If Carmelo Anthony Is Going To Be Available This Summer Then The Cleveland Cavaliers Should Come Calling

If Carmelo Anthony is going to be available this summer then the Cleveland Cavaliers should come calling.

According to ESPN’s Ian Begley, Carmelo Anthony is expected to be available this summer and the Cleveland Cavaliers should be the ones to acquire him. Why? Because Kevin Love won’t have to be traded in this deal. Iman Shumpert, Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye will though.

Shumpert, an inconsistent shooting guard who is going to struggle to find playing time behind J.R. Smith and Kyle Korver.

Jefferson, who will turn 37-years-old this year and can’t defy time forever. Frye, who will be 33-years-old and will be on the final year of his deal in 2017-2018.

In such a trade scenario, it’s unlikely that the New York Knicks want Shumpert. However, the Minnesota Timberwolves do. Shumpert is a defensive-minded shooting guard that the Wolves could bring off the bench or start between Zach Lavine and Andrew Wiggins to give the Wolves an athletic perimeter trio with a catch-and-shoot player to play off of their ability to get into the paint. Their ability to stop perimeter penetration would make like easier for Karl Anthony-Towns on the defensive end as well.

Shumpert may be worth a late first round pick in this league, a draft pick that can be sent to the Knicks rather than the Cavs to sweeten the deal for Phil Jackson. Although Anthony is a 10-time All-Star, he’ll be 33-years-old in May and doesn’t have the best reputation in the league. Getting a first-round pick in a trade for Anthony would be ideal for Jackson.

The Knicks would be receiving Jefferson and Frye, two veteran players who could both thrive in the triangle offense and provide the type of locker room presence the Knicks have been missing for years. Frye’s ability to pass, shoot out to the three-point line and post-up are exactly the type of things that the triangle offense thrives off of. Frye can start next to Kristaps Porzingis or be his backup while one of Kyle O’Quinn or Willy Hernangomez starts.

Jefferson is a player who keeps the ball moving, can shoot the three-ball and attack the rim off-the-dribble. His basketball IQ makes him the perfect decision-maker for the triangle offense and his fit with the unit will be understated but important.

With Mindaugus Kuzminskas and Ron Baker filling out the rest of the second unit, the Knicks will just be down one starter but have two first-round picks. A player like point guard Frank Ntilikina would be perfect for the Knicks, by the way. Ntilikina can shoot the three, first and foremost, and will have a major impact on the defense end. His biggest problem is his decision-making which is actually perfect. The Knicks can tell him that the best basketball decisions he makes on the floor will come from learning the triangle offense. He’d thrive in a system he believed in.

Courtney Lee would be the starting shooting guard and be the catch-and-shoot player the triangle offense would need him to be.

All of the sudden, the Knicks would have a group that plays together and for each other. Less egos, more believers. Less ball-sticking and more shooting. Less bickering and more veteran leadership.

What do the Cleveland Cavaliers get out of it?

Besides trading away a player in Shumpert who is inconsistent and would be pressed for playing time, a player in Frye who would become a free agent in the summer and who James would probably pressure the organization to sign at any cost and a player in Jefferson who will be 37-years-old and essentially at the end of his rope for a 10-time All-Star in Anthony who’s averaging 22.8 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game?

This is the depth chart that the Cleveland Cavaliers could have entering next season with a trade for Anthony:

PG: Kyrie Irving, Deron Williams, Kay Felder

SG: LeBron James, J.R. Smith, DeAndre Liggins

SF: Carmelo Anthony, Kyle Korver, Cedi Osman

PF: Kevin Love, Derrick Williams, James Jones

C: Tristan Thompson, Larry Sanders

(italics denote free agents that would have to be re-signed)

What you see here is a full-fledged rotation even if the Cleveland Cavaliers replace three of their current players with one player.

While Deron Williams is unlikely to re-sign, the Cavs will likely sign one of the many veteran point guards slated to be on the free agent market this summer. This is a list that includes names like Jose Calderon, Raymond Felton, Jordan Farmar, Mario Chalmers and Shelvin Mack. All of those players have received interest from the Cleveland Cavaliers this season. In Felton’s case, James alluded to the team failing to sign Felton as evidence that they weren’t seeing eye-to-eye.

Derrick Williams, who needs the veteran leadership, role and championship feel he gets with the Cleveland Cavaliers, should be back in Cleveland next year. That’s especially true given the fact that the Cavs could re-sign Williams using their taxpayer’s mid-level exception (MLE).

Kyle Korver has already said he wants to re-sign with the Cavs, who love him and have his Bird Rights.

That covers all of the rotation players.

James Jones may retire after the season. However, he’s publicly stated he wants to play for 15 years and Jones is in his 14th season. He’d have to re-sign for one year to play for one more year. That’s not impossible as he’d only have to be signed for the veteran’s minimum and he’s not only a great locker room presence for the Cavs with his veteran leadership but a good friend of both Love and LeBron James.

So, it’s very likely that the Cavs will only have one spot left to fill in free agency and it will have to be a player who can play center. That player could be Zaza Pachulia, JaVale McGee, Roy Hibbert, Jared Sullinger or Josh Smith. It could also be a young and unheralded player the Cavs have interest in, Eric Moreland.

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What’s more interesting than that a 3-for-1 tradeoff doesn’t effect the Cleveland Cavaliers rotation is that if the Cavs choose to start James, Anthony, Love and Kyrie Irving, they’ll have the option of starting games with a run-and-gun lineup that has Love at center of a jumbo lineup that has Tristan Thompson at center and James starting at shooting guard.

Either-or would be devastating for other teams as they’d be unable to keep up with the Cavs scoring or surprisingly effected by the Cavs overall length at the start of games. The Cavs would have a team that rivals the overall talent of the Golden State Warriors.

They lose three players who they loved to have in the locker room but you can’t keep players on the roster forever just for sentimental purposes. In any case, Anthony is one of James’ best friends in the NBA and while Jefferson and Frye’s departures would disappoint him, Anthony’s arrival would be a welcome sight.

Shumpert is a player the Cavs love and is a good friend of Irving but whose to say they won’t love the light-hearted Osman or whoever they sign for the 15th spot on the roster just as much.

Some veteran leadership is lost but only Osman, Kay Felder and Larry Sanders would need that type of leadership. Leadership that 11 other players on the roster can provide.

Should the Cavs trade for Anthony this summer? Under these circumstances, I think the question answers itself.

Would you try to trade Iman Shumpert, Channing Frye and Richard Jefferson for Carmelo Anthony? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section or Twitter @KJG_NBA.