Trail Blazers players have reached out to Carmelo Anthony, but he isn’t interested in waiving his no-trade clause to join Portland, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on The Jump (transcribed by Jared Cowley of KGW.com):
“Portland’s players are reaching out to Melo,” Wojnarowski said. “Portland would love to get involved in this and become a team that Melo would consider. … They would like for Carmelo to waive his no-trade and go to Portland, but right now, that’s not something Melo’s considering.”
…
Despite Anthony’s preference to join the Rockets, the Blazers remain committed to pursuing Anthony, Wojnarowski said.
“You look at the infrastructure in Portland of CJ McCollum, Dame Lillard and Jusuf Nurkic in the middle, [and] Carmelo on that team in Portland? Portland feels like, ‘You plug Melo into our team, we’re as good as anyone outside of Golden State in the West.’ “
The Blazers want Anthony to themselves, and aren’t interested in being a third team to facilitate a Melo trade to Houston:
“Sources tell me New York and Houston tried to pull Portland into a three-way, potentially a four-way deal,” he said. “Portland does not have any interest in helping Houston, a conference rival, get Carmelo Anthony.”
