J-Speaks: All-Star Carmelo Anthony About to Join the Houston Rockets

Before the start of the wildest summer of NBA free agency in recent memory, perennial All-Star forward of the Oklahoma City Thunder Carmelo Anthony had a choice of joining that class outright by opting out of the final year of his five-year deal he signed with the New York Knicks in the summer of 2014 or opt-in to the final year of his contract worth $27.9 million. He decided to opt-in and while that was good for him as him netting that kind of value on the open market was extremely slim, it put the Thunder on a major hook of a major luxury tax bill thanks to the re-signings of fellow All-Star Paul George and reserve forward Jerami Grant and guard Raymond Felton. It was clear that Thunder general manager Sam Presti had to make a major move to trim that fat off the payroll for the upcoming 2018-19 season and pulled one serious rabbit out of the hat. 

On Friday, the Thunder as part of a three-team deal with the Atlanta Hawks and Philadelphia 76ers sent Anthony to the Hawks. They also received from the Sixers guard Justin Anderson and a 2022 lottery-protected First-Round pick, which ranges from being No. 1 overall to No. 14. 

The Thunder, who were the No. 4 Seed in the West at 48-34 this past regular season acquired in the deal the starting lead guard Dennis Schroder and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, while the Sixers got backup big man Mike Muscala. 

Anthony will be bought out of his deal by the Hawks, making him an unrestricted free agent and after he clears waivers as it is expected the frontrunners to land his services are the Houston Rockets, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Wojnarowski also has reported that the Miami Heat are considering adding Anthony. 

Saying goodbye to Anthony, who the Thunder after being acquired the prior off-season from the Knicks cut some serious luxury tax dollars off the Thunder’s payroll for 2018-19. 

Reportedly, the Thunder according to Wojnarowski will go from a $150 million in luxury tax to $88.8 million, which equates to a $61.2 million in savings. The Thunder will also save an additional $11 million with the addition of Schroder’s $15.5 million contract and the $1.5 million cap hit of Luwawu-Cabarrot. 

To bring what this means for the Thunder into context, if “Melo” had stayed with the Thunder, their total salary for this upcoming season would have been with salary and the luxury tax combined on the hook for $310 million. 

With the trade, their payroll will stand with the Anthony and Muscala deals at $148.7 million. 

For much of his career first with the Denver Nuggets and Knicks, the 34-year-old Anthony had been the top offensive option, which is how he scored his way to 25,417 career points, ranked No. 19 all-time in NBA history. 

This past season, his only with the Thunder, he was more of a catch-and-shoot scorer instead of the isolation, one-on-one extraordinaire that made him a 10-time All-Star and six-time All-NBA selection. 

While that catch-and-shoot role worked well for him as a member of Team USA, where he helped the Red, White, and Blue of our country capture Gold in the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics, he struggled as the third wheel to George and 2017 league MVP and All-Star Russell Westbrook where he averaged a career-lows 16.2 points on 40.4 percent from the floor but made a career-high 169 three-pointers, at a 35.7 percent clip. 

To put into perspective how tough of a season Anthony just had, in Game 6 of the Thunder’s First-Round setback versus the No. 5 Seeded Utah Jazz (48-34), which ended OKC’s season, Grant, who re-signed with the team for three years at $27 million played more minutes than him. 

Grant had nine points off the bench in 30 minutes while Anthony had just seven points in 26 minutes. 

Westbrook led the way with a game-high 46 points with 10 boards and five assists in 96-91 loss in Game 6 on 18 for 43 shooting, which included an abysmal 7 for 19 from three-point range. George managed just five points on 2 for 16 shooting, including 0 for 6 from three-point range. 

Just days after the Thunder’s season concluded in disappointing fashion in Game 6 on Apr. 27, Anthony said that he preferred to go somewhere in which he would be in the starting lineup and that coming off the bench is as he put it, “out of the question.” 

He added, “So it’s something I really have to think about, if I really want to be this type of player, finish out my career as this type of player, knowing that I have so much left in the tank and I bring so much to the game of basketball.” 

As far as joining the Rockets, or Heat or any other team he wants, Anthony will have to wait a little bit because according to former ESPN reporter and now of The New York Times Marc Stein and two other individuals with knowledge of his plans the three-way deal which also features the Sixers need to make another roster move. 

