Carmelo Anthony to the Celtics... hypothetically

The New York Knicks as an organization have been one big soap opera for the past couple of years. Not only did they piss off alumni such as Charles Oakley, or one of the most promising young players in the NBA in Kristaps Porzingis, the Knicks also managed to push Carmelo Anthony out of New York. He has been publicly on the trade block since last season, and there have been a multitude of theories about where he will go.

Melo has a ton of leverage in negotiations with different teams because of his no trade clause. He ultimately decides what team he will waive his clause for. There has been a lot of talk about him going to both the Houston Rockets, and the Cleveland Cavaliers. In fact, there has been talk about Anthony going to just about every team in the NBA.



Most of these trade rumors have been entirely unrealistic. Carmelo has made it very clear that he will no waive his clause for just any team. There are also tons of different factors that go into trading for Anthony. The following is one of those entirely unrealistic theories that will never see the light of day.

With that said, the Boston Celtics should trade for Carmelo Anthony.

Hear me out. I'm not trying to say that the Celtics should give up a lot for Anthony and try to make him a franchise piece. I don't even think the guy should start. I just think that if for whatever reason he doesn't end up in Houston like he is expected to, this would work for both sides.

Anthony wants to be somewhere he can win a championship. Boston is about as close as any other team in the NBA that isn't branded as the Golden State Warriors. The Knicks forward needs to understand that he is not the super-star caliber player he used to be. That man is 33 years old.

Despite that, Carmelo can easily be an important piece of a championship team. He is one of the most prolific scorers in NBA history. If he can swallow his pride and take a smaller role for an already great team, the sky's the limit. He's clearly still one of the better players in the NBA, as last season marked his 10th all-star appearance. Coming off the bench, he could be the Celtics' missing piece.


Melo would provide a spark of the bench reminiscent of a Jamal Crawford. Instead of being expected to carry a team like he is in New York right now, he would just be expected to score the ball, something he has always been great at. In his 15 NBA seasons, Anthony has never averaged less than 20 points a game. He is, again, one of the best and most natural scorers the NBA has ever seen.

In addition to scoring points off the bench for Boston, Carmelo would also be the perfect mentor to rookie Jayson Tatum. Jayson has been compared to Anthony throughout his lone season at Duke University, scoring with ease in a multitude of different ways. With the Knicks forward showing Tatum the ropes, the rookie could hopefully grow to become a scorer like Carmelo.

Once again, this is a situation that, unfortunately, is simply hypothetical. Anthony will be traded somewhere in which he can thrive as the first option, second option at most. The Celtics still have one of the best teams in the NBA, and young Jayson Tatum has an enormous amount of potential. It's just a shame that Melo and Boston won't be able to benefit from this joint partnership.

Image: Corey Spikin/New York Daily News
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