Carmelo Anthony appears to have his mind made up about wanting to be traded to the Houston Rockets, and he is willing to pass on $8 million to make it happen.
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN said on “The Jump” earlier this week that Anthony is willing to waive the $8 million trade kicker in his contract if the New York Knicks and Rockets can agree to a deal.
“My sources tell me he’s willing to waive the trade kicker, which is worth around $8 million, so that makes a little easier for Houston to do a trade,” Wojnarowski said, per Kurt Helin of Pro Basketball Talk.
Anthony has a full no-trade clause in his contract with the Knicks in addition to the trade kicker, and he is obviously willing to do anything he can to facilitate a trade to Houston.
Unfortunately for Carmelo, the biggest obstacle standing in the way of a deal is that the Rockets don’t have much to offer New York. They have to clear salary cap space if they want to have room for Anthony, and the Knicks are not interested in taking on a bunch of money. They’d prefer younger, more inexpensive players in addition to draft picks, and Houston has hardly any of that remaining after trading for Chris Paul.
Anthony is still being heavily recruited to at least one other team, but he essentially controls his own destiny. While he seems determined to leave New York, he’s not going to waive his no-trade clause unless he’s going to a contender.
