NBA Rumors: Latest Trade Buzz on Carmelo Anthony, Markieff Morris
With college football buzzing, the MLB pennant race heating up and the NFL finally back, some sports fans might forget about basketball.
Don’t do that.
While the regular season is still a month and change away, the NBA grapevine is thankfully still popping out rumors left and right.
Now is as good of a time as any to dive into two of the biggest involving trades. But first, check all that football and baseball business at the door.
From this point on, it's only about hoops.
Markieff Morris’ Whining Not Working
Markieff Morris wants a trade. But sometimes, we don’t get what we want.
Morris is upset at the Phoenix Suns for trading his brother, Marcus, to the Detroit Pistons back in July. The twins have shared the hardwood together their entire lives, so playing on different teams is going to be tough.
But guess what? That’s life.
Markieff doesn’t seem to understand that. The 26-year-old has stomped his feet and whined about wanting a trade, but the NBA is a business, not a daycare.
According to Zach Lowe of Grantland, Phoenix isn’t giving into Morris’ demands: "Phoenix doesn’t seem especially motivated to deal Morris now, per several league sources, and Jeff Hornacek, the team’s head coach, told local reporters on Tuesday he’s hopeful Morris and the franchise can reconcile."
This comes about a month after Morris declared to Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer that he’s through with the Suns:
"One thing for sure, I am not going to be there. …
If you want to put that out there, you can put that out. I don't give a [freak]. I am not going to be there at all. That's just what it is.
"
After the Suns came across as unwilling to succumb, the NBA slapped Morris with a fine of $10,000 for publicly demanding a move, per Marc Stein of ESPN.
Morris’ stats have improved each of the four years he’s been in the league. After scoring 7.4 points and grabbing 4.4 boards as a rookie out of Kansas, the 6’10” forward upped his averages to 8.2 and 4.8 before taking a huge leap in 2013-14, where he scored 13.8 points and cleaned the glass for six rebounds.
Last season, Morris gave the Suns a nightly line of 15.3 points and 6.2 boards. Both were Phoenix’s third-most in 2014-15.
Will Morris eventually get himself together and have a solid season once the weather gets cooler and the leaves start turning? Probably.
Hopefully—for the Suns’ sake, at least—he realizes that he’s getting paid to play basketball, sucks it up and helps the team win some games.
Melo Hears the Rumors
Lowe also mentions in passing that the New York Knicks are inching closer to the idea of a Carmelo Anthony trade.
Here’s what the pride of Grantland wrote in regard to prospective suitors for Morris: "The Kings and Knicks should take a look, even though neither has movable assets that would interest Phoenix — unless the Knicks are ready to engage in Carmelo Anthony trade talks. (They’re not there, yet. But they’re getting closer.)"
Now, as it always does whenever someone drops a Knicks bomb, Twitter went wild.
Anthony had his ear to the streets, though, and posted this Instagram picture with the following caption: "I should throw the ball at you clowns!!!! I hear the whispers!!!!"
He attached three laugh-crying emojis to the end of that.
Appropriately so—because the idea of New York trading Melo now is comical.
Look, Anthony is coming off a campaign in which he limped to the All-Star break and then shut down the rest of the season with a creaky knee. He’s going to turn 32 in May.
If Phil Jackson and the ‘Bockers really do want to trade Anthony, they need to wait, hope that he lights it up early in the season—even up to the deadline, if necessary—and then pull the trigger.
Fringe playoff teams are going to give up a much greater ransom for a healthy All-Star-caliber player than they will for an aging scorer coming off an injury.
B/R’s Dan Favale provided some context on why a Melo deal is, at the moment, far-fetched:
Now, this is in no way being written to paint an unfavorable picture of Melo. When healthy, No. 7 is truly one of the game’s elite offensive players.
At his hottest, Anthony might even be the best scorer in basketball. But unfortunately for the Knicks, he’s not always healthy or heating up.
Jackson’s best move is probably holding on to Anthony and hoping that No. 4 pick Kristaps Porzingis develops into a superstar. Being that he’s a highly skilled freak of nature, it’s a possibility, for sure. And Anthony has already made it known that he’d play sidekick when/if the time comes (h/t Steve Popper of NorthJersey.com).
That should be the Knicks’ play...for now.
If Anthony comes out and lights a flame on every net he sees—and, most importantly, everything about the Knicks is dreadful again—then it might be time to start thinking about a deal.
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