News came out earlier this week that the New York Knicks didn’t want to trade Carmelo Anthony just yet. According to a report from ESPN, the Knicks paused trade talks with the Houston Rockets and the Cleveland Cavaliers with the hopes that they could convince him to stay in New York. While this is worth a shot from the Knicks now that they are under new management, it seems like Anthony isn’t ready to budge.
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reports that the 10-time All-Star expects the Knicks to pick up talks with the Rockets — which Anthony has “prioritized” over the Cavaliers — sometime soon.
As New York Knicks president Steve Mills and general manager Scott Perry pursue a meeting with Carmelo Anthony in the coming days, league sources say that team officials will find a 10-time All-Star player counting on the franchise to carry out its previously agreed upon mandate to trade him to the Houston Rockets.
Whatever stance a post-Phil Jackson front office is taking now, Anthony, 33, has continued with an expectation that the Knicks soon will resume talks to honor the franchise’s longstanding goal to rebuild without Anthony, league sources said.
Wojnarowski reports that part of the issue is the Knicks haven’t been especially happy with the return they’d receive for Anthony. Going further, Wojnarowski says that the Jackson-led “organizational harping on Anthony” played a major role in hurting his trade value around the league.
But despite all of this, it would still be a major surprise if Anthony goes back on his decision to waive his no-trade clause, partly because it took a lot for him to waive it in the first place.
Because Anthony didn’t come easily to the acceptance of waiving his no-trade out of New York, no one should expect that he will easily shift his mindset back about staying with the Knicks beyond the summer.
With all of this out in the open, it seems like the Knicks’ hopes of pitching Anthony on staying with the team are basically non-existent. New York might as well try to sway Anthony one last time, but if this report is any indication, trade talks between the Knicks and the Rockets could pick back up sooner rather than later.
(Via ESPN)
