In a rather weak trade deadline period, someone decided to make things interesting by suggesting a three team trade between the Cleveland Cavaliers, New York Knicks and Boston Celtics, involving Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Love.
This isn’t going to happen. While Anthony would love a shot at a title, something that might not happen to him while playing for the Knicks where he is the highest paid player and someone who plays as if it all revolves around him, he has a no-trade clause, a 15% trade kicker if it does happen which means the Knicks don’t really have an incentive to try and trade him, and even if all those things were cleared, it makes no sense putting Anthony and LeBron James in the same lineup and hope it works out well.
The supposed trade suggests Anthony joins the Cavaliers, Kevin Love goes to the Celtics and the Knicks get rid of a contract they never should have signed, with many believing it’ll be what gets in the way of Phil Jackson trying to rebuild the Knicks into contenders, building around the surprising talent of Kristaps Porzingis while hoping to draw in top talent in free agency, which means Kevin Durant.
Durant is the big prize of the 2016 free agency. Anthony isn’t allowed of course to speak directly about him, but has said during the weekend how much stars want to play together, how stars try and bring over players to their own team which is pretty much hinting at the Knicks going all in on Durant, although with about $22 million (projected) in cap space, it’s not going to be easy getting a deal done, with Durant capable of signing for more, with the Thunder and other teams.
Is there some truth to all of this? Reports do mention very preliminary talks between the teams. LeBron James has dismissed it, and when the de facto general manager in Cleveland speaks, it’s usually what happens. Maybe Anthony does waive his no-trade clause in order to play with James but adding Anthony instead of Love doesn’t actually improve the Cavaliers, or give them what they’re missing when compared to the Golden State Warriors.
The Celtics? Probably just thrown into the hypothetical discussions because they’re actively looking to improve in this trade deadline, they have cap space and assets, be it players or draft picks to move and you always need a third team for this. In reality, with five days to make such a fantastical suggestion into reality, both Love and Anthony aren’t going anywhere.