Carmelo Anthony is taking meetings and while the NY Knicks remain the favorite over the Chicago Bulls, Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks in free agency, the Bulls possibly could sweeten things for New York with a sign and trade deal involving Carlos Boozer, who will likely get his with the amnesty clause if he is not traded.
Anthony started his free agent tour with the Chicago Bulls and he visited with the Houston Rockets for seven hours in Texas before meeting with the Mavericks. Anthony then bounced to Los Angeles and met with the Lakers and that brought Kobe Bryant home to try and woo Melo to LA. The Knicks still feel that they have the best chance to sign Anthony, as they can offer him a five year deal worth nearly $130 million and he now is the biggest domino on the market.
Teams are waiting to see what Anthony does before making major moves and that has held back some teams from signing names like Chandler Parsons and Pau Gasol. The Kevin Love trade talks also may pick up once Anthony signs, as the teams that miss out on him may jump back into the fold, as many of those overlap. The Lakers, Rockets, Bulls and Knicks all are looking to sign Anthony and all of those teams could conceivably be destinations for Love in the future. The trade talks with the Warriors broke down, but according to Yahoo Sports, if Anthony signs those could pick up again with or without Klay Thompson involved.
The Bulls are looking like the only other realistic option for Anthony, as they have a very good team ready and waiting and they also are not trading Taj Gibson. Anthony was able to see Derrick Rose workout in his visit with the Bulls and that is important, as he likely would not sign if Rose wasn't on his way back to the court, as that is a huge selling point for the Bulls. Anthony also was happy to see Gibson in the pitch meeting for Chicago, as he was mentioned in trade rumors earlier in the offseason, but clearly they are not trading him if he was in that meet and Anthony said he loves Gibson and that is another reason why he could sign with Chicago.
The Rockets pulled out all the stops with Anthony coming in for a visits, as they put him up on their big board with his jersey on -even though Jeremy Lin still has it and let's not get into the whole Melo and Lin thing, because that was weird back in NY and is getting comical now-and that could be something that convinces him to sign, as the team showed off how much they want him, enlisting Dwight Howard's help in the pitch meeting as well.
According to Pro Basketball Talk, many think the Knicks still are in good position to sign Anthony and that the other teams meeting with Melo are "pessimistic" about signing him. Anthony wanted to hit free agency because this is likely the last chance he will be able to find his true value on the market and he has never had the chance to be a free agent for real before in his career.