Melo traded to the Hawks

Anthony is expected to be waived and become a free agent, but where will he end up next?

It may be at the second time of asking but the Rockets will finally land their man after they attempted to acquire him last summer in a trade with the New York Knicks.

On Thursday afternoon, the answer arrived.

Atlanta sent Mike Muscala to the 76ers, who sent Justin Anderson to the Hawks and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot to the Thunder. The Thunder also generated a $10.9 million trade exception by making the deal. Therefore, you should not expect to see him shooting any jumpers in a Hawks uniform.

The Thunder made it very clear that Melo wasn’t part of their long-term plans, especially considering his insane player-option worth almost $28 million.

The Rockets are now linked to Carmelo Anthony, who was recently traded to the Atlanta Hawks and is expected to be waived in the coming days.

Still, Anthony could help a team looking for a scoring punch and the Rockets would like some more help in their quest to take down the Warriors. They chose instead to spend a little more and get some on court contribution from Schroder at $15.5 million.

To put that in context: No team in National Basketball Association history has cleared the $200 million barrier.

Those emojis tell it all – Schroder is clearly excited about the move to Oklahoma City. Schroder shared a photo of himself in a photoshopped Oklahoma City jersey.

Anthony’s lone season in Oklahoma City was largely a bust.

The fit isn’t ideal, though. Being on the same team as one of his closest friends in the league could put Melo in a positive light after tumultuous runs in NY and OKC.

Getting rid of Anthony was a great move because they would have had to buy him out otherwise.

Last season, Schroeder averaged 1.09 points per possession on isolation-based plays.

Moving Schroder from the team has been a top priority after the team drafted Trae Young with the #5 overall draft pick. In order to make that happen, the team needed to sweeten the pot with a protected first-round pick that’s ultimately the real return for the Hawks in this trade. The Hawks want to struggle and lose the next couple of seasons and by taking on Anthony’s contract, they will have less money to spend on other players. Dennis Schroder had also publicly stated that he was dissatisfied with the Atlanta Hawks franchise.

Until the past few days, that may have been the extent of the impact of this trade. He was part of team’s franchise-record 59 win-season in 2017/2018.