This might not come as a surprise to many basketball fans, but Carmelo Anthony is leaving Oklahoma City Thunder. Anthony failed to adjust his role in a way Thunder wanted last season, which led to him playing the worst basketball in his career and averaging career low 16.2 points per game. Also, he opted into the final year of his contract, which will push Thunder’s payroll to historic numbers. This is why both sides are looking to end this failed experiment, and OKC already gave permission to other NBA teams to talk with the 34-year-old.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski, Melo will talk with several teams including Miami Heat and Houston Rockets.

Story filed to ESPN: In advance of an inevitable – if not imminent – parting, the Oklahoma City Thunder granted Carmelo Anthony permission to meet with prospective teams, including Houston and Miami. Meetings took place in Vegas in recent days.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 10, 2018

Oklahoma City Thunder and Carmelo Anthony split can be facilitated in several ways. Thunder can find a trade partner who would take on his $27.9 million salary and then waive him. In order to make this happen, Anthony has agreed to waive his no-trade clause. OKC can also use waive-and-stretch provision in his contract and spread his salary over three years. Both scenarios would save Thunder more than $100 million in luxury tax and salary.

The biggest favorites to land Carmelo Anthony when he becomes a free agent are Houston Rockets. Besides the fact that Melo’s friend Chris Paul plays here, the Rockets are in the need of a forward after losing Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute in free agency.

After clashing with Knicks front office in 2017, Anthony agreed to waive his no-trade clause in order to join the OKC. He made a transition to power forward, but never managed to gel with the rest of the roster and experienced long stretches of bad shooting while failing to play a significant role in the Thunder’s short playoff run.

The post Thunder Give Carmelo Anthony Permission to Talk with Other Teams appeared first on SportzBonanza.

We will probably be watching Carmelo Anthony in the Oklahoma City Thunder jersey. According to ESPN‘s Royce Young, Anthony didn’t use his early termination option for the final year of his contract, which means he will be officially a member of the Thunder organization in the 2018-19 season as well.

Carmelo Anthony will earn $27.9 million for the next season, courtesy of the five-year, $120 million contract he signed with the New York Knicks back in 2014.
It remains unclear how happy the OKC front office is with this decision. While Anthony will go down as one of the best scorers in the NBA history, he certainly didn’t show he is worth $27.9 million with his performances for the Thunder in the last season.

He averaged 16.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game, all career lows. One of the reasons for that was the fact that Thunder coach Billy Donovan decided to use Anthony as a power forward, instead of putting him on his natural position of small forward. Also, Anthony didn’t have the ball in his hands as much as he used to, which also affected his ability to score, and later his confidence.

“I think for me, my focus would be on kind of figuring out what I want out of the rest of my career, what I want in my future, what am I willing to accept, if I’m willing to accept that at all,” – said Anthony at the end of the Thunder’s disappointing season which saw them getting bounced in the first round of the playoffs. “I think everybody knows that I’ve sacrificed kind of damned near everything, family, moving here by myself, sacrificed my game for the sake of the team, and was willing to sacrifice anything and everything in order for this situation to work out. So it’s something I really have to think about, if I really want to be this type of player, finish out my career as this type of player, knowing that I have so much left in the tank and I bring so much to the game of basketball.“

The Oklahoma City Thunder face a lot of uncertainty ahead of the next NBA season. One of their star players, Paul George, will become a free agent, while few key bench players are also out of contract.

The post Carmelo Anthony Opts into His Contract With OKC appeared first on SportzBonanza.

Oklahoma City Thunder is currently sitting as the fourth seed in the NBA Western Conference, but their playoff spot still isn’t secured. The Western Conference has been wild this season, with three and a half games difference between the Thunder on the fourth spot and Los Angeles Clippers who are currently sitting at the ninth spot. If you ask Carmelo Anthony, however, there is no doubt that the OKC will make the postseason.

“We’ll be there. We’ll be there,” – said Anthony on Wednesday. “I think we’re confident enough to know that we’ll be there. Where? We’ll see when that time comes, but I believe we’ll be there. It’s something we planned on doing when we put this team together. It’s something at the beginning of the season, this is what we were looking forward to. This is why we put this team together.“

Oklahoma City Thunder has been playing hot and cold in this season, starting 8-12 but managing to have a best fourth record in the NBA since December. Still, they will likely finish under 50 wins, something no one expected from the OKC at the start of the season, when they paired Carmelo Anthony and Paul George with the reigning MVP in Russell Westbrook.

