Surprising few who can count to 27,900,000, Carmelo Anthony has decided not to opt out of the final year of his contract with the Thunder. He’ll be paid $27.9 million -- he wouldn’t have commanded anything close to that on the open market, and especially not on a competitive team where the coach refuses to force Melo into a more limited role.
Carmelo Anthony ruined our Banana Boat fever dream
We have that and more in Monday’s NBA newsletter.
Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr./Getty Images
Really, Melo has it quite sweet in Oklahoma City: the media pressure is limited because of the market size, the money goes further, Russell Westbrook will continue to take the lion’s share of blame, and expectations are fairly manageable. Why would he want to be anywhere else?
This does, however, end our dreams of the Banana Boat Crew hooking up this summer for a 2018-19 romp through the NBA. Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, and LeBron are all free agents, too. CP3 is totally expected to re-up with the Rockets and Wade belongs in Miami, but some of us harbored dreams that they’d all hook up with the Lakers or something. Oh well. Based on the brief Wade-Bron partnership last season, it probably would have been a mess. And while LeBron and CP3 are besties, they’d probably hate playing together.
Free Agent Option Tracker
Every player with player or team options on their contracts has different deadlines by which they or their teams have to make decisions. These are coming in almost at random. We’ll update with any big ones here for the next few days.
Opting In
Milos Teodosic, $6.3 million, Clippers
Mike Muscala, $5 million, Hawks
Wilson Chandler, $12.8 million, Nuggets
Opting Out
Undecided
Links Galore
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Paul Flannery has 10 thoughts from the NBA Draft, where he gave everyone a B for boring. I wrote that the boring draft doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll have a boring offseason, though we could.
Kristian Winfield has 12 winners and losers from the draft.
Some news from Sam Amick on the LeBron sweepstakes: the Spurs seem set on trading Kawhi Leonard to the East if he won’t stick around, and LeBron’s camp is becoming pessimistic that Paul George will actually leave OKC. Those are two knocks on the Lakers if not big boosts for Cleveland.
Meanwhile, the Cavaliers are still chasing Kemba Walker.
It appears the Nuggets will decline Nikola Jokic’s option and make him a restricted free agent. I wrote about why that was the smart play for Denver a couple months ago.
On the Hawks’ interesting blueprint as laid out at the NBA Draft. I’m intrigued.
Are Kawhi and LeBron using the Lakers simply as leverage to improve their other potential futures?
Charlotte Wilder hung out with players who had to wait a long time to hear their names called at the draft.
Kofie Yeboah on story modes in sports video games. If Shaq Fu counts as a sports game, that story mode was the best.
Scott Cacciola hung out with Luka Doncic on draft night, which was a great idea.
Really good Mike Finger column on why Gregg Popovich stuck around this summer.
The Lakers notified LiAngelo Ball he won’t be on their Summer League team. Not a weird situation at all.
John Branch on the social justice divergence of the NBA and NFL.
Breaking down the fashion of the NBA Draft. Not everyone can pull off Collin Sexton’s suit, but those who can, should. Speaking of Sexton, here’s Harry Lyles Jr. on why he’s perfect for the Cavaliers, whether LeBron stays or not.
And finally: LeBron “Bronny” James, Jr. tried an in-game dunk. Dad lost his danged mind. Glorious. #DadLife
Be excellent to each other.
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