Carmelo Anthony made it very clear that he wanted to be traded to the Houston Rockets this offseason, but the New York Knicks did not grant him his wish. After months of talking with the Rockets, the Knicks decided to trade Anthony to the Oklahoma City Thunder. It was a trade that Anthony accepted, but it was not his preferred destination.
According to Anthony in a recent interview, a trade with the Rockets was done, but was never completed.
“A deal was done with Houston,” Anthony said. “For some reason, it didn’t go through.”
Perhaps that had something to do with new reports that have surfaced that the Knicks did not want to take on Ryan Anderson’s contract. Maybe, the Knicks decided that they didn’t want to give Anthony his first wish. Whatever the reason may be, Anthony seems to be happy with his final landing spot.
Anthony will team with fellow superstars Russell Westbrook and Paul George in an attempt to compete with the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference. He is expected to start at the power forward position, which is something that he has been very open about disliking. That being said, it sounds like he is accepting the role in OKC.
“I’ve been playing the 4 almost all my career. “Even in Denver, we was one of those teams with George Karl, kinda started going playing that small ball, putting me at the 4, picking up the pace. We kind of started that. And the league wasn’t ready for that at that time. It was all about traditional bigs and power forwards and centers. And now, it’s just whoever.”
Houston will also be a contender in the West, with James Harden and Chris Paul leading the way. Anthony may have preferred a trade to Houston, but the Thunder can give him a chance to compete for a championship for at least one season before he has the opportunity to opt out of his contract at the end of the year.
It will be interesting to see how Anthony fits with the Thunder and how the team does in general. They have a lot of talent on their roster, but there is a good chance that the players will not mesh well enough to win a title.