\nErik Matuszewski, Bloomberg
\n\t(Bloomberg) \u2014 Carmelo Anthony has a better chance of joining the Chicago Bulls as a free agent than staying with the New York Knicks, according to oddsmakers.<\/p>\n
\tAnthony, 30, said throughout the 2013-14 season he intends to opt out of the final year of his National Basketball Association contract and test the free agent market this summer. Free agency begins July 1 and the New York Daily News reported last night that Anthony informed the Knicks he\u2019ll use his opt- out clause, citing an unidentified person in the league.<\/p>\n
\tAnthony has to make his decision official by today and the Bulls are now listed as 2-3 favorites to sign the seven-time All-Star, who has averaged 25.3 points a game for his career, according to online sportsbook Bovada.lv. The Bulls, who are led by center Joakim Noah and point guard Derrick Rose, have made the playoffs nine of the past 10 years, yet have reached the Eastern Conference finals only once.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWith the recent rumors coming up more and more about Melo tied to the Bulls, we had to drop his odds from 3\/2 to 2\/3,\u201d Bovada sports book manager Kevin Bradley said. \u201cWhether these rumors hold true or not, we often see an influx of money from our bettors regardless in these type of situations.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe Knicks, who have won one playoff series in the past 14 years, are given 2-1 odds by Bovada of bringing back Anthony.<\/p>\n
\tThe Houston Rockets are the third-favorite to land Anthony at 15-2 odds, followed by the four-time Eastern Conference- champion Miami Heat with 9-1 odds. They\u2019re followed by the Los Angeles Lakers at 12-1.<\/p>\n
\tPay Cut<\/p>\n
\tAnthony, who averaged 27.4 points, 8.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists a game this past season, can get a five-year contract from the Knicks worth about $129 million. He\u2019d take a pay cut by playing elsewhere, as the maximum he could get from another team is $95.8 million over four seasons. The Knicks would have to agree to a sign-and-trade deal for Anthony to get maximum money from another franchise.<\/p>\n
\tAnthony is coming off a season in which he missed the playoffs for the first time in his 10-year career. He said in August that he knows his \u201cwindow is closing\u201d to bring a championship to the Knicks, who this offseason brought in former Bulls and Lakers coach Phil Jackson as team president and hired Derek Fisher after firing Mike Woodson.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe recognize his talent and skill is the kind of skill and talent that gets you through playoff games where things get sticky,\u201d Jackson said of Anthony in May.<\/p>\n
\tJackson, who won a record 11 titles as a coach, has said he\u2019s asked Anthony to consider not opting out of his contract and delay becoming a free agent until 2015. Anthony, who was in Paris over the weekend, was set to make $23.3 million in the final year of his deal in New York.<\/p>\n
\tWhile the Bulls are oddsmakers\u2019 favorites, Anthony might be courted by both Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles and LeBron James in Miami. The Rockets could also team Anthony with a pair of All- Stars in center Dwight Howard and guard James Harden.<\/p>\n
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Erik Matuszewski, Bloomberg (Bloomberg) \u2014 Carmelo Anthony has a better chance of joining the Chicago Bulls as a free agent than staying with the New York Knicks, according to oddsmakers. Anthony, 30, said throughout the 2013-14 season he intends to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7539\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}