After it was believed that Carmelo Anthony would have made a decision on where he wanted to play by Monday, sources believe that the all-star small forward is waiting to see what choice LeBron James makes before committing to any of the offers.
This is not surprising, as Melo and James previously expressed interested in playing on the same team at some point in their careers. Sources say James will be meeting with Pat Riley on Wednesday to discuss the four-time MVP's possibility of returning to Miami, which is likely the only scenario that would open the door for these two to play together. But right now Miami only has two players under contract - Norris Cole and Justin Hamilton - and two others that agreed to a contract - Josh McRoberts and Danny Granger.
Anthony, unlike James, has met with a number of teams during his free agency tour last week. He visited the Chicago Bulls, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers, and New York Knicks. Out of all these teams the Knicks can offer him the most money, with a five-year $129 million maximum contract - $33 million more than anyone else. Although Anthony has yet to formally