It sounds like Phil Jackson and the New York Knicks want to deal Carmelo Anthony as quickly as possible.
Anthony has had a falling out of sorts with Jackson and the New York front office over the past couple of weeks while the Knicks under perform on the court.
It turns out, according to Adrian Wojnarowski and Chris Mannix of The Vertical, the Knicks have reached out to the Los Angeles Clippers, Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers about Anthony:
Knicks president Phil Jackson is determined to find a destination and deal that Anthony would agree to accept before the Feb. 23 NBA trade deadline, league sources said.
Jackson is determined to rid the roster of Anthony and his contract, and start rebuilding around Kristaps Porzingis, league sources said.
The Cavaliers, at least, had no interest in dealing Kevin Love in exchange for Anthony, according to ESPN.com’s Marc Stein and Chris Haynes:
League sources told ESPN on Wednesday that the Knicks approached the Cavaliers to gauge their interest in swapping All-Star forwards but were told Cleveland was not interested in such an exchange.
It won’t be easy to find a landing spot for Anthony, who is 32 years old and comes with a huge price tag. Anthony being willing to waive his no-trade clause wouldn’t come as a shock, not after an implosion in New York after the team went into win-now mode with Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah.
The Celtics might be the team likliest to take on Anthony, with too many jumbled contractual matters floating around the Clippers. Whether Boston can come up with an acceptable package remains to be seen.
Either way, New York sounds done with Anthony and a move seems like just a matter of time.
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