With the Thunder and Carmelo Anthony expected to part ways, the team granted the veteran forward permission to meet with prospective suitors, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
According to Wojnarowski, Anthony and his representatives – including agent Leon Rose – met with the Rockets and Heat in Las Vegas at the NBA Summer League in recent days. The Lakers are also among the teams said to have interest in Anthony, though there’s no indication in Wojnarowski’s report that they’ve met with Carmelo or his reps. Marc Stein of The New York Times suggests L.A.’s interest in Anthony may be overstated.
As Woj details, Anthony’s meeting with the Rockets included head coach Mike D’Antoni, who spent time in New York with the 34-year-old. While the two men had a rocky relationship as members of the Knicks, D’Antoni made it clear during their latest meeting that the circumstances would be much different this time around. The Houston coach welcomed the idea of reuniting with Anthony, league sources tell Wojnarowski.
[RELATED: Rockets considered favorites to land Carmelo Anthony?]
Wojnarowski didn’t provide any specifics on Anthony’s meeting with the Heat, but says that coach Erik Spoelstra has been a “strong advocate” of adding the 10-time All-Star.
Before Anthony can sign with the Rockets, the Heat, or any other club, he’d need to become a free agent. According to Wojnarowski, the Thunder are still exploring possible trade scenarios that would send Carmelo to a new team, which would subsequently waive him. However, such an outcome seems unlikely — no team has the cap room to absorb his $28MM salary outright, and any over-the-cap clubs would have to send out more than $22MM to meet salary-matching rules.
Teams with cap room available are more viable trade partners for Oklahoma CIty, but would still have to send out some salary in any deal, and would likely expect significant assets from the Thunder, whose 2020 first-rounder is tied up as a result of another trade.
Anthony also has a no-trade clause, but he has agreed to waive it if he gets sent to a team that doesn’t intend to keep him, Wojnarowski notes.
I don’t think the lakers need him.
I’d take kyle korver for melo he’s ten times better and has a tiny contract ;)
And please rockets take him :)
Make rockets bad again!
so they thunder can either buy him out and save what … 5-10 mil .. I assume if he can secure a 5 mil contract he will be ok with at least loosing that much from the thunder..
or they can take Anderson from the rockets and save a few million and still get a outside shooter .. or they could take tyler Johnson and another high dollar heat player .. correct ?
Basically No Teams Have any Cap room except the Atlanta Hawks $22 Million I think even with that I’m sure the Hawks would want a First Round Pick Back
Kings. I believe the Sixers as well.
Wouldn’t mind the Rockets getting Anthony if they could somehow unload the Ryan Anderson contract in the process.
If another team is willing to pay the TxMLE (5.4 mm), and he agrees to a buyout at the balance of his contract (22.5 mm), then he can be stretched at 7.5 mm for 3 years. 20 mm in salary, and 100 mm or so in luxury tax. That still leaves them a big taxpayer, with salary and tax around 190-200 mm, but manageable.
They can’t use the stretch in conjunction with a trade, so unless a team can figure out a way to swallow the entire contract, not sure it makes sense.
I think a logical trade construction would be Carmelo + assets for another unwanted player (or players) with a smaller salary. Then you could waive and stretch the newly-acquired player(s) and presumably be on the hook for less than what Carmelo would cost you. It’s hard finding an exact match for that kind of specific deal that makes sense for both teams though.
Logical, for sure. But then OKC doesn’t get the benefit of any Melo buyout (should get min 2.4 at worst).
You’d have to see the difference and see if it’s worth the likely 1st rounder they’d have to relinquish. It would be 2022 at the earliest (past this team’s window). OKC is loath to trade 1st rounders except in a tortured manner.
Yeah, the only way it really makes sense to me is if you could get someone like Asik from the Bulls, since stretching him would be WAY cheaper than Carmelo, buyout or no buyout (he could be stretched over five years too, since he has a partial guarantee for next season). I’m just not sure OKC has the assets necessary to get the Bulls to agree to that.
Asik has small $3M buyout in 19/20. Felicio makes more sense.
I’m sure the Thunder would rather take Asik, but if they don’t have the assets to entice the Bulls, maybe taking Felicio instead would help bridge that gap.
Lol only if they take deng. Houston about to be all offense no defense once they dont resign capela and trade/sign melo. No chance against warriors with cousins.
Capela is guaranteed playing for the Rockets next season.
Still hoping the Heat signs him. He would actually give us something we really need. Only thing would be a crowded rotation, but I’m not too worried about it. They can sit certain bigs in certain matchups *cough* Whiteside *cough*, and play James Johnson at the 5. Also, with the heats injuries the last several seasons, it would seriously help to have so much depth. We could end up hard capping ourselves to sign Melo, Keep Ellington, and resign Wade, with Melo and/or Wade getting some of the tax payer exception, but even then, I think it would be worth it for 1 season
This would work for me if I was OKC. Used Hou as the Melo lover and Atl as the cap space team, but probably same thing can be done with Miami.
Atl: (i) Anderson (20.4 mm), (ii) OKC 2020 1st (11-20) or 2022 (11-30) – rolls 3 years until converted to two 2nds, and (iii) Hou 2019 (15-30) – rolls 3 years until converted to two 2nds.
Hou: Melo (27.9 mm)
OKC: Two min contracts (2.8 mm)
Hou sees only a small increase tax for this year, and saves their TxMLE. The pick isn’t for Melo, but to get off the 2nd year of Anderson.
OKC can keep the minnies or not, so it’s really full relief from Melo for a top 10 protected pick. Plus, gigantic TPE.
Atl gets 2 protected 1st rounders for taking Anderson. I don’t think they do better.
OKC should trade Melo, 2nd rd pick and $5.2M (max amount) to Chicago for for Felicio. Thunder stretch Felicio to 7 years and save $25M in ‘18 over stretching Melo. Bulls buyout Melo and free up future cap room, save money and get future asset. Melo can then go anywhere. Win-win
I think Melo’s competitive days are over, at this point in his career he should be going to a lesser team where he could have the role he is happier with, enjoy the rest of his career, happy days for Melo. Cannot see him fitting either with Lakers or Houston, much better with Miami.
Melo shot 37.3 percent on catch and shoot threes within an OKC offense that had no space on the floor. No team shot more wide open threes with more regularity, and only the Brooklyn Nets shot more standstill 3s. That pretty much tells you what I’ve been saying. How is it Melos fault the rest of that team cant shoot?