When news broke on Friday that Kyrie Irving had requested a trade from the Cleveland Cavaliers, speculation immediately turned to whether Irving would be moved to the New York Knicks for a package that would likely include Carmelo Anthony.
It makes sense. The Knicks are one of four teams Irving would prefer to be traded to. Meanwhile, LeBron James had in the past pushed for Cleveland to acquire Anthony.
While something may still come to fruition on that front, it looks like Anthony himself is still focused on being dealt to the Houston Rockets.
“The Knicks will contact Cleveland and make a pitch,” Frank Isola of the New York Daily News reports. “The obvious move would be to trade Carmelo Anthony and a few first round picks for a bona-fide superstar. However, a source close to Anthony said late Friday that the All Star forward is focused on getting a deal done with Houston.”
New York has been hesitant to take on Ryan Anderson’s contract. That’s been one of the major sticking points between the two sides in trade discussions surrounding Anthony. The idea of potentially adding Irving to the mix could make a deal with Cleveland much more appealing to the Knicks.
And for his part, Anthony has already indicated he would waive his no-trade clause should something work out on that end.
With free agency pretty much a wrap and blockbuster trades a thing of the past, the Anthony and Irving situations promise to dominate the NBA news cycle for the remainder of the summer. It will definitely be interesting to see what happens on these two fronts.