Mavs get: Carmelo Anthony (1yr/$26.2m with player option for 1yr/$27.9), Terrence Ferguson (1st year of rookie contract, $1.7m this year); Thunder get: Harrison Barnes (3yr/ $23.1m this year), Nerlens Noel (1 yr/$4.1m)
Look, OKC is not as good as they ought to be and (I told you!) it is because Carmelo is such a poor fit with Westbrook. Paul George isn't looking that good either but I think if Carmelo was out of the way, PG would be a good fit with Westbrook. As for the Carmelo trade I make the homeowner analogy: a salesman shows up with a garage door, its a great garage door, a Hall of Fame garage door, you'd have the best garage door on the block and all he wants in return is your gutters, perfectly ordinary gutters. Sounds like a good deal, right? Well, no. Because you've already got a serviceable garage door and if you make this deal you won't have the wherewithal to replace the gutters so you'll have two garage doors and no gutters and how is that useful? It's not. I said it then and I'll say it again: I'd rather have McDermott and Kanter alongside Westbrook and PG than Carmelo. There was a period earlier in the season when Carmelo was leading the league in Field Goal Attempts--exactly what OKC did not need from him! Carmelo is a great garage door but a house with no gutters and too many garage doors is not a good house.
You may think Barnes and Nerlans are a coupla gutters and you'd be right. But that's what OKC needs: bodies to complement the Westbrook/PG duo, not another star to demand the ball. Barnes has been an up and down kinda player the entire time he's been in the league, the buzz is he's a hard worker that really wants to succeed but that he just doesn't have the confidence necessary to be a big star. In a rotation where he's the 4th or 5th most important contributor, Barnes has room to shine, make plays on defense, go for assists, be in position for 3's, etc. He doesn't need the ball in his hand but he'll give maximum effort in support every night. Nerlens (yeah, I've already traded him twice this year) needs an opportunity to play, to get some rhythm in his game, in his life, and I'm not sure OKC is the best fit for him, but Coach Donovan remembers him from Kentucky, he'll know what to do with him and in the OKC locker room, ain't nobody living or dying with Nerlens, which perhaps would suit him. If they can figure out how to use Nerlens to replace Adams at times and Roberson at other times, that'd be the best use of his athleticism (and the fact that he can't score at all is not a problem). This is Russell Westbrook's team, get everyone out of the way, let PG be the general of the rest of the team and OKC goes back to be the deadly 1-2 combo I thought they'd be before they picked up Carmelo. And they'd slightly save on salary this year and, depending if they bring back Nerlens, they'd save $5m next year. Even if they do like Nerlens, I doubt they'd pay him next summer under any circumstances. And while giving up Ferguson could look like a mistake in the long run, what are the chances he takes playing time from Russell Westbrook in the next 5 years? (And when/if PG leaves next summer, I'd suggest taking runs at Marcus Smart and Kentavius Caldwell-Pope to go with Westbrook and Barnes)
The Mavs get another free-shooting Hall of Famer to put opposite Dirk and possibly to carry on after Dirk moves on (1 more year of Dirk, just in time for a Melo extension). And I threw in Ferguson as a tantalizing prospect to pair with Dennis Smith. Ferguson was one of my favorite flyers in the 2017 draft, the Mavs could use a flyer as they play their way to another top ten pick. Don't get me wrong, this doesn't make the Mavs any better but I don't think it makes them worse. I don't think Harrison Barnes is the best player for their future (I'd rather have Ferguson at one quarter the price), Nerlens Noel is clearly not working for them and building around Melo for the next 3-5 years continues the framework they've got in place around Dirk. I think Melo fits and he makes them fun (if not good).
The Mavs are taking back a little bit of salary but not enough to need throw-ins (and Dallas wouldn't want to throw in draft picks for this deal anyway).
Melo isn't working in OKC and Ferguson's probably never gonna get his shot there; Nerlens is not working in Dallas and Barnes is nice but not the cornerstone of the future. For OKC this is addition by subtraction, for Dallas it's another big time scorer to anchor them for a coupla more years while Smith, Ferguson and their 2018 top ten pick mature.
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