New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony could go to the Portland Trail Blazers if a deal with the Houston Rockets can’t be reached.
Carmelo Anthony is still looking for a way out of New York and Portland might just be the answer.
According to Jason McIntyre of Fox Sports, Anthony’s camp is trying to send Melo to Houston before he accepts a deal with Portland.
Carmelo Anthony's people are trying a Hail Mary attempt to get him to Houston (Knicks won't do it) … before he accepts a deal to Portland
— Jason McIntyre (@jasonrmcintyre) September 21, 2017
Frank Isola of the New York Daily News reported on Wednesday that Anthony was “cautiously optimistic” that he would be traded to the Houston Rockets by Monday. But with the Knicks refusing to take back Ryan Anderson in a deal, that seems unlikely.
Blazers guard Damian Lillard has tried to get Melo to go to Portland.
“I didn’t want to press him,” Lillard told Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated in mid-September. “I ain’t a big fan of doing all the extra recruiting and all that stuff. And I guess they call it tampering or whatever. It’s not against the rules for us to interact with each other. We all peers, we all play in the same league, and everybody hints at playing with each other. ‘What you think about this?’ ‘What do you think about that?’ All that matters is whether it got done or did not get done. Or hasn’t got done, and it hasn’t got done. So, it is what it is …”
He added that he has done all that he can do and he’s not giving up on anything. The Trail Blazers believe that adding Anthony would give them talent and depth that is comparable to the top Western Conference contenders except for the Golden State Warrior, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.