Carmelo Anthony

[JMoneyYourHoney]

unless he comes down to earth and realizes he’s nothing more than a great role player now.

He's not even that.

 

[Jscc]

He's not even that.

He has become such a black hole. JR is a better player than current Melo imo.

 

[gourimoko]

What would Thunder want in return?

The idea here is that the primary thing of value in the trade is Melo's contract leaving OKC. So that in itself is an asset. I would imagine given he's owed almost $28, that'd mean only sending out something like Cedi Osman.

How are Cavs supposed to match close to 50 million and the Thunder accepting it?

That's not the hard part. Cavs can send out $39M and take back George (opt-in) + Melo @ $48.7M...

Salary-wise, you're talking about George Hill's expiring, JR Smith's partially-guaranteed contract, Osman's contract, and filler.

 

[col63onel]

Highly doubt they buy him out until the last minute... They'll try to trade him first.

I know the Cavs do not want Melo, and at this point in his career neither do I; but, if taking back Melo was a means of getting George without giving up Love or the BKN pick, would you do it?

We'd probably have to be willing to buy him out if he became a locker room problem. Definitely would have to have LeBron get him to accept a lesser role. And Gilbert might have legit concerns over the luxury tax costs.

But if those 3 things checked out.....don't know how you say no to that.

 

[gourimoko]

Just .. FWIW, you're not doing this trade for Melo; you're doing it for George and to keep Kevin Love as an asset AND keep the BKN pick as an asset.

So for example, if you did this trade, you could then potentially trade for Kemba and another player as well like Beal.

So Osman+expirings for George+Melo (+$10M in salary);
Love for Beal or McCollum straight up (salary-neutral)
BKN pick+Clarkson for Kemba (salary-neutral)

So in that example, you'd end up with Kemba, Beal and Paul George; and even if we used the stretch provision on Melo (if he was truly a cancer on the team and didn't accept a bench role); then for Melo, he gets paid the full amount and can play wherever he wants (say for the Nets?) .. and the Cavs have as close to a competitive team as we could hope for.

I'm not suggesting this is actually possible, as I don't know if OKC would feel compelled to use George leaving as a means to offload Melo .. but my guess is that they would at least consider it.

 

[ShawnKempIsMyDad]

Knowing Lue he'd start point guard, George, LeBron, Melo, Love

I believe it.

 

[gourimoko]

We'd probably have to be willing to buy him out if he became a locker room problem. Definitely would have to have LeBron get him to accept a lesser role. And Gilbert might have legit concerns over the luxury tax costs.

But if those 3 things checked out.....don't know how you say no to that.

Agreed on all counts...

 

[czvo]

Just .. FWIW, you're not doing this trade for Melo; you're doing it for George and to keep Kevin Love as an asset AND keep the BKN pick as an asset.

So for example, if you did this trade, you could then potentially trade for Kemba and another player as well like Beal.

So Osman+expirings for George+Melo (+$10M in salary);
Love for Beal straight up (salary-neutral)
BKN pick+Clarkson for Kemba (salary-neutral)

So in that example, you'd end up with Kemba, Beal and Paul George; and even if we used the stretch provision on Melo (if he was truly a cancer on the team and didn't accept a bench role); then for Melo, he gets paid the full amount and can play wherever he wants (say for the Nets?) .. and the Cavs have as close to a competitive team as we could hope for.

I'm not suggesting this is actually possible, as I don't know if OKC would feel compelled to use George leaving as a means to offload Melo .. but my guess is that they would at least consider it.

LOL at the idea that the Nets would pick up Melo, even for the minimum.

 

[gourimoko]

LOL at the idea that the Nets would pick up Melo, even for the minimum.

Just suggesting he might consider playing close to home... He'd have an opportunity to play anywhere he liked for a year on the Cavs dime.

 

[ShawnKempIsMyDad]

Just .. FWIW, you're not doing this trade for Melo; you're doing it for George and to keep Kevin Love as an asset AND keep the BKN pick as an asset.

So for example, if you did this trade, you could then potentially trade for Kemba and another player as well like Beal.

So Osman+expirings for George+Melo (+$10M in salary);
Love for Beal straight up (salary-neutral)
BKN pick+Clarkson for Kemba (salary-neutral)

So in that example, you'd end up with Kemba, Beal and Paul George; and even if we used the stretch provision on Melo (if he was truly a cancer on the team and didn't accept a bench role); then for Melo, he gets paid the full amount and can play wherever he wants (say for the Nets?) .. and the Cavs have as close to a competitive team as we could hope for.

I'm not suggesting this is actually possible, as I don't know if OKC would feel compelled to use George leaving as a means to offload Melo .. but my guess is that they would at least consider it.

If George leaves they have no reason to keep Melo. He costs too much. They could use the money they spend on him to bolster their bench, which probably would make them become a better overall team.

 

[gourimoko]

If George leaves they have no reason to keep Melo. He costs too much. They could use the money they spend on him to bolster their bench, which probably would make them become a better overall team.

I don't think they want to keep him, nor do I think he wants to stay -- but his contract and his No Trade Clause make him unmovable.

So the question is, if George is leaving and IF (and only if) George would opt-in to be traded to Cleveland; then does OKC want to spend $30M just to spite the Cavs?

 

[col63onel]

Agreed on all counts...

Although, curious what package we could put together that would be better to OKC than letting PG13 walk.

To match salary, we'd probably have to trade 2 of Hill/JR/TT, all of him are owed for 2 more seasons. Would Zizic and Osman really be worth killing any cap flexibility for 2 years?

 

[Ohio]

This is an interesting conversation.

But, I'm struggling to see it from OKCs perspective. Why wouldn't OKC just buy out Melo themselves? Why use George as a way to get out of Melo's 1 year deal, to then just pay whatever guys we send back in the trade?

 

[czvo]

Just suggesting he might consider playing close to home... He'd have an opportunity to play anywhere he liked for a year on the Cavs dime.

I'm sure he would LOVE to play in Brooklyn. I was laughing at the idea of Brooklyn signing him.

Not a shot in hell Brooklyn would do that.

 

[gourimoko]

Although, curious what package we could put together that would be better to OKC than letting PG13 walk.

To match salary, we'd probably have to trade 2 of Hill/JR/TT, all of him are owed for 2 more seasons. Would Zizic and Osman really be worth killing any cap flexibility for 2 years?

Here's a thought:

Cavs work out a deal to trade the BKN pick (player) + salary for Charlotte's 2018 Top-8 protected first+Kemba (protections diminish over time). That would give us Kemba + a future lottery pick to trade; we then trade that plus Osman+salary (Hill/Smith) for George+Melo.

As far as cap flexibility, George's salary is only guaranteed for 2019-20; and Smith has a $3-4M guarantee in 2019-20. Our $5.1M in cash should effectively make both 2019 expirings. So almost all of that money would come off the books in 2019-20 regardless.

For the Thunder, if George is walking, does it make sense to keep Melo and pay him out the year, or to trade him for expirings plus some minor assets?