Carmelo Anthony: Thunder will trade or release star in 2018, per report

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The Carmelo Anthony era is coming to an end in Oklahoma City. The Thunder are exploring options to either trade or release the 10-time All-Star in order to shave more than $100 million from the club’s bloated salary cap and luxury tax, according to a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

A trade or release via the league’s stretch provision would end Anthony’s Oklahoma tenure at just a single season. The Thunder made a big splash by shipping Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott, and a 2018 second-round pick to the Knicks to acquire the gifted scorer last September. While the team hoped he, Russell Westbrook, and Paul George would be a potent enough trio to lead the team back to NBA title contention, the three ball-dominant players struggled to find a comfortable stasis between them.

The result was, statistically, the worst season of Anthony’s NBA life. He posted career lows in field goal percentage (40.4%) and points per game (16.2) as Oklahoma City only improved its record by a single game in 2017-18. Much like the year before, the Thunder were ousted in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.

What does this mean for the Thunder?

Oklahoma City had few options to improve its roster thanks to the league’s most bloated cap sheet. The Thunder were the first team in league history to carry more than $300 million in salaries and luxury tax penalties, but had little to show for it. With Paul George locked in for another four years on the plains, Anthony was an expensive and redundant luxury.

While the team loses its third-best scorer, it gains tremendous financial relief — an important facet for the franchise that once traded away 2018 NBA MVP James Harden rather than hand him a nine-figure contract. Trading or stretching Anthony will save the team $91 million in luxury tax penalties. That won’t exactly get the team out of cap hell, but it does make things much easier to manage going forward.

Which is good, because Oklahoma City will be weighted down with plenty of other long-term contracts over the next few years. The club isn’t slated to have any realistic, non-exception cap space until 2021. Barring extremely unforeseen circumstances, any improvements to the roster will have to come through the draft or via trade — and getting other teams to take on those big contracts would likely eat up the team’s draft capital.

Dope article from sbnation.com

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