“I think the expectations were put on us,” – said Anthony. “Yeah, of course, we wanted to have a better record at this point in the season with the team that we have, but our expectations were to be the best team we could be with the understanding we have the opportunity to do something great. And we have an opportunity to make a run in these playoffs and potentially play for a championship.“

If Anthony wants to make good on his word and Oklahoma City Thunder wants to clinch home-court advantage in the first round, they will have to really work for it in the remaining seven games, with five of them coming against teams above .500.

The post Carmelo Anthony Guarantees That Oklahoma City Thunder Will Be in the Playoffs appeared first on SportzBonanza.

Carmelo Anthony had his ups and downs as a New York Knicks player. He was the centerpiece of the franchise since he came from the Denver Nuggets in 2011 and certainly the best player in the eyes of the Knicks fans. Sadly, Anthony didn’t do much with the Knicks and parted ways with the team, moving to the Oklahoma City Thunder, where he joined forces with Paul George and reigning MVP Russell Westbrook in hopes he will manage to get a championship. Strange coincidence put the OKC and the Knicks to play their first NBA 2017 season games against each other, so it was interesting to see how Melo will react facing his beloved Knicks while wearing another team’s jersey.

For Melo, playing the Knicks in the season opener was a way to move on, and put behind the turbulent last couple of months. He lost confidence in the franchise and was particularly hurt by the way former Knicks president Phil Jackson treated him. On the other hand, the Knicks wanted to reset and build around their young superstar Kristaps Porzingis. According to Anthony, the Knicks chapter in his basketball career is closed and he is only focused on moving forward with the Thunder.

“Yeah, that chapter’s closed. That chapter’s closed. No more Knicks talk,” – Anthony said. “We can just focus on the Thunder and moving forward and what we have to do as a team and organization. I can say that chapter’s closed.”

Although he had trouble shooting the ball (8 from 20 from the game) against his former team, Melo still ended the game on the high, scoring 22 points alongside having one assist, one rebound, two steals and two blocks. With Melo’s contribution alongside Paul George’s 28 points, and Russell Westbrook’s another triple-double, Oklahoma City Thunder won the game with the final score being 105 – 84.

Anthony was particularly impressed with Westbrook’s performance and added he is excited for where the team is heading.

“You guys are used to it. I’m used to watching it. I’m used to going up against it.” – said Anthony. ” To now be on the other side of that, be on the same team and reap those benefits of what he brings to the game, I’m excited about what we started out tonight, what we created tonight and where we’re headed.“

The post Carmelo Anthony Says Knicks Chapter is Closed appeared first on SportzBonanza.

After settling down in Oklahoma City (at least for a year), Carmelo Anthony decided to speak for SiriusXM and reveal other possible trades that were discussed but never materialized. The first one involved him and his current teammate Paul George being joined in Cleveland.

“Me and PG have a very close friendship,” Anthony said when asked about George. “Actually, it was funny because me and PG was supposed to be in Cleveland on draft night. We were communicating about that. The deal was actually done and it got called off on draft night, so me and PG stayed connected throughout the course of the season.“

Instead of being members of the Cavs, Melo and PG will now try to win it all with Russell Westbrook. Although this is the first time we are hearing about a trade involving both Melo and PG, there was plenty of rumors about Melo joining LeBron James in Cleveland. One of the reasons for why this didn’t happen is the fact that the Cavs didn’t want to part ways with Kevin Love.

Trade to Cleveland wasn’t the only Anthony discussed since he also mentioned that the trade sending him to the Houston Rockets was a “done deal” but also didn’t go through.

“At first, a deal was done with Houston early,” Anthony explained. “Then for some reason, whatever happened behind the scenes, it didn’t go through, it didn’t fall through.“

Houston was Melo’s preferred destination for a long time, and he was willing to waive his no-trade clause only for the Rockets. Despite mutual desire, the Rockets couldn’t find a way to get the deal done with the New York Knicks. The Rockets wanted to include Ryan Anderson’s 3 –year, $60 million deal and Knicks didn’t want to hear anything about it. Instead, they took Enes Kanter and Doug McDermott from the OKC.

