Charlotte Hornets: Another Carmelo Trade Option?
One option the Charlotte Hornets might pursue is a desperate Knicks team trying to deal Carmelo Anthony.
The Charlotte Hornets have retained the services of Rich Cho for another year. He has exactly one year to work some magic or the team will probably cut him loose and try someone else. The time for half measures and talk may be over.
There is one fortunate occurrence at work here, the New York Knicks and Carmelo Anthony are certainly headed for divorce (a divorce negotiated by Anthony, but still). Carmelo will still be under contract for two more years at around $24.5 per year. That would actually give his next team some time to evaluate without being stuck with him for too long.
Carmelo seems to be headed for decline and his vaunted three point percentage has gone from 40% to around 35% over the past five years. He is entering a phase in his career where his three point shot will be more valuable to him than his other abilities, so I would not worry about that too much. He still averages twenty-two points and six rebounds.
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For the Hornets, Anthony provides a liability in a couple of ways. One is his tendency to stop the ball when he gets it. The Hornets have been trying a more free form offense that relies on the ball moving around. The other liability is defense, can Carmelo be goaded into playing better defense? The issue here is that the Hornets would most likely have to surrender their best perimeter defender (Michael Kidd-Gilchrist) to make a trade work.
However Anthony would provide the second reliable scorer next to Kemba Walker that the team needs. He would take scoring pressure off of Batum, who could focus on his role as basketball conduit. A perimeter troika of Walker, Batum, and Anthony sounds pretty menacing on paper.
The Knicks have more problems than just the fate of Anthony. They also have an injured Joakim Noah to deal with, and there is no solution to that being possible. That means they could use some big man help. Cody Zeller’s contract is not currently a fit for that, but it will be when the new league year starts and Zeller’s extension kicks in.
The most expensive big man on the Hornets’ roster is Miles Plumlee, but I don’t think the Knicks would be interested in combining his talents with those of his brother Marshall. I would rather give up Plumlee than Zeller any day, but we have to be realistic here. Any lost big man would have to be addressed in the draft.