With Kyrie Irving officially a member of the Boston Celtics, the last remaining star to be traded this offseason is Carmelo Anthony. The Knicks’ star, who has been on the trade block for a full year, has watched as Chris Paul, Paul George, Jimmy Butler, and Kyrie Irving have all been traded while he remains in New York.
The obvious difference between Anthony and the rest is he has a no-trade clause and therefore must sign off on his new destination before the Knicks can really go forward in talks. This has proved to be a difficult proposition, as the only team Carmelo seems to be willing to accept a trade to is Houston, but the Rockets and Knicks have struggled to find a third team to make a deal work with the salaries involved.
There are other teams that have interest in Anthony, but they have to first convince him to come before they can even discuss a package with the Knicks. Among those teams that have had reported interest in the aging star is the Portland Trail Blazers. Portland’s top stars Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum have led the charge in trying to convince Anthony that the Blazers would be a great fit for him.
To this point, there have been no indications that Anthony has been swayed by their overtures, but Lillard remains hopeful that something can happen. At his annual picnic in his hometown of Oakland, Lillard spoke with The Undefeated’s Marc Spears about his efforts with Anthony and said that he’s done his part and thinks Anthony would at least consider Portland as a destination.
“I didn’t want to press him,” Lillard said of Anthony. “I ain’t a big fan of doing all the extra recruiting and all that stuff. And I guess they call it tampering or whatever. It’s not against the rules for us to interact with each other. We all peers, we all play in the same league and everybody hints at playing with each other. ‘What you think about this?’ ‘What do you think about that?’ All that matters is whether it got done or did not get done. Or hasn’t got done, and it hasn’t got done. So, it is what it is …
“I’m not giving up on anything. I just think I’ve done what I can do. And camp is a few weeks away. And you have to focus on getting ready with who we are, plan on going in as we are. Whatever changes, the front office will be the ones making that change, with the Knicks and our front office or whatever. But I get my mind focused on what I can control at a certain point.”
As training camp approaches, Anthony appears ready to go forward with the Knicks until they can find a deal with the Rockets.
However, if the saga drags on into the season and it becomes clear a third team won’t be willing to take on Ryan Anderson’s deal, it’s possible the Knicks could convince Anthony to at least listen to overtures from Portland or others to try and convince him to waive his no-trade clause for more teams.
If he’s willing to do so, Lillard and McCollum would be more than happy to welcome him to the Blazers with open arms.
