Now that Carmelo Anthony has seemingly played his final game in an Oklahoma City Thunder uniform, we’re starting to hear rumors and reports about his next landing spot.
A report surfaced on Friday that the Thunder were set to move on from Anthony, likely via a buyout. At that point, the future Hall of Fame forward was immediately linked to LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.
Now, according to this report from Jordan Schultz of Yahoo! Sports, the Lakers are in fact one of Anthony’s preferred landing spots.
Source close to Carmelo Anthony says the #Lakers are one of Melo’s preferred destinations, and that he's high on chance to finally play with #LeBron. Keep in mind too, that Carmelo owns a house in LA.
— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) July 7, 2018
Anthony has long been friends with Mr. James. And as Schultz notes, he does have a house in Los Angeles.
The 34-year-old 10-time All-Star is coming off the worst performance of his career after being dealt from the New York Knicks to Oklahoma City last summer. He averaged a career-low 16.2 points per game on 40 percent shooting from the field.
Set to count $27.93 million against the cap next season, there’s no reason to believe any team would take on that contract in a trade. If Anthony were to land with the Lakers (or another contender), it would likely be on a near veteran minimum deal.