Saturday, April 22, 2017

Celtics Trade for Carmelo Anthony

The latest rumor in the Carmelo Anthony drama has the Celtics linked to the All-Star forward. At the trade deadline Anthony was seemingly willing to waive his no-trade clause because of the tension between him and Phil Jackson. Boston was linked to him then as well. Boston General Manager was not willing at the time to trade significant role players or draft picks to the Knicks, despite Boston's coaching staff's desire to acquire him. Now with the playoffs in full effect and the offseason looming, the rumor is back. Should the Celtics trade for Carmelo though? That is genuinely a tough question. If the Celtics do trade for him, neither of Brooklyn's draft picks would be involved. That doesn't seem to be a big issue due to New York's desire to move on from Carmelo. The Celtics would however have to trade Jaw Crowder and likely Terry Rozier or Marcus Smart. My proposed trade is Jae Crowder, Terry Rozier, two 2nd Round Picks and sign and trade Kelly Olynyk for Carmelo Anthony and Willy Hernangomez. New York will be wary of trading Hernangomez but with bad contract of Joakim Noah and the desire to move Carmelo they will likely give in.
Financially this should work out and give the Celtics room to sign their stash players and their 1st Round Pick. RealGM estimates the Celtics max cap space will be around 35 million. Max cap space being after renouncing rights to free agents and waiving non guaranteed contracts. Carmelo is making around 26 million next season and Hernangomez about 1.5 million. That gives the Celtics about 7.5 million to play with plus the 7 million moved to New York from Jaw Crowder and 1.5 million from Terry Rozier. That leaves Boston about 16 million before signing their picks. If the Celtics get the number 1 overall pick that will cost about 6 million. Signing Guerschon Yabusele would be around 2.5 million, Ante Zizic about 2 million and Abdel Nader about 1 million. That doesn't leave much left but the can use their room exception to bring back Gerald Green and keep Demetrius Jackson and Jordan Mickey instead of waiving them. The Celtics will likely have to add one more veteran player to help develop and take the pressure off the young players, They'll have a room exception so that likely won't be a problem.
The Celtics team would look something like this.
Starters
  1. Isaiah Thomas
  2. Avery Bradley
  3. Carmelo Anthony
  4. Al Horford
  5. Willy Hernangomez
Reserves
  1. Marcus Smart
  2. Markelle Fultz
  3. Jaylen Brown
  4. Guerschon Yabusele
  5. Ante Zizic
Bench
  1. Gerald Green
  2. Abdel Nader
  3. Jordan Mickey
  4. Demetrius Jackson
Carmelo brings a player who can create his own offense, scoring multiple ways and play small ball. He also takes a lot of pressure off Isaiah Thomas. Hernangomez brings desperately needed rebounding and post presence. On the negative side Carmelo can be streaking and isn't as good of a defender as Jae Crowder. Carmelo does however bring a the veteran leadership and a desire to win that Boston needs.  So should the Celtics trade for Carmelo? I say yes.