That move might be for sharp shooting guard Kyle Korver of the four-time defending Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers, who the Sixers had been pursuing via trade before this recent transaction with the Thunder and Hawks. 

The Hawks pledged they would release Anthony upon completion of the deal. according to those two people mentioned before, allowing him to earn next season’s scheduled salary of $27.9 million-which was stipulated by the original five-year deal he signed as mentioned with the Knicks five summers back. 

He would then sign on with the Rockets on a one-year deal for the league’s veteran minimum of $2.4 million. 

Rockets’ perennial All-Star and 2018 league MVP James Harden and General Manager Daryl Morey in recent days expressed confidence that the organization would add Anthony to their roster sometime this summer, after being unable to acquire him the year before because there were no takers of the contract of sharp shooting forward Ryan Anderson. 

Both Harden and Morey said at separate functions that Anthony’s addition would be a good one for the Rockets, who were one win short of reaching The NBA Finals this past spring. 

“It would be a great acquisition for us,” Harden said at a Houston event about getting Anthony, who he ran into at Paris Fashion Week in June along with his teammate P.J. Tucker. “‘Melo’s’ a proven vet. He just wants to win at this point, so it would be great for him to be on our team. The current roster we have now, we’ve got good guys back and we keep making forward progress.”

After compiling 65 wins this past regular season, the most in franchise history and earning the No. 1 Seed in the Western Conference, the Rockets got past the No. 8 Seeded Minnesota Timberwolves and the No. 5 Seeded Jazz in five games respectably and took a 3-2 series lead over the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors, the No. 2 Seed in the West. 

That Game 5 win was costly as they lost nine-time All-Star guard Chris Paul to a hamstring injury and two rough second half performances without their floor general as well as cold shooting from three-point range cost the Rockets in Game 6 and in Game 7 on their home floor and it was the Warriors who would be holding the Larry O’Brien trophy as they swept the Cavs in The Finals 4-0. 

The addition of Anthony would not only plug a hole that was created with the loss of last season’s starting forward Trevor Ariza, who signed a one-year, $15 million deal at the start of free agency with the Phoenix Suns. 

While it would be a solid addition in terms of adding another offensive player, it will not make up for what Ariza brought defensively. 

Last season, the addition of Ariza, along with Luc Mbah a Moute, who moved on in free agency to the Los Angeles Clippers, Tucker and Paul brought a defensive tenacity that made the Rockets one of the elite teams on that end of the floor. 

They brought an ability to make things difficult for some of the best wing offensive players and top scoring guards in “The Association” this past season. 

They also provided an ability to make three-point shots on a consistent basis and did so without the ability to need a steady diet of those shots. Those attempts from distance came when Harden and Paul penetrated to the basket, drew the defense, and kicked out to them to take those wide-open triples and they made them all regular season long, and the first two rounds of the playoffs, but as mentioned earlier could not make them in Games 6 and 7 of the Conference Finals. 

If the Rockets do add Anthony, it would make up for an off-season where they lost Ariza and Mbah a Moute, but their replacements in free agency have been former Kia Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams, who has been basically in limbo the past couple of seasons, and forward James Ennis, who does bring an ability to make threes, and defend but has yet to consistently prove it in his career. 

On top of that, they still have to do sign restricted free agent Clint Capela, who had a break out season in 2017-18 with averages of 13.9 points, 10.8 rebounds and 1.9 blocks during the regular season, on 65.2 percent shooting, which led the league. In the postseason, Capela averaged 12.7 points, 11.6 boards and 2.1 blocks, on 66.0 percent from the field. 

“That’s part of the business but like we do every single year, we’ve got to find a way,” Harden said of the Rockets off-season in free agency. “Whatever guys we sign, be ready to come in and play good minutes and we’ll take it from there. I have all the confidence in the front office and the coaching staff and the players that we’ll have on the roster.”

As much confidence as Harden may have in the Rockets no matter who is on the floor with him, Paul and the rest, the reality is the Warriors are still the top dogs of the NBA and the Western Conference and that entire side of the NBA has gotten better, especially with the addition of four-time league MVP LeBron James to the Lakers. 

Speaking of chemistry, when Anthony does sign with the Rockets can he come in and fit in unlike he did with the Thunder?

