Carmelo Anthony has been subjected to trade rumors as of late. Here are two possible trades that could send Anthony to another team this offseason. The two teams are the Rockets and Cavaliers as Anthony confirmed those are the only two teams that he would waive his no trade clause.
A few key points
First, Ian Begley of ESPN wrote that the Knicks would have to renounce Derrick Rose and Sasha Vujacic to save about $16 million in cap space. Then, it is important to note that Anthony has a trade kicker of $8.1 million which would bring his salary to $34.7 million for this upcoming season.
However, Chris Paul had a similar trade kicker, but reduced his by $2.5 million to make the trade work with the Rockets. It's safe to assume that Anthony would do the same.
Begley's trade scenarios wont work
Begley wrote in one of his scenarios where the Rockets would receive Anthony, the Heat would be a possible third team. The Heat would possibly take Ryan Anderson in the deal. That is unlikely to work now since the Heat have signed Dion Waiters, Kelly Olynyk, and James Johnson since the post was written. In another scenario, the Cavaliers would receive Anthony if the Hawks took Kevin Love and the Knicks took Marco Bellinelli and a first round draft pick. That move wouldn't make sense because the Hawks are in full rebuild mode after dealing Dwight Howard and allowing Paul Millsap to leave for Denver.
Regardless, there must be a third team to facilitate this trade. A team that comes to mind that could help is the Portland Trail Blazers.
Trade scenario with Portland
Eric Griffith of Blazers Edge writes that the Trail Blazers could be a third team that could send players to the Knicks, while absorbing Ryan Anderson's contract.
He writes that the Knicks could send Anthony to the Rockets. The Rockets would send Anderson to the Trail Blazers. The Knicks would receive Maurice Harkless and Meyers Leonard. There were most likely be draft picks thrown around as well.
Harkless and Leonard's salary is the equivalent of Anderson's, so the Trail Blazers could absorb his salary.
They would also get a player that averaged 13.6 points and shot 40.6 percent from three point range. Harkless is just 23 years old and has four years of NBA experience. He had his best season offensively by averaging 10.0 points. Leonard's minutes were down last year, but the Knicks have said they wanted to play with younger guys. The Knicks already have Joakim Noah on the roster, but after his disasterous season, Leonard could play over him.