The post Carmelo Anthony Was Close to Joining Cleveland Cavaliers and Houston Rockets appeared first on SportzBonanza.

Just when we thought there are no more surprises in what has been an exciting NBA offseason, New York Knicks and Oklahoma City Thunder decided to shake things up. On Saturday the Knicks have traded their superstar Carmelo Anthony to the OKC in exchange for Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott, and Chicago’s 2018 second-round draft pick. Carmelo Anthony had a no-trade clause in his contract and decided to waive it in favor of joining the Thunder. On Monday Thunder had officially introduced Melo.

Lineup. #OKC10 pic.twitter.com/OlqXNz4Noz

— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) September 25, 2017

After it became obvious that the Knicks are determined to build around Kristaps Porzingis, rumors about Melo’s next destination started circling around. The problem was that Melo had 2 more years on his contract with a no-trade clause, which limited the Knicks’ moves. At first, Anthony was prepared to waive his clause for Houston Rockets only, in order to play with James Harden and Chris Paul. Since the deal couldn’t be made, mostly because Rockets wanted to include Ryan Anderson’s three years, $60 million contract in the trade, Knicks asked for Melo to expand the list of his preferred teams. Reports said that he added Cleveland Cavaliers and Oklahoma City Thunder, unwilling to enter the training camp as a Knicks player. Since Cavaliers didn’t even consider trading for Melo, Thunder’s GM Sam Presti made another exceptional job and brought him to Oklahoma.

Although it is well known that Melo is past his prime, it is still surprising that Knicks got so little for him. Enes Kanter is a good role player, who will give his team 16 points per night, but he isn’t exactly superstar caliber player and represents a defensive liability. Doug McDermott has shown some flashes through his career, but he isn’t exactly a catch. We can safely say that Thunder got the best out of this deal. They managed to add a superstar like Carmelo Anthony to a team that already has reigning MVP in Russell Westbrook and arguably top 10 NBA player in Paul George. If coach Billy Donovan can work out chemistry issues, then nothing stops Thunder from challenging the Golden State Warriors for the top spot in the Western Conference.

The post New York Knicks Trade Carmelo Anthony to Oklahoma City Thunder appeared first on SportzBonanza.

This might not come as a surprise to many basketball fans, but Carmelo Anthony is leaving Oklahoma City Thunder. Anthony failed to adjust his role in a way Thunder wanted last season, which led to him playing the worst basketball in his career and averaging career low 16.2 points per game. Also, he opted into the final year of his contract, which will push Thunder’s payroll to historic numbers. This is why both sides are looking to end this failed experiment, and OKC already gave permission to other NBA teams to talk with the 34-year-old.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski, Melo will talk with several teams including Miami Heat and Houston Rockets.

Story filed to ESPN: In advance of an inevitable – if not imminent – parting, the Oklahoma City Thunder granted Carmelo Anthony permission to meet with prospective teams, including Houston and Miami. Meetings took place in Vegas in recent days.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 10, 2018

Oklahoma City Thunder and Carmelo Anthony split can be facilitated in several ways. Thunder can find a trade partner who would take on his $27.9 million salary and then waive him. In order to make this happen, Anthony has agreed to waive his no-trade clause. OKC can also use waive-and-stretch provision in his contract and spread his salary over three years. Both scenarios would save Thunder more than $100 million in luxury tax and salary.

The biggest favorites to land Carmelo Anthony when he becomes a free agent are Houston Rockets. Besides the fact that Melo’s friend Chris Paul plays here, the Rockets are in the need of a forward after losing Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute in free agency.

After clashing with Knicks front office in 2017, Anthony agreed to waive his no-trade clause in order to join the OKC. He made a transition to power forward, but never managed to gel with the rest of the roster and experienced long stretches of bad shooting while failing to play a significant role in the Thunder’s short playoff run.

The post Thunder Give Carmelo Anthony Permission to Talk with Other Teams appeared first on SportzBonanza.

We will probably be watching Carmelo Anthony in the Oklahoma City Thunder jersey. According to ESPN‘s Royce Young, Anthony didn’t use his early termination option for the final year of his contract, which means he will be officially a member of the Thunder organization in the 2018-19 season as well.

