In another strange twist to the Carmelo Anthony trade-drama the Houston Rockets are now pushing to acquire Anthony as talks have stalled between the Nets, Nuggets and Pistons. According to various sources, one of which I’ll mention below, the Rockets are said to be offering the expiring contracts of Yao Ming and Shane Battier while potentially including leading scorer Kevin Martin in trade proposals.
This Carmelo Anthony drama-fest just keeps on getting more interesting.
While Sunday’s trade rumor centered around the three teams mentioned above (READ ABOUT THOSE RUMORS BY CLICKING HERE) it appears Houston wants to take advantage of the lull in the action.
Here is the report, via SI.com:
While the Rockets don’t have a franchise talent like New Jersey’s Derrick Favors, they can offer cap relief in the expiring contract of Yao Ming ($17.7 million), Shane Battier ($7.4 million) and Jared Jeffries ($6.9 million), as well young talent like leading scorer Kevin Martin or Aaron Brooks, the NBA’s 2009-10 Most Improved Player. Houston also has the right to swap draft picks with the Knicks in 2011 and it owns New York’s pick outright in 2012.
It is unclear if Anthony would be willing to sign an extension with Houston or if the Rockets are willing to make a deal for Anthony without the extension. Sources told SI.com in August that Anthony would be willing to sign with the Rockets but that was before Yao’s season-ending injury.
This is a potentially awesome deal for Denver, in my opinion. While the source above states that a deal “isn’t close” this scenario is certainly worth looking at.
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First, the Nuggets would receive a bona-fide scoring threat in Kevin Martin, who happens to be leading the NBA in both free-throws made and three-pointers made while averaging a healthy 23.2 points per game. In fact, if you compare Anthony’s numbers to Martin’s, including advanced statistics, they match up very well.
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Martin has notable defensive deficiencies but is Carmelo that incredible at that end anyway? Anthony is clearly the superior rebounder and they don’t play the same position but those are relatively small points - I’m sure both George Karl and Rick Adelman could make this work.
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As far as Yao Ming is concerned, what if a miracle happens and the guy heals? Having a healthy Kevin Martin on the perimeter and Yao in the post could be dynamite if the balls bounce in Denver’s favor.
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If they don’t? They save a ton of cash by acquiring Yao regardless and can simply sign him to an incentive-laden short-term deal in the off-season or trade him before the deadline. Plus the deal would include Shane Battier who remains a solid defender, leader and “glue guy” who happens to also have an expiring contract.
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This would be a big win-win for Denver if Carmelo would actually sign an extension with Houston.
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This is the kicker, of course. I happen to think he would thrive in coach Rick Adelman’s offensive schemes and Anthony playing alongside youngster Aaron Brooks and post-threat Luis Scola would be quite entertaining and competitive right out of the gate.
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I don’t expect this to happen as Anthony seems content on pushing for a deal to either the Knicks or Nets but why wouldn’t he at least entertain a trade to the Rockets?
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They would certainly be far more competitive than a Billups-Hamilton-Anthony-Lopez combination, don’t you think?
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Your thoughts?
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