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Carmelo Anthony averaged 32.1 minutes per career game during his season in Oklahoma City. (Photo AP / Sue Ogrocki)
Thunder wants to help Carmelo Anthony find a new home. To this end, the team would have allowed the veteran to speak with other teams before his planned departure from Oklahoma City.
. According to countless sources, "Antoni" would be good if Anthony came to Houston. " Anthony has a close friend on the Rockets in Chris Paul, as he does with the Heat, to Dwyane Wade. In addition, another potential suitor for Anthony, the Lakers, also presents the attraction of playing alongside a close friend in LeBron James.
First, however, Anthony must be removed from the Thunder, either by trading or being released. The latter option could be exercised by Oklahoma City if it decides to extend the remainder of its contract, a season to $ 27.9 million, over the next three years, thereby obtaining a short-term relief from the salary cap.
since the Rockets are above the ceiling and staring at a mbadive luxury-tax bill from the NBA. However, they may also choose to exchange Anthony for players on longer bids that they deem more useful, with a trading partner who probably monitors the ceiling space that his contract expiration would offer in 2019, when there could be several free agents with big name in the market Although Anthony had a no-trade clause, he gave up the distribution of the Knicks at the Thunder last summer, and the newspaper The Oklahoman reported on Tuesday that he was ready to give up to facilitate his move elsewhere. However, Anthony will do it with "the understanding that he is not sent to a team that he approves, he will buy it and make it a free agent," the paper writes.
In this scenario, once Anthony is available, the Rockets would be ready to jump. Houston, who has lost attackers Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Free Agency Mule, is "determined" to sign Anthony if and when he arrives on the market, Wojnarowski tweeted Monday.
Anthony, 34, offers almost none of the defensive skills that Ariza and Mbah have brought to the table, but even in the downhill of his career, the team of 10 stars promises a bigger punch. During his lonely season in Oklahoma City, Anthony averaged 16.2 points and set a career high with 169 three-point goals on a 0.357 shot past the bow. And in a positive sign for what would be his likely role in the Rockets attack, he shot .372 on the three-point catch-and-shoot attempts (by NBA.com).
The role badigned to Anthony last season, which became increasingly limited at the time the Thunder was a victim of a first round loss in the Jazz playoffs, was not considered by him as a positive development. Affirming later that he had no interest in "sacrificing" for a "bench role," Anthony said, "I think everyone knows that I sacrificed almost everything. who is damn close. "
For the sake of the team, he was willing to sacrifice everything for this situation to materialize," he continued at the time. "So it's something that I really have to think about, if I really want to be that type of player, finish my career as this type of player, knowing that I have so much left in the tank and I'm Brings a lot to the game "
Antoni's already had a fight with Anthony about his role with the Knicks, while the coach wanted him to go from there. Before, Anthony won this power struggle, to finally embrace the change of position while the entire league, with the Warriors in the lead, focused on the alignments of small balls.
The new perspective of his adjustment should help to open a new relationship of Antoni and Anthony, if the latter ended up in Houston. "Wojnarowski wrote Tuesday that in their meeting," D & # 39; Antoni made Anthony understand that he thought the circumstances together would be very different in Houston, and welcomed favorably the idea of training Anthony again. "
It remains to be seen whether this happens or not, but it is obvious that all parties welcome the idea of Anthony who pbades this season on a team other than the Thunder.
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