Carmelo Anthony Trade Talks With Knicks Could Be Bolstered By Anthony Randolph Deal

If the New York Knicks manage to trade third-year enigma Anthony Randolph for a 2012 first-round pick, the team’s hopes for landing Carmelo Anthony could be signficantly bolstered.

The Knicks’ own 2012 pick belongs to the Houston Rockets, so long as New York doesn’t finish with a top-five pick (which seems highly unlikely, barring a catastrophic injury to Amar’e Stoudemire). An NBA law known as the Stepien Rule (after awful former Cavs owner Ted Stepien) does not allow teams to trade away two future first-round picks in consecutive drafts. In other words, a team couldn’t offer its 2011 and 2012 picks in a trade.

Because the Knicks have no 2012 pick, that renders the team’s 2011 and 2013 picks untouchable, since trading either would violate the Stepien Rule. The initial rumors of an Anthony Randolph trade were predicated on the idea that the Knicks would bring back a 2011 pick in the deal, which could then be flipped in a ‘Melo deal. But, as NBA salary cap expert Larry Coon details on HOOPSWORLD, trading for a 2012 pick would allow the Knicks to package their own 2011 and 2013 picks in a blockbuster deal. As the Knicks would have a 2012 pick, trading either the 2011 or 2013 picks or both would not trigger the Stepien rule.

Last week, Randolph’s agent delivered a trade request to the Knicks. It is believed that the Minnesota Timberwolves are one of the team’s willing to trade for Randolph; however, the Wolves have no 2012 first-round picks on account of their own pick for that year being completely unprotected by the epic Sam Cassell-Marko Jaric deal. The Wolves’ Grizzlies 2011 first-round is protected through No. 14, and as such will likely roll over to 2012. But that won’t happen until the draft order beyond the No. 14 pick is set at season’s end. The trade deadline is in February.

Business Insider’s Adam Fusfeld reports that the Knicks will trade Randolph to the Indiana Pacers for a pick. The Pacers have all of their own first-round draft picks, and could send a 2012 pick to the Knicks that would allow New York to package its 2011 and 2013 picks for the Nuggets. (The Knicks’ 2011 pick actually could be the Rockets’ pick; Houston will be able to choose between the picks at season’s end.)