NBA Trade Rumors: 10 Potential Carmelo Anthony Trades

10. Indiana Pacers

This would be a sudden and drastic roster shake-up just a few months after trading for Thaddeus Young and Jeff Teague, but the Indiana Pacers have been undeniably underwhelming so far in 2016-17, and this particular blow-up doesn’t include Paul George, so why not?

The Pacers get a replacement starting point guard for Teague in Brandon Jennings, they clear out Rodney Stuckey to make life easier on Monta Ellis off the bench and they add a talented scorer to the league’s 18th-ranked offense in Carmelo Anthony.

There’d be some positional overlap between Melo and Paul George, since the NBA’s small-ball direction has made both small forwards more effective when playing at the 4, but between Anthony, PG-13 and Myles Turner, that’s an awful lot of talent to defend in the frontcourt.

At 23-22, the Pacers haven’t lived up to their preseason billing, especially on the offensive end. This deal brings in more firepower and provides the roster with the shakeup it might require.

For the Knicks, they get a starting small forward who’s been knocking down threes at a career-high 42.3 percent clip this season, a starting point guard who’d be a much more preferable candidate to re-sign in free agency than Derrick Rose, and a proven bench scorer in Rodney Stuckey.

The pitfalls here are that Larry Bird might not want to trade for a 32-year-old star who’s past his prime, especially since this hasty trade would take a toll on Indiana’s defense. The Knicks might also prefer to re-sign D-Rose this summer and believe they could do better elsewhere in a potential Melo deal. There’s also no guarantee Anthony would waive his no-trade clause to go to Indiana.