If he can understand that he will be the third option to Harden and Paul and he will understand that playing late in games may not be in the cards because of his inability to guard, then this can work. 

What also will be a great motivator for Anthony is the fact that in his career he has been to a Conference Finals once, which was in 2009 with the Nuggets where they lost to future Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant and the eventual NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers in six games. 

The only other time Anthony had led his team past the opening round was in 2013 with the Knicks where they lost in the Semifinals against the Indiana Pacers 4-2. That was also the last time the Knicks were in the postseason having missed out the last five straight seasons. 

“Houston is closer to a championship this season than the Lakers would be or the Heat would be,” ESPN’s Dave McMenamin said of Anthony’s projected destinations on the July 20 edition of “NBA: The Jump” on ESPN. “Go there. See what happens. See if you can get a deep postseason run…Ride that out, then the summer of 2019, that when the Lakers are really going to go for it. If there’s a spot there and it doesn’t work out in Houston, join the Lakers then.”

One specific reason that it has a great chance of working is his close friendship with Paul and that he respects him not just as a player, but as a person and a leader. 

Paul’s ability to lead and have command of a team was evident last season, especially with the way he and Harden meshed together, when many said that might not happen. 

Also, Anthony has a chance to redeem himself in the fact that when Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni was his coach with the Knicks and things were very rocky to put it mildly. He has a chance to show that was then and this time around he will conform to whatever is asked of him and will be a guy who will fit it. 

When it comes to the question of being a First Ballot Hall of Famer, Carmelo Anthony has a great of a resume to be enshrined on his first opportunity as anyone who has ever graced the hardwood of the collegiate or NBA ranks. 

He has been as previously mentioned selected as an All-Star 10 times. Is the only player with three Olympic Gold medals and is the all-time leading scorer in the history of the United States Olympics, and in 2003 led the University of Syracuse to the 2003 NCAA title, while being named the Most Outstanding Player of that year’s Final Four. He led the NBA in scoring in the 2012-13 NBA campaign at 28.7 per contest. 

The other feather that Anthony can put into his cap is the fact that when then Knicks’ president Phil Jackson was putting all the pressure in the world through the media on getting Anthony out of “The Big Apple” all he did was just maintain his professionalism and he was able to be traded to where he wanted to go, thanks to that no-trade clause that ‘Melo’ got in that five-year deal in 2014.

If Anthony was the so-called selfish, does not make his teammates better, all he cares about is himself type of player, Chris Paul and James Harden would have come right out to the Rockets and said to not sign him and they have said they will welcome him with open arms when he does touchdown in “Clutch City.” 

If Carmelo Anthony signs with the Rockets and they overtake the Warriors, and he gets a ring along the way, it will validate his career hands down. If that does not happen, his NBA career and life on the professional hardwood will be no lesser than anyone who is enshrined in Springfield, MA that did not win a title. 

Regardless of what happens, Anthony will be able to do the one thing that many professional athletes do not get to do very often. Have their ending on their own terms in the fact that they will decide when it is their time to fade into the sunset. 

Whenever that takes place, it will conclude in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame or as ESPN’s Amin Elhassan said on the July 20^th edition of “NBA: The Jump,” “If the Hall of Fame is a club, ‘Melo’s’ not standing in the line to pay to get in. He’s getting walked to the velvet rope. Their taking him to a table. The bottles will come.” 

“You’re a Hall of Famer, you get when you’re supposed to get in and he’s [Carmelo Anthony] a Hall of Famer.” 

Information, statistics, and quotation are courtesy of 7/5/18 6 p.m. edition of “NBA: The Jump” on ESPNEWS with Jorge Sedano, Ramona Shelburne and Dahntay Jones; 7/20/18, 3 p.m. edition of “NBA: The Jump” on ESPN with Amin Elhassan, Dave McMenamin, and Ohm Youngmisuk; www.espn.com/nba/story, “NBA trade tracker: Grades and Details for Every Deal;” 7/23/18 www.nba.com story, “Report: Carmelo Anthony Plans to Sign with Houston Rockets;” www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameid=401029452;  www.espn.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/3102529/seasontype/3/clint-capela; www.espn.com/nba/statistics; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmelo_Anthony; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_New_York_Knicks_seasons.