We can add a few teams to the list of Carmelo Anthony’s ‘acceptable’ trade destinations.
Ken Berger of CBSSports reports:
Melo would accept other destinations as well, and the Magic are believed to be at the top of his list along with the Knicks, according to a person familiar with his strategy.
Chris Mannix of SI.com has a source that says Anthony is interested in being traded to the Rockets or the Nets, as well.
Multiple league sources familiar with his situation told SI.com that Anthony would also be open to signing a long-term deal with Houston or New Jersey should either of those teams offer the Nuggets an acceptable trade package.
Getting Anthony, 26, to agree to an extension is the key to any deal as he can become a free agent after the 2010-11 season.
The trade and the extension would probably have to happen simultaneously for any team other than the Knicks to risk trading for Melo. The Knicks on the other hand could probably trade for Anthony with the confidence that he’d want to re-up next summer. As a side note, the Knicks are reportedly offering Danilo Gallinari and Eddy Curry for Anthony, which is an Anthony Randolph short of the deal I suggested a few days ago.
I don’t think Denver is all that interested in financial relief, because they could just let Anthony’s deal expire next summer. They need to get a good young player or two and/or one or two first round draft picks. The Rockets have the the rights to the Knicks’ first-round draft picks in 2011 (Top 1 protected) and 2012 (Top 5 protected), but they just traded away Trevor Ariza, who could have been the key name in a possible package.
But how about Kevin Martin, Jared Jeffries’ expiring deal and one or both of those first round picks? That would give the Nuggets a youngish, reasonably-priced shooting guard to replace some of Melo’s scoring.
The Magic could offer Marcin Gortat, Mikael Pietrus and Brandon Bass for Anthony, though Gortat is probably the only quality starter in that offer. The Magic’s first-round picks aren’t as valuable as Houston’s since the Knicks still project to be worse than Orlando. The Magic do have the advantage that they are in the Eastern Conference, assuming the Nuggets would prefer to trade Anthony out of the conference.
