Thunder Give Carmelo Anthony Permission to Talk with Other Teams

Carmelo Anthony. Photo by Madison McGaw/BFA/REX/Shutterstock

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.

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.

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