The New York Knicks are currently trending out of the playoffs after their heart breaking loss last night to the Indiana Pacers. Making the playoffs in the improved Eastern Conference quickly became a daunting task for the Knicks coming off one of the worst seasons in recent memory.
The team has not seen much success lately, losing 13 out of their last 15 and going 1-4 since interim head coach Kurt Rambis took over on February 8th.
With the Knicks not going anywhere good anytime soon, of course the rumors ran rampant during All-Star Weekend of a potential blockbuster deal involving Knicks star Carmelo Anthony heading to the Cleveland Cavaliers to team up with LeBron James with the Boston Celtics also involved. Carmelo quickly shut down those rumors but according to a new report, the Celtics were also interested in moving on from Kevin Love and acquiring Carmelo Anthony.
Following from Ian Begley of ESPN.
Prior to the trade deadline, the Boston Celtics expressed interest in obtaining Anthony via a trade with the Knicks, according to league sources with knowledge of the situation.
It is unclear if there were any formal discussions between New York and Boston and if those discussions ever reached an advanced stage. But Boston was informed that Anthony had no desire to leave the Knicks via trade to play for the Celtics, sources say.
If this deal were to go down, I would imagine it would involved at least one of the Celtics 2016 first round draft picks and a combination of the young Celtics talents like Kelly Olynyk, Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, Jared Sullinger or even Marcus Smart. It would solve two problems; The Celtics would get a superstar they could turn to at the end of games and the Knicks would get young assets to rebuild towards a new future.
Was this the deal Danny Ainge was teasing one day after the trade deadline? There is a report that it was Jahlil Okafor but I don’t think the rookie was a big enough name. The Knicks are a team that are currently restricted by Carmelo Anthony’s no-trade clause or else Melo might have been long-gone by now.