Carmelo Anthony will earn $27.9 million for the next season, courtesy of the five-year, $120 million contract he signed with the New York Knicks back in 2014.
It remains unclear how happy the OKC front office is with this decision. While Anthony will go down as one of the best scorers in the NBA history, he certainly didn’t show he is worth $27.9 million with his performances for the Thunder in the last season.

He averaged 16.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game, all career lows. One of the reasons for that was the fact that Thunder coach Billy Donovan decided to use Anthony as a power forward, instead of putting him on his natural position of small forward. Also, Anthony didn’t have the ball in his hands as much as he used to, which also affected his ability to score, and later his confidence.

“I think for me, my focus would be on kind of figuring out what I want out of the rest of my career, what I want in my future, what am I willing to accept, if I’m willing to accept that at all,” – said Anthony at the end of the Thunder’s disappointing season which saw them getting bounced in the first round of the playoffs. “I think everybody knows that I’ve sacrificed kind of damned near everything, family, moving here by myself, sacrificed my game for the sake of the team, and was willing to sacrifice anything and everything in order for this situation to work out. So it’s something I really have to think about, if I really want to be this type of player, finish out my career as this type of player, knowing that I have so much left in the tank and I bring so much to the game of basketball.“

The Oklahoma City Thunder face a lot of uncertainty ahead of the next NBA season. One of their star players, Paul George, will become a free agent, while few key bench players are also out of contract.

The post Carmelo Anthony Opts into His Contract With OKC appeared first on SportzBonanza.

Oklahoma City Thunder is currently sitting as the fourth seed in the NBA Western Conference, but their playoff spot still isn’t secured. The Western Conference has been wild this season, with three and a half games difference between the Thunder on the fourth spot and Los Angeles Clippers who are currently sitting at the ninth spot. If you ask Carmelo Anthony, however, there is no doubt that the OKC will make the postseason.

“We’ll be there. We’ll be there,” – said Anthony on Wednesday. “I think we’re confident enough to know that we’ll be there. Where? We’ll see when that time comes, but I believe we’ll be there. It’s something we planned on doing when we put this team together. It’s something at the beginning of the season, this is what we were looking forward to. This is why we put this team together.“

Oklahoma City Thunder has been playing hot and cold in this season, starting 8-12 but managing to have a best fourth record in the NBA since December. Still, they will likely finish under 50 wins, something no one expected from the OKC at the start of the season, when they paired Carmelo Anthony and Paul George with the reigning MVP in Russell Westbrook.

“I think the expectations were put on us,” – said Anthony. “Yeah, of course, we wanted to have a better record at this point in the season with the team that we have, but our expectations were to be the best team we could be with the understanding we have the opportunity to do something great. And we have an opportunity to make a run in these playoffs and potentially play for a championship.“

If Anthony wants to make good on his word and Oklahoma City Thunder wants to clinch home-court advantage in the first round, they will have to really work for it in the remaining seven games, with five of them coming against teams above .500.

The post Carmelo Anthony Guarantees That Oklahoma City Thunder Will Be in the Playoffs appeared first on SportzBonanza.

Carmelo Anthony had his ups and downs as a New York Knicks player. He was the centerpiece of the franchise since he came from the Denver Nuggets in 2011 and certainly the best player in the eyes of the Knicks fans. Sadly, Anthony didn’t do much with the Knicks and parted ways with the team, moving to the Oklahoma City Thunder, where he joined forces with Paul George and reigning MVP Russell Westbrook in hopes he will manage to get a championship. Strange coincidence put the OKC and the Knicks to play their first NBA 2017 season games against each other, so it was interesting to see how Melo will react facing his beloved Knicks while wearing another team’s jersey.

For Melo, playing the Knicks in the season opener was a way to move on, and put behind the turbulent last couple of months. He lost confidence in the franchise and was particularly hurt by the way former Knicks president Phil Jackson treated him. On the other hand, the Knicks wanted to reset and build around their young superstar Kristaps Porzingis. According to Anthony, the Knicks chapter in his basketball career is closed and he is only focused on moving forward with the Thunder.

“Yeah, that chapter’s closed. That chapter’s closed. No more Knicks talk,” – Anthony said. “We can just focus on the Thunder and moving forward and what we have to do as a team and organization. I can say that chapter’s closed.”

Although he had trouble shooting the ball (8 from 20 from the game) against his former team, Melo still ended the game on the high, scoring 22 points alongside having one assist, one rebound, two steals and two blocks. With Melo’s contribution alongside Paul George’s 28 points, and Russell Westbrook’s another triple-double, Oklahoma City Thunder won the game with the final score being 105 – 84.

