Carmelo Anthony to the Philadelphia 76ers: Is It Likely? Is It Beneficial?

By now, if you are a NBA fan, you have surely heard that the Denver Nuggets are listening to offers for superstar small forward Carmelo Anthony and there are rumors going around that the Sixers might be interested, and after all, why wouldn't they be?

Every team in the league minus perhaps the Heat will undoubtedly call Denver to at least see what they might want for him. Let's take a look at a potential deal and its effect on the Sixers.

This scenario is a trade of Carmelo for assorted Sixers players. Some players being thrown around are Evan Turner, Andre Iguodala, Thaddeus Young and Jason Kapono. Looking at these players, one thing stands out to me.

Any trade to get Anthony would have to include Andre Iguodala, or otherwise you have two players who play the same position and are getting paid a lot of money. I know Iguodala has played shooting guard in the past, but he was clearly out of position there.

It is highly unlikely that the Nuggets would take a deal of Carmelo for Iguodala, so there would have to be another player added from the Sixers' side. Looking at the remaining players, Turner and Young are both promising young players that the front office likes. Turner seems especially untradeable, as if he was traded we would have no real starting shooting guard with Willie Green being traded. Kapono has an expiring contract that the Nuggets could be interested in.

unlikely to stick with the Nuggets past this year, so the trade scenario that seems to make the most sense for the Nuggets would be Carmelo for Iguodala and Young. The contracts work, and the Nuggets would get two young players with talent.

Now the question is, does this help the Sixers?

It seems unlikely that Carmelo would sign an extension here, so the Sixers would essentially be giving up their leader and a good young player for a one year rental of a star player. Carmelo would not make the Sixers championship contenders, so what is the point? Yes, they would gain cap space the following year, but is that really the best thing that could happen for this squad?

What is best for the Sixers is not a trade for Carmelo Anthony, but instead allowing the group to grow together and develop chemistry in the same way that the Oklahoma City Thunder grew their young squad into a very good team that may contend for a championship this year.

The Sixers have a promising young core, don't we owe it to them to let them try to win a championship?