Many Knicks fans are already dreaming and customizing their Irving No. 2 jerseys in the hopes that the Knicks are able to pool their assets, namely Carmelo Anthony, in order to be the winners of the Carmelo Anthony sweepstakes.
While an Irving for Carmelo and a 1st round pick or Frank Ntilkina seems to make some sense for both the Knicks and Cavaliers, it appears that is highly unlikely to come to fruition because of Carmelo’s desire to be a Houston Rocket and Cleveland’s insistence on Kristaps Porzingis being involved in a trade.
ESPN’s Ian Begley describes the situation:
“Carmelo Anthony’s top destination in any trade, per league sources, is the Houston Rockets. Nothing really has changed since ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported more than a week ago that Anthony still expected the Knicks to carry out their previous plan to trade him to Houston…
All of (the speculation about Anthony going to Cleveland) is, of course, meaningless until one of two things happen:
1. The Knicks decide to include Porzingis in a deal for Kyrie Irving (unlikely).
2. Anthony decides to move on from the possibility of being traded to Houston and strongly considers playing for a Cavs team without Irving. As of late Tuesday, he wasn’t prepared to do that.”
Even if Carmelo does say he is completely on board with playing in Cleveland next season (he should be) the Cavaliers will have to come off of their ridiculous request of nabbing Porzingis in a trade.
While Carmelo Anthony would definitely fill the offensive and iso-scoring hole left by Irving, he wouldn’t add much in the way of defensive ability, youth or athleticism, all things they clearly need to compete with the Warriors next season.
The Cavaliers want and need some youth and defensive skill in return for Kyrie Irving and the Knicks just aren’t a trade partner that makes sense to acquire that.
As we continue down this Irving trade path, it seems harder and harder to find a partner that makes sense for the Cavaliers and Irving.
