers. However, neither of those clubs can make a real play for him without giving up a core piece, which is extremely unlikely, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders details. Kyler identifies a few other teams that could make a more realistic play for Carmelo, including the Magic, Bulls, and Lakers, though he acknowledges that there would be plenty of roadblocks in any scenario, most notably the fact that Anthony controls the process.
  • LeBron James, whose call for the Cavaliers to add a “playmaker” has dominated headlines this week, was asked on Wednesday about the Anthony rumor and certainly didn’t sound as if he was pushing for such a deal. “I have no reaction,” James said, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com. “We got 14 guys in here. We need to be ready every night, who we got in here we got to play. We can’t play fantasy basketball. We got who we got and we got to go out and play.”
  • The Knicks committed four years and $72MM to Joakim Noah last summer, but the time has come for the team to bench Noah and unleash Willy Hernangomez, argues Marc Berman of The New York Post.
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