After months of speculation, rumors, and waiting, the New York Knicks finally dealt All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony on Saturday to the Oklahoma City Thunder. It’s been obvious they’ve been trying to deal Anthony for a while but hadn’t had much luck. In return, they received Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott, and a 2018 second round draft pick. At first glance, that return doesn’t look like a whole lot, but it allows the Knicks to finally move on from Melo and move forward with their rebuild.
New York has agreed to a deal to send Carmelo Anthony to OKC for Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott and a draft pick, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 23, 2017
Anthony was the third overall pick in that infamous 2003 NBA draft and has become one of the best offensive players to step on an NBA court in the last 15 years. In those 15 seasons, he’s made 10 all-star teams and has racked up 24,156 points. It’s sure been a heck of a career.
However, the Knicks aren’t going to be contending for a while, so trading an aging star like Anthony makes a lot of sense. Anthony leaves a team where he was the top scoring option to join a team that already has superstars Russell Westbrook and Paul George. By default, Anthony now becomes the third scoring option for the Thunder.
This trade reminds me a lot of when Kevin Love joined LeBron James and Kyrie Irving in Cleveland. Going from the top scoring option to the third impacted Love’s scoring quite a bit. His scoring dropped almost 10 points per game from 26.1 to 16.4 in his first year with the Cavaliers. The drop-off might not be that dramatic for Anthony, but expecting him to score 22-28 points per game this season would be asking a lot.
Fantasy Impact on Carmelo Anthony
When your most significant fantasy asset is about to take a hit, that’s never good for your fantasy value. I know, I’m being captain obvious over here. If we were talking about Westbrook or George, a scoring dip wouldn’t be as big of a detriment to their game. Both, especially Westbrook, do plenty of other things that boost their fantasy value.
That’s not the case with Anthony. His 5.9 rebounds per game last season was his lowest output since he was a 21-year-old in the 2005-2006 season. To take it one step further, his 2.9 assists per game should drop some as well. Anthony isn’t going to be counted on to have the ball in his hands a lot with Westbrook and George on the floor.
Nothing about this trade helps Anthony’s fantasy value. If you want to nitpick, you could say his shooting percentages could go up a tad as he’ll likely get more open shots with the Thunder than he did in the Big Apple. But that’s it. I’m sure Melo is happy about leaving a sinking (more like sunk) ship for a contender, but his fantasy value is going to take a considerable hit this season. Expect him to put up something in the vicinity of 18 PPG, 6 RPG, 2 APG, 2 3PG, and not much else. That’s still a solid line but that doesn’t garner an early round selection in fantasy drafts.
Other Fantasy Impact
There’s not much fantasy significance heading to the Knicks in this deal. McDermott is a career bench player that shouldn’t even be on the re-draft radar this season. Kanter, on the other hand, has some value as a late-round draft pick. He’ll play next to Wily Hernangomez to form a large, yet unspectacular frontcourt for the Knicks.
Kanter has been pretty consistent with his offensive output each season he’s been in the NBA. He’ll score 12-16 points per game with a high field goal percentage and pull down 7-10 rebounds per game depending on how many minutes he gets. Unfortunately for fantasy owners, Kanter isn’t your typical seven-footer on the defensive end. He’s averaged only 0.4 blocks per game for his career and has never surpassed 0.5 for a single season. He’s strictly a rebounding and field goal percentage help this upcoming season. Draft him in the later rounds, but don’t fool yourself into thinking this trade will raise his bland fantasy value.
This trade made a heck of a lot of sense for both teams involved but doesn’t do much good from a fantasy basketball perspective. It will also be interesting to see how the new OKC big three of Westbrook, George, and Anthony mesh on the court this season. Forming a big three like this will always limit each player’s value. The question is how much, though. For Anthony, it should be a bigger hit than it will be for Westbrook or George. We’ll just have to wait and see how this team functions when the games start in mid-October.