Carmelo Anthony waived by Bulls, Lakers remain interested

Carmelo Anthony has finally been freed. After months of essential exile from the Houston Rockets and a trade to the Chicago Bulls (and a historic stint with the Atlanta Hawks), he can finally land at the destination of his choice. And according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Los Angeles Lakers just might be that spot, and they actually do have some level of interest:

The move is part of the franchise’s original plan with Anthony, which will allow him to now monitor the post-trade deadline roster flux to find his next destination.

The Lakers remain a possibility to sign Anthony, but that wouldn’t happen until the Lakers use their current roster to exhaust trade deadline efforts to acquire New Orleans star Anthony Davis. The Lakers would need to create an open roster spot to sign Anthony, who is a favorite of LeBron James.

This obviously isn’t new territory here. Anthony and the Lakers have been sharing space in the rumor mill since his initial departure from Houston. So, no, there isn’t much of an update on the story as to whether Anthony might finally find a home.

What is new is the situation the Lakers currently find themselves in. L.A. doesn’t have an open roster spot and aren’t interested in waiving anyone to clear one up for Anthony — an indictment in its own right, but I digress.

The Lakers are in the middle of some of the most public trade negotiations we’ve seen in quite some time. If they are able to pull off what many consider to be the impossible and land Anthony Davis, they’ll likely have a couple roster spots open, and I’m sorry to say this, there won’t be many excuses for Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka to tell LeBron James they can’t fit Melo. That’s just how this is probably going to play out, unfortunately.

Now, one area where you might be able to find some optimism if that scenario does play out is the buyout market. The Lakers are going to need players who can legitimately help. They’ll likely lose their starting point guard, “shooting guard,” small forward, and a center currently starting for them (Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram and Ivica Zubac in that order).

The problem is that right now, Melo doesn’t help in any positive way given the state of his game. The Lakers will need guys who do. So maybe [crosses fingers] the front office might value acquiring guys who help over doing LeBron a solid and bringing in a buddy.

There are obviously a couple huge snags this could all hit, but this is probably the closest the Lakers have been to adding Melo to the roster. If doing so for the rest of this year also means they landed Davis, then that’s kind of a trade you have to make.

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