Anthony was particularly impressed with Westbrook’s performance and added he is excited for where the team is heading.

“You guys are used to it. I’m used to watching it. I’m used to going up against it.” – said Anthony. ” To now be on the other side of that, be on the same team and reap those benefits of what he brings to the game, I’m excited about what we started out tonight, what we created tonight and where we’re headed.“

The post Carmelo Anthony Says Knicks Chapter is Closed appeared first on SportzBonanza.

After settling down in Oklahoma City (at least for a year), Carmelo Anthony decided to speak for SiriusXM and reveal other possible trades that were discussed but never materialized. The first one involved him and his current teammate Paul George being joined in Cleveland.

“Me and PG have a very close friendship,” Anthony said when asked about George. “Actually, it was funny because me and PG was supposed to be in Cleveland on draft night. We were communicating about that. The deal was actually done and it got called off on draft night, so me and PG stayed connected throughout the course of the season.“

Instead of being members of the Cavs, Melo and PG will now try to win it all with Russell Westbrook. Although this is the first time we are hearing about a trade involving both Melo and PG, there was plenty of rumors about Melo joining LeBron James in Cleveland. One of the reasons for why this didn’t happen is the fact that the Cavs didn’t want to part ways with Kevin Love.

Trade to Cleveland wasn’t the only Anthony discussed since he also mentioned that the trade sending him to the Houston Rockets was a “done deal” but also didn’t go through.

“At first, a deal was done with Houston early,” Anthony explained. “Then for some reason, whatever happened behind the scenes, it didn’t go through, it didn’t fall through.“

Houston was Melo’s preferred destination for a long time, and he was willing to waive his no-trade clause only for the Rockets. Despite mutual desire, the Rockets couldn’t find a way to get the deal done with the New York Knicks. The Rockets wanted to include Ryan Anderson’s 3 –year, $60 million deal and Knicks didn’t want to hear anything about it. Instead, they took Enes Kanter and Doug McDermott from the OKC.

The post Carmelo Anthony Was Close to Joining Cleveland Cavaliers and Houston Rockets appeared first on SportzBonanza.

Just when we thought there are no more surprises in what has been an exciting NBA offseason, New York Knicks and Oklahoma City Thunder decided to shake things up. On Saturday the Knicks have traded their superstar Carmelo Anthony to the OKC in exchange for Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott, and Chicago’s 2018 second-round draft pick. Carmelo Anthony had a no-trade clause in his contract and decided to waive it in favor of joining the Thunder. On Monday Thunder had officially introduced Melo.

Lineup. #OKC10 pic.twitter.com/OlqXNz4Noz

— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) September 25, 2017

After it became obvious that the Knicks are determined to build around Kristaps Porzingis, rumors about Melo’s next destination started circling around. The problem was that Melo had 2 more years on his contract with a no-trade clause, which limited the Knicks’ moves. At first, Anthony was prepared to waive his clause for Houston Rockets only, in order to play with James Harden and Chris Paul. Since the deal couldn’t be made, mostly because Rockets wanted to include Ryan Anderson’s three years, $60 million contract in the trade, Knicks asked for Melo to expand the list of his preferred teams. Reports said that he added Cleveland Cavaliers and Oklahoma City Thunder, unwilling to enter the training camp as a Knicks player. Since Cavaliers didn’t even consider trading for Melo, Thunder’s GM Sam Presti made another exceptional job and brought him to Oklahoma.

Although it is well known that Melo is past his prime, it is still surprising that Knicks got so little for him. Enes Kanter is a good role player, who will give his team 16 points per night, but he isn’t exactly superstar caliber player and represents a defensive liability. Doug McDermott has shown some flashes through his career, but he isn’t exactly a catch. We can safely say that Thunder got the best out of this deal. They managed to add a superstar like Carmelo Anthony to a team that already has reigning MVP in Russell Westbrook and arguably top 10 NBA player in Paul George. If coach Billy Donovan can work out chemistry issues, then nothing stops Thunder from challenging the Golden State Warriors for the top spot in the Western Conference.

The post New York Knicks Trade Carmelo Anthony to Oklahoma City Thunder appeared first on SportzBonanza.