The New York Knicks tried to talk to the Cleveland Cavaliers about swapping Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Love but were quickly rejected, according to ESPN's Marc Stein and Chris Haynes. It continues, then, to look like Anthony, who has both a no-trade clause and a trade kicker built into his contract, is not going to Cleveland and probably not anywhere else for that matter.
From ESPN:
League sources told ESPN.com on Wednesday that the Knicks have approached the Cavaliers to gauge their interest in swapping All-Star forwards but were told that Cleveland is not interested in such an exchange.
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The Knicks' thinking, sources said, is that they would have gone to Anthony to discuss waiving his no-trade clause had Cleveland shown interest in the deal.
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Although James and Anthony are incredibly close and have both expressed interest in playing together someday, sources say Cleveland is not prepared to surrender Love to get him after the role Love played in helping the Cavaliers win the first championship in franchise history last June.
A quick-ish recap of the Anthony-to-Cavs nonsense: On Jan. 12, Knicks president Phil Jackson's friend and sometimes co-author Charley Rosen wrote a column not only arguing Anthony had "outlived his usefulness in New York," but stating that the star forward would not entertain trades to any team other than the Cavaliers or the Los Angeles Clippers. Anthony was upset about the story, then met with Jackson and said he intended to stay with the Knicks. Since then, he has said that he'd "have to consider" waiving his no-trade clause if management wanted to go in a different direction. Then on Wednesday, he said he thinks LeBron James would want to play with him, while ESPN reported that Cleveland has "no interest" in trading for him.
All of this is much ado about nothing. It would be fun to see Carmelo on the same team as his friend LeBron, but it's not realistic if the asking price is Love. Of course the Knicks asked, and of course the Cavs said no.
