4 trade ideas to send Carmelo Anthony to the Rockets or Cavaliers

There are three teams that Carmelo Anthony could play for next season: the New York Knicks, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Houston Rockets.

Anthony owns a no-trade clause, so he can decide that. Other than the Knicks, those are the only two teams Anthony would waive it for, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Both teams would prefer for New York to buy out Anthony so they can sign him outright, but so far, the Knicks don’t like that solution. It’s understandable — why cut him, creating dead salary for two seasons, when you could trade it all away and potentially get back some future assets.

So far, Anthony isn’t holding out or exerting a bad influence behind the scenes. By all accounts, he does really enjoy being in New York for non-basketball reasons — his estranged wife, LaLa, and son live there, and Anthony remains an active part of his son’s life. Still, the Knicks are wandering aimlessly while the Cavaliers and Rockets offer Anthony an opportunity to play for a contender while meeting up with one of his old Banana Boat friends, either LeBron James or Chris Paul.

It will probably take a trade, then. Let’s ignore, for now, whether the Rockets or Cavaliers should be trying to trade for him, and whether he would actually help them become a more viable playoff contender. Here are a couple hypothetical ways he could join either roster.

In all likelihood, the Knicks won’t trade straight up with either Houston or Cleveland. Neither team has tradeable young prospects that could entice New York, and they would have to take on either Kevin Love (better than Melo) or Ryan Anderson (worse than Melo and with a worse contract). Here’s the scenario for the Rockets, which includes two marginal young prospects, plus Anderson, plus a hypothetical 2020 first round pick.

The trade: Carmelo Anthony to Houston for Ryan Anderson, Chinau Onuaku, Tim Quarterman, and a 2020 first-round pick.

Chances this trade happens: 0.1 out of 10 chance. Never say never when you’re dealing with the Knicks!

More likely, any trade would have to involve a third team. Anthony makes $26.2 million next season while Love is at $22.6 million, and Cleveland is already in luxury tax hell, so Love would have to go. To escape that, they would need to get rid of a sizable salary like Love, not to mention the two play the same position.

Meanwhile, Boston has liked Love for a while and could be interested in trading for the big man. However, there’s one enormous condition for this: it can only happen if Gordon Hayward chooses someone else.

The trade: Love to Boston, Anthony to Cleveland, draft assets to New York.

This trade currently fails, but if the Celtics renounce their free agents and don’t sign anyone into their cap space (so, Hayward), then they would have the cap space to take Love straight up. They could even throw a smaller asset or two (say, a late first rounder) towards New York and/or Cleveland to sweeten the deal.

However, there’s two clear reasons why Boston wouldn’t do this. First, they’re dealing directly with a competitor. Why allow Cleveland to make a move that the Cavaliers believe will make them better? Second, for all of the cap space and other assets that general manager Danny Ainge has acquired, it would be wild to cash them in on Kevin Love when the team wouldn’t do it on Paul George or Jimmy Butler.

Chances this trade happens: 0.5 out of 10 chance. If Danny Ainge did this, the Twitter jokes might go on for eternity.

What about Portland? They’re a team that barely snuck into the playoffs last season after earning the No. 5 seed in 2016. They’ve been rumored to be interested in acquire a star player, and Love is still incredibly good. Here’s one idea.

The trade: Anthony to Cleveland, Love to Portland, Allen Crabbe and Noah Vonleh to New York.

For Portland, you have almost an unlimited mix-and-match of players who could be included in this deal. It could be Evan Turner and Vonleh; or Crabbe and Al-Farouq Aminu; or Mo Harkless, Ed Davis, and Vonleh; or Meyers Leonard, Aminu, and Harkless; or virtually any other combination you could think of that doesn’t include Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum, Jusuf Nurkic, and newly drafted Zach Collins.

Why would the Blazers make this trade? For exactly the reasons above. They have several really bad contracts, enough that they’re basically interchangeable, and some other decent players who are expendable. It’s not an ideal spot.

Still, while Love would probably make the Trail Blazers a little bit better, he doesn’t solve their defensive issues at all. Can he make their offense better than he hurts their defense, considering their offense was already 11th-best in the league?

It also wouldn’t be a massive cap relief. Sure, the Blazers are getting rid of bad contracts, but they’re taking on two of Love at about $25 million each year. If things go poorly, it might even be three years, since Love has a player option on his final season. Portland could definitely save a little bit on the luxury tax, but they may be looking to shed even more than this trade would allow them to. Plus, it would probably cost them a draft pick, too.

Chances this trade happens: 3 out of 10. The biggest question is whether Love would actually make Portland better, and that trumps any other benefits.

This trade could probably be duplicated with Love and the Cavaliers, and it hinges on Hayward picking someone other than Miami in free agency.

The trade: Anthony to Houston, Ryan Anderson/Kevin Love and possibly additional assets to Miami, Ryan Kelly to New York

(ESPN fails the trade because it still sees Chris Bosh on the Heat’s roster, but the NBA has ruled that his salary will be cleared off Miami’s books when the moratorium ends and the new salary cap officially begins.)

The Heat are taking a player for free into their cap space — either Anderson or Love, both which could be useful in Miami under Erik Spoelstra. ESPN’s Zach Lowe reported that most teams want two first rounders to take Anderson in a salary dump, so if Houston can convince Miami into taking him for just one (in 2020), maybe this could work for the Rockets.

Chances this trade happens: 4 out of 10. It’s really hard to make three-team trades, since there’s a 50 percent better chance that one team will unexpectedly change their mind and call it off. This one seems like the best shot, but the best odds are still that Anthony remains in New York next season.