New York Knicks: 5 potential Carmelo Anthony trades

3. Los Angeles Lakers

This deal falls in a very similar line to the Heat scenario.

Anthony wouldn’t be making the move with the upcoming season in mind, but more so the summer of 2018 and beyond.

LeBron James and the Lakers have been widely speculated as being a potential partnership when his current contract expires after this upcoming season.

The most recent example of the James to Los Angeles narrative was a recent podcast by media identity and Los Angeles resident, Bill Simmons. While not being supported by any concrete evidence, Simmons summarized the general feeling of many around the league – that James is as good as gone next summer:

"“I do genuinely, honestly, truly believe LeBron will be on the Lakers next year….[LeBron] has not committed long-term to the Cleveland Cavaliers…..And win or lose, he brought Cleveland a title. He has an out. He can finish his career in Los Angeles. His business is here, as we’ve discussed, his family has a giant house here, as we’ve discussed. And most important, they have a ton of cap space.”"

The Lakers have made it crystal clear that they are gearing themselves up for the summer of 2018. Already this offseason, the Lakers’ new president of basketball operations, Magic Johnson, has already dealt away former No. 2 overall pick, D’Angelo Russell, to the Brooklyn Nets in order to rid themselves of the contract of center Timofey Mozgov.

As Simmons mentioned, the Lakers do presently have a ton of cap space available, with just $41.9 million tied up in contracts currently for 2018-19. Granted, acquiring Anthony does eat into some of this space, although his $27.9 million owed for 2018-19 is a player option.

Nonetheless, the Lakers will no doubt be continuing to look to vacate as much future salary as possible. And the following deal certainly accommodates this approach.

While the Lakers are sacrificing a potential future star in Brandon Ingram, they are also wiping their hands clean of the three-years and $54 million remaining on the contract of 32-year-old Luol Deng. The Knicks, meanwhile, would be teaming Ingram with their own emerging star in Kristaps Porzingis.

Furthermore, adding to the James intrigue is the latest Lakers addition of shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Notably, Simmons was quick to jump on Twitter following the signing:

Signing a player, as Simmons referenced, that is tied to James’ Klutch Sports Group is no accident. And signing this player to an extremely generous one-year, $18 million deal is an ingenious way of developing a rapport with James ahead of next summer.

While the Los Angeles Clippers were long considered a landing spot for Anthony, once they dealt away his great friend in Chris Paul, that option more or less disintegrated. But when combining the possibility of a James partnership with the trappings of Los Angeles, this move makes a ton of sense for all parties involved.