The Knicks remain as committed as Carmelo Anthony to finalizing a deal that would send the All Star forward to the Houston Rockets.
According to a league source, new Knicks president Steve Mills last week informed Anthony’s representatives that the team wanted to wait until after introducing Scott Perry as general manager before addressing Anthony’s future.
The Daily News reported last Friday that Anthony’s intentions are to leave New York despite the front office shake up.
It appears that the idea of the Knicks trying to convince Anthony to stay were overblown. Mills wants to rebuild and the thought of having a 33-year-old Anthony on the roster doesn’t make sense. Moreover, the Knicks got Anthony to agree to waive his no-trade clause to facilitate a deal. Keeping him on the roster would not be ideal for either the Knicks or Anthony.
The parameters for a deal are already in place but the final stumbling block is finding a third team to take Ryan Anderson, who is owed $60 million over the next three years.
The Rockets have tried to recruit the Portland Trail Blazers as a trading partner. In that scenario former St. John’s forward Mo Harkless would be traded to the Knicks.
The Blazers have resisted and according to ESPN, Portland would prefer to acquire Anthony for themselves as opposed to helping a conference rival. The Knicks would be willing to deal directly with Portland but Anthony has said he’d only agree to a trade with Houston and Cleveland.
Perry was hired last week and with Mills saying that he will give the new general manager the authority to run the day-to-day operations of the club it made sense to delay a potential trade. Mills had already signed restricted free agents Tim Hardaway Jr. and Ron Baker before hiring Perry.