Report: Carmelo Anthony Will Go To The Hawks, Then Be Set Free

With the combined efforts of NBA reporters Adrian Wojnarowski, Shams Charania, and Royce Young, a picture of this three-team deal between the Thunder, Hawks, and Sixers has emerged. Carmelo Anthony is headed out of Oklahoma City to Atlanta, where he will be waived and paid $27.9 million. Nice work if you can get it. Atlanta also gets a lottery-protected first-round pick to sweeten the Melo payout. In return, OKC gets Dennis Schroder and Mike Muscala, who won’t be staying put.

OKC will send Muscala to Philly, Philly will send Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot to OKC, and Philly will send Justin Anderson to Atlanta.

That protected pick is fairly depressing return on Schroder for these Hawks, who clearly didn’t find many takers on the trade market while tanking, and are now steering their backcourt in a fresh direction with Jeremy Lin and their first-round pickups, Trae Young and Kevin Huerter. Meanwhile Oklahoma City sheds some dead weight, shrinks its luxury tax, and gets a spunky sixth man who can create a little off the bounce. As for what becomes of Carmelo Anthony—who knows? What’s his price tag at this point? Does he do anything besides make fellow banana-boater Chris Paul happy? It’s hard to understand how he would help the Rockets do what they do unless he’s willing to radically reinvent himself. He seemed resistant to do that for the Thunder.