Phil Jackson and Carmelo Anthony apparently do have something in common: LeBron James as an ally.
According to a league source, LeBron is the one pushing the Cleveland Cavaliers front office to acquire Carmelo even if it potentially means having to include Kevin Love in a deal, which is something Cavs management is opposed to doing. Jackson is hoping to move Anthony prior to the Feb. 23 trading deadline and one player the Knicks have targeted is Love, who had 23 points with 16 rebounds in Cleveland’s win over the Knicks on Saturday and 39 points with 16 rebounds in Monday’s overtime win against Washington.
The Cavs vehemently denied that LeBron, who has been at odds with the front office, is forcing the team to make a deal for Anthony. In fact, LeBron called it “trash” while Cavs head coach Tyronn Lue said “Kevin (Love) should be happy that teams want him, but he’s not going anywhere”
Any deal for Anthony would require the Knicks leading scorer to waive his no-trade clause and the consensus is that Anthony would agree to play for the defending champs and his long-time friend LeBron.
The Daily News reported last February that James and Anthony discussed forcing a trade to Cleveland but Anthony said he wasn’t ready to leave New York and thus did not ask the team to pursue a possible trade. With the Knicks at 22-31 after Monday’s loss to the Lakers and in jeopardy of missing the playoffs for a fourth straight season, Anthony knows his championship window is closing fast.
Whether LeBron has enough influence over the Cavs front office and owner Dan Gilbert to force a trade is unclear. ESPN reported last month that James is upset that management did not honor its commitment to find a suitable back-up point guard. The Cavs have since worked out several free agent point guards, including Mario Chalmers and Lance Stephenson.
A deal involving Carmelo is complicated because of Anthony’s salary. For the Cavs to acquire Anthony without including Love in the deal would require the Knicks to take back at least three role players in order to match salaries. And that’s something the Knicks may be reluctant to do, anyway.
The Cavs could look to recruit a third team but Cleveland is in no hurry to part with Love, an All Star who is also younger than Anthony and serves a specific role on the team. And while Cleveland doesn’t want to alienate the NBA’s best player, the Cavs do have James under contract through the 2017-18 season.
In past years, the Cavs have gone out of their way to placate LeBron, including the decision to fire David Blatt and promote Lue to head coach. In fact, LeBron also pushed for the Cavs to acquire Love from Minnesota three summers ago in a deal that included former top overall pick Andrew Wiggins.
The Cavs front office may draw a line in the sand. Coincidentally, former Bulls GM Jerry Krause recently told Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski that Michael Jordan never went to the Bulls front office and made any kind of similar request to LeBron’s.
“I will say one thing for Michael Jordan,” Krause said. “(He) never came to me and asked for other players. He never came to me and asked me to draft a player. Never came to me and asked to trade for a player. Never once did that happen. Part of it was he thought he was so darn good he could win without ’em. He understood what we had to do as an organization.”
LeBron, like Jordan, also has the ability to get the best out of his teammates. During Saturday’s win at the Garden, LeBron spent much of the game running the offense without All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving. He created open shots for his teammates all night and if a couple of former Knicks, Channing Frye and Iman Shumpert, had been a little more accurate with their outside shooting, the Cavs could have won by 40.
If you don’t think he’ll get the most out of Anthony, think back to the 2012 Olympics when Carmelo was coming off the bench for the U.S. and flourishing with LeBron running the show.
On Saturday, LeBron expertly avoided weighing in on Jackson’s and Anthony’s deteriorating relationship. No need to enter that minefield, especially since LeBron publicly criticized Jackson in December for referring to his friends and business partners as a “posse.” Anthony piled on, saying that Jackson shouldn’t be talking about another player in that manner.
But now the three are linked by a potential trade. There are other suitors, namely the Clippers, who will be in town on Wednesday. The Celtics would do a deal if they can steal Anthony, and Oklahoma City is interested but it’s unlikely that Carmelo would sign off on that deal.
Cleveland remains in play, mostly because of LeBron. Phil needs his help.
