Knicks Shopping Melo to Cavs, Celtics, and Clips

The New York Knicks season has been a complete disaster.

The team started strong, reaching a high on Sun 11 Dec, when they were 14-10 and on the heels of winning six of their last seven.

Since that point, dudes have put out a bummerful 6-17 effort.

Currently at 20-27 and holding down 11th place in the East, the Knickerbockers are stinking up Manhattan.

So, all eyes are on what they'll do next.

Seems like they've turned their sights on the closest black hole to our planet, the inevitable Carmelo Anthony.

Last off-season, Phil Jackson brought in veterans like Derek Rose, Joakim Noah, Courtney Lee, and Brandon Jennings to support Melo on a playoff push. Obviously this plan hasn’t worked out very well.

This has created a predicament. The Zen Master made a major commitment to Anthony in 2014, re-signing the then-30-year-old to a five-year, $124million deal.

 

Now, Melo, along with Rose, are taking opportunities away from rising young star Kristaps Porzingis.

At a time where the team should be rebuilding around long Latvian, New York is still faking a competitive team around Anthony, who remains living proof of the fact that, while there may be no I in team, there's definitely a me.

Anthony met with Mr Zen this past week to assert his desire to remain with the club. Besides pleasantries, the meeting was also necessary for Jackson, as Melo has a no-trade clause in addition to a trade kicker in his contract.

Despite this, Jackson's apparently taking to the phones to gauge interest in the former scoring champ.

Reportedly, the Knicks have reached out to the Cavs, Celtics, and Clippers in particular, as a potential Anthony landing zone.

The Knicks have proposed a Melo for Kevin Love trade, but Cleveland was none too keen to deal their star PF. While Melo could help the struggling, Love is having his own self-described best year ever this season.

The Celtics would make an interesting partner. It’s difficult to trade a star player in-division, but Boston has a ton of assets to offer, including the Brooklyn picks.

Anthony’s lack of defense would likely not go over well in Boston, who may be better off waiting out the mess in Chicago to see if Jimmy Butler becomes available.

A Melo-to-the-Clippers exchange makes some degree of sense. Anthony will get an opportunity to play with one of his basketball BFF’s, at least after Chris Paul comes back from injury. The rumored Melo-for-Griffin gets floated around, but there's a slight problem standing in the way.

Teams are prevented from having two players on their roster who are on Designated Rookie Max extensions. Right now, the Knicks have one in Rose. In order to acquire Griffin, New York would have to deal Rose first.

Jackson's open to a Melo-Clips trade that doesn’t involve Griffin, Paul, or DeAndre Jordan. The potential deal would center on dudes like Austin Rivers, JJ Reddick, and Jamal Crawford.

 

In the end, it really doesn’t matter if Jackson finds the right team and the right deal.

Any potential trade will be at the pleasure of Carmelo Anthony, period.

With the trade deadline under a month away, dude seems unconvinced about pulling up stakes. It's more fun to clip coupons on defense in the Garden.