The Cleveland Cavaliers made a blockbuster trade in sending Kyrie Irving to the Boston Celtics for fellow point guard Isaiah Thomas, defensive forward Jae Crowder, and the rights to the Brooklyn Nets’ 2018 draft pick, which has a good chance of being a lottery pick. Now that Kyrie has been shipped out of town, the Cavs are said to be focused on signing Dwyane Wade and reunite him with LeBron James to rekindle their winning ways from their Miami days. So the movement to get Carmelo Anthony to the Cavs is dead right? Well, not necessarily.
Anthony has a no-trade clause and is said to only welcome a trade where he goes to the Cavs or the Houston Rockets. The Cavs are set for an immediate rebuild should LeBron bolt out of Cleveland again. With a one-year window, the Cavs would be motivated to stock up on as much talent as possible to challenge the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals. Possibly adding Melo could give them enough firepower to dethrone the super team known as the Warriors.
To make this deal happen, they would have to wait until October 22 to trade Crowder, who can’t be traded for 60 days of being traded. To match up the money, the Cavs would probably also trade Iman Shumpert and Channing Frye to the New York Knicks in addition to a draft pick. The 33-year-old Anthony has an opt-out clause after 2017-18, allowing him to follow LeBron to Los Angeles.
Another scenario is if Melo isn’t traded in the offseason and the Knicks are out of contention of the playoffs by February, which is totally possible, New York could waive Anthony outright with no buyout agreement. The final option year would count on the Knicks’ cap in the summer of 2018, unless he forgoes his 2018-19 option year to join LeBron on the Lakers. Melo would be free in February to sign with the Cavaliers or go to the Rockets with his friend Chris Paul. All interesting scenarios.
[NYP]