There's a chance Carmelo Anthony could leave the New York Knicks in free agency, leaving the franchise with nothing in return.
As the Knicks continue to struggle, there is a stronger possibility of Melo leaving in the summer. With that, the Knicks could unload the star small forward now to at least get some type of return back.
According to ESPN's Chris Broussard, a deal could happen between the Knicks and Los Angeles Clippers where a player swap of Melo for Blake Griffin would occur.
Sources say that the Clippers brass has had discussions about such a deal. Currently, both teams have been in discussions about this kind of deal.
For a while now, we've seen rumors pop up of this type of trade where Melo winds up in Los Angeles, with the Knicks getting a player like DeAndre Jordan or Griffin in return.
New York could definitely use a rebuild after the disaster they're having, and Griffin could be the perfect piece. He's young at 24, and is a solid building block for a young team that would be in another rebuilding stage likely.
Griffin has been averaging about 26 points and 11 rebounds per game in his past 10 games, and is showing he can become the best power forward in the league as he continues to improve this season.
It'd be interesting to see the deal go down. There's some light to it, as it's been said that Chris Paul and Anthony have been wanting to team up with each other for years now.
With Paul locked up with the Knicks for the next half-decade, Anthony still has a choice of where he wants to play. CP3 alone could be enough to convince Melo to move in free agency, and if the Knicks know now, they could pull such a deal off.
We'll see what happens, but this is definitely one of the more interesting trade rumors in a while.