The Houston Rockets missed out on top free agents this summer and that could lead Daryl Morey or look at a trade for Kevin Love or a deal for Rajon Rondo with the Celtics or Timberwolves to make a splash and names like Patrick Beverley and Terrence Jones could be potential chips after the team traded away Jeremy Lin to the Lakers.
According to Stein, Morey has long had his eye on Rondo and he could be the main target if the Celtics do not sign him to a long term deal. The Love trade talks are heating up between the Wolves, Cavaliers and Chicago Bulls, but another team could sneak in while Andrew Wiggins has to wait 30-days to be traded and it could be the Rockets if a deal is sweet enough, but they likely do not have enough to pull it off, with Beverley and Jones as some of their options.
Rondo and Love will be two of the biggest trade and free agent options if they don't get dealt this summer and the Knicks, Rockets and Lakers are all watching what happens very closely. From earlier this offseason there was some speculation that came from Chris Broussard that at one point the Rockets were considering a sign and trade deal to get Carmelo. That deal would have included James Harden, and while that would have been a wild option, had the team been able to get Anthony, the Knicks likely would have been happy with that deal.
The NY Knicks kept Anthony this offseason after he opted out of his contract, but it was possible that a James Harden trade with Houston Rockets in a sign-and-trade deal could have went down in Texas to create a Big 3 with Dwight Howard. Chris Broussard on ESPN.com wrote that a sign and trade deal with Houston for James Harden was a possibility for the Knicks and Anthony, as the Rockets were one of the teams that he was looking to sign with. ESPN.com wrote that the Rockets, Bulls and Mavericks were making moves to try and sign Anthony and Houston has already traded Omer Asik to the Pelicans and Jeremy Lin to the Lakers.
The Knicks already pulled off a major move by trading Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton to the Dallas Mavericks and Chandler said that he would try and lobby Anthony to sign with the team, but clearly that did not work. The Knicks cleared space by making that move and signed Anthony to a five year contract worth nearly $130 million. Anthony was a free agent and visited with teams, including the Houston Rockets and Chicago Bulls as well as the Dallas Mavericks.
The Knicks could have looked at trading Anthony for Harden to at least get something if Melo opted to leave, but now obviously that doesn't matter. James went to the Cavs and while the Heat made one move to please James, it wasn't enough to keep him from going back to Cleveland. The Knicks are thrilled to have Anthony back and reports had his final choices between the Knicks and Bulls.
There were early offseason reports about James and Anthony playing with each other and teams like the Rockets, Los Angeles, Lakers, Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Clippers, Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat were interested, but nothing like that ever came close to happening.
