What a ridiculous roller coaster of an offseason it’s been for the New York Knicks and Carmelo Anthony.
In the span of two months, the team almost traded away its future in Kristaps Porzingis, fired president Phil Jackson after he used the team’s first-round draft pick, hired a new front office and all in the meantime, have yet to do anything with Anthony.
After suggesting he be bought out, which led to the firing of Jackson, Anthony made it be known that he wanted to be traded to either the Cleveland Cavaliers or Houston Rockets. Considering his no-trade clause, he held all the cards when it came to his future should he be dealt.
Once Kyrie Irving submitted his trade request in Cleveland though, that list of accepted teams was cut in half to just Houston.
The Rockets don’t have much that would interest the Knicks, considering most of their talent not named James Harden or Ryan Anderson was shipped off to the Los Angeles Clippers in order to acquire Chris Paul.
Acquiring Anderson makes little to no sense for New York considering the size of Anderson’s contract — he’s owed over $60 million over the next three years — and that there is no room for him in the frontcourt with Porzingis.
A third and fourth team has been looked at to help facilitate the deal to get Anthony to Houston, but Adrian Wojnarowski while appearing on Sportscenter reported last week that trade talks have been “fairly dormant.”
With around 40 days remaining until the start of the regular season, the Knicks do have time to put something together, but it’s time for Knicks fans to prepare for a 2017-18 season with Anthony, even if his team doesn’t really have him in their plans.
You can clearly see that in their season-ticket promotion that ran on Twitter Aug. 24:
Never miss a moment with a 2017-18 Full Season Plan, now on sale at https://t.co/fn85V5Hfi8. #Knicks #NewYorkForever pic.twitter.com/47UwJPRpDf
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) August 25, 2017
And in a blog post for MSG.com a day later, new Knicks president Steve Mills didn’t even mention Anthony’s name when talking about the team’s plans.
Still, Anthony looks to be accepting of the fact that he might still be hooping it up at Madison Square Garden next season as he began training with teammates Tim Hardaway Jr. and Frank Ntilikina:
He currently has two years left on his deal worth approximately $54 million before becoming an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2019. Obviously, look for the Knicks to deal him and get something worthwhile in return before then.
