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Eight players who could be traded before the NBA draft

NBA draft, Carmelo Anthony

Carmelo Anthony

Carmelo Anthony

After New York Knicks president of basketball operations Phil Jackson said that Anthony would be “better off somewhere else,” a trade is only a matter of time. Anthony’s fit in New York was never great, and in the past few years under Jackson, it’s been downright disastrous.

Carmelo doesn’t like the triangle, and why should he? It’s not as if the Knicks have won with it. Jackson has bungled every opportunity to reconcile, compromise or do anything helpful — ultimately leading to his takedown of Anthony. That likely hurt Anthony’s trade value (massively so), but the Knicks can still find suitors. There’s only a year left on his contract before an early termination option, so any team with cap space could get involved without long-term consequences.

The only obstacle is Anthony’s no-trade clause. However, after a public tongue-lashing from Jackson and a public break-up with his wife, LaLa, one assumes that Anthony wants to leave Madison Square Garden as fast as possible. Perhaps Anthony wouldn’t be okay if Jackson tried to ship him off to Phoenix, but presumably, he’d approve a smaller market if that team could contend.

In terms of teams that could look at a potential trade, the Boston Celtics are at the top of the list, as are the Cleveland Cavaliers if owner Dan Gilbert is willing to go bananas paying the luxury tax. From there, who knows? The Nuggets tried to make a splash and sign Dwyane Wade last summer. Perhaps they could look at bringing Anthony back to Denver. Thanks to Jackson’s declaration, it won’t take much.

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