Carmelo Anthony Reportedly Tried to Enter Knicks Contract Buyout Discussions

Carmelo Anthony may indeed depart the New York Knicks this summer, but a buyout does not appear to be on the table.              

On Tuesday, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported "Anthony's camp, while acknowledging Melo's preference to stay in NYC, has tried to engage the Knicks in buyout talks."

But Stein added that the Knicks have "resisted the idea of a Melo buyout that would clear the way for him to join the [Cleveland Cavaliers]."        

Anthony's departure from the Knicks would surprise exactly no one. Knicks' president Phil Jackson has undertaken a public and controversial campaign intended to convince Anthony to waive his no-trade clause to allow the Knicks to rebuild around younger players.

Jackson again reiterated his desire to see Anthony play elsewhere at the NBA draft.

"We've expressed the fact that we haven't been successful and it might be time for (Carmelo) to find an opportunity to go somewhere else," Jackson said during an interview on the MSG Network, via Brent Axe of Syracuse.com. "He's come back and said he'd just as soon stay. There'll be conversations after the draft and after the free agency as teams start reorganizing their rosters. So there will be other conversations in the process."

But Jackson's handling of the Anthony situation—combined with the team's bizarre move to admit they were listening to trade offers for young superstar Kristaps Porzingis last week—has stained the team's reputation, according to Zach Lowe of ESPN.com: 

And as Stein added, Anthony truly has all of the leverage in this ongoing saga: 

In other words, the Knicks have painted themselves into a corner. Anthony can choose his destination in a trade and can even potentially boycott a deal if he feels a team would be giving up too many assets to be competitive in order to bring him aboard. But if the Knicks buy him out, they lose him for nothing.

And if they keep him, well, the saga continues for another year. It's hard to imagine anyone with the Knicks or in Anthony's camp wants that.