Houston Rockets: The hidden benefits of trading Carmelo Anthony

The Houston Rockets have successfully traded Carmelo Anthony to the Chicago Bulls. What are some of the hidden benefits? Let’s take a look.

After much deliberation and a lot of negotiation, the Houston Rockets were able to successfully trade Carmelo Anthony to the Chicago Bulls. The franchise was able to ship the rights to Jon Diebler, cash and the Houston Rockets were able to acquire the rights to international player Tadija Dragicevic.

The 33-year-old Dragicevic has mostly been a filler for trades throughout his career and has never set foot in the NBA. That mantra will hold true with the Houston Rockets as this engineering of a trade had to be done in order for the Houston Rockets to keep their costs as low as possible.

The Melo Era for the Houston Rockets was short-lived as it became increasingly apparent that he wasn’t a great fit with the team’s offensively high-paced, three-and-D system that was able to afford the team 65 wins in last season’s campaign.

Although the story line for this season has been a bit different, it still is the hallmark of the team’s ultimate goal — beating the Golden State Warriors.

Injuries to Chris Paul, Clint Capela — and to a lesser extent Eric Gordon — have hampered the Houston Rockets success a bit but because of the heroics of one James Harden, this team still has managed to stay afloat and definitely be in the conversation as one of the best teams of the Western Conference.

The start to the season wasn’t exactly what we all would have liked as fans but the team just wrapped up a stretch where they won 13 of the last 16 games, not an easy feat in today’s NBA. And when you’re the Houston Rockets, especially with the success that they had last season, one has a target painted on their back with each game that they play.

But any way, Melo is now off the books but what are the hidden benefits of this signing?

As you might know, the Houston Rockets are in luxury tax tell just to keep Harden, Paul and Capela happy with their max contracts and technically, Harden’s extension doesn’t kick in until next season. But because the team made a significant investment in Paul, this hampers their ability to go out and get the free agents they need because of the limited amount that they can spend without it being too punitive to the bottom line.

It’s important to note that the team has $361 million tied up among those three players over the next four seasons.

The team has approximately $138 million committed to salaries this season which is $6 million over the line.

Here are three benefits for the Melo trade:

1) According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, the Rockets had a $13.9 million luxury tax bill but with

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the trade, the number drops by $1.5 million, the pro-rated amount of the Melo’s remaining salary, to $12.4 million, which certainly will make Tilman Feritta creak a slight smile.

2) The Rockets were able to obtain a $1.5 million trade exception which is good for one year from today and can be used to acquire a player via trade. All or part of the exception money can be used for a future acquisition but cannot be used to land a player of higher value.

Since there are a couple of more weeks before the trade deadline, this may benefit the team as they’re still desperate for wings that have an uncanny resemblance to the team’s mantra. Now whether Daryl Morey finds those guys using that tool remains to be seen but at least it’s available.

My best guess is because the team is in dire straits for depth, especially in the front court, it’s going to be used sooner than later. We’ll have to see about that.

3) Even through the Rockets were able to acquire Kenneth Faried by waiving James Nunnally from the roster, the Melo trade opens up a valuable roster spot that will likely be filled by the trade deadline.

Melo’s salary and roster spot were taking up valuable capital that the team will need to stay competitive while they weather the storm through these terrible wave of injuries. This open spot will give the team flexibility for future moves that need to be made this season.

Although the Melo-era was quite uneventful, at least the team was able to find a way to officially cut ties with him. They weren’t able to send him to an ideal destination like Los Angeles or Philadelphia but what player has a say in where they want to go these days anyway? Melo won’t play a game for the Bulls as they’re going to hold onto him to see if they can glean a nugget in a future deal just based off his name recognition alone.

There’s hope that he’ll have an opportunity to get back to the court this season but if the Bulls have their way and hold onto him, he and the rest of his fans can kiss that notion goodbye.

We’ll see.

Next. Three things Kenneth Faried brings to the team. dark

Anthony, 34, averaged 13.4 points and 5.4 rebounds while shooting .405/.328./.682 in 10 games — two starts — for the Rockets this season.

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