The Oklahoma City Thunder have long been looking for a partner to trade Carmelo Anthony to, and on Thursday afternoon, they found it. According to ESPN'S Adrian Wojnarowski, the Thunder have traded Anthony to the Atlanta Hawks for Dennis Schroder and Mike Muscala. From there, Anthony will be waived and will join the team of his choice.
Oklahoma City has agreed to trade Carmelo Anthony and a protected 2022 first-round pick to Atlanta for point guard Dennis Schroder and Mike Muscala, league sources tell ESPN. Anthony will be waived, and he will join team of his choice. Rockets are frontrunner.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 19, 2018
According to Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports, Mike Muscala will head to the Philadelphia 76ers, Justin Anderson will head to the Hawks, Timoté Luwawu-Cabarrot will go to the Thunder, and Carmelo Anthony will be bought out after being traded to Atlanta.
Sources: As part of multi-team Carmelo Anthony/Dennis Schröder deal, Atlanta's Mike Muscala will go to Philadelphia, 76ers' Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot will be traded to Oklahoma City and 76ers' Justin Anderson to Atlanta.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 19, 2018
Since they didn't end up waiving or stretching him, the move to trade Anthony will now save the Thunder nearly $100 million in combined salary and luxury tax. Additionally, the Thunder will now add Schroder, who is another ball handler who could become an instant Sixth Man of the Year candidate with OKC behind Russell Westbrook.
Tremendous save for OKC: Thunder get massive salary and luxury tax savings — nearly $100M — w/o stretching Anthony's $28M. That deal would've left $9M-plus on books next three years, so Schroder $15.5M per year becomes bargain — and an asset that could stay or be traded again.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 19, 2018
Anthony is expected to choose between the Houston Rockets and Miami Heat, but Wojnarowski says that the Rockets are the favorites at the moment.
Anthony averaged career-lows in points (16.2 per game), assists (1.3 per game), and field goal percentage (40.4 percent) this season with the Thunder. He will likely not be a 20-plus point per game scorer this season, but he should be able to average 16-18 points (likely inefficiently as he has the last four years).
Dennis Schroder is coming off his second season as a full-time starter where he averaged 19.4 points, 3.1 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 1.1 steals, and 1.1 three-pointers per game but shot just 43.6 percent from the field and a mere 29 percent from beyond the arc. One of the struggles throughout his career has been his three-point shooting, so it'll be interesting to see how the Thunder integrate him into their system. Of course, if the fit just isn't there, they likely won't hesitate to trade him by the NBA's trade deadline in February.
The Sixers were able to trade away a couple of young wings in Anderson and Luwawu-Cabarrot who, in all likelihood, were not going to get playing time with the acquisitions of Wilson Chandler via trade and Zhaire Smith via the NBA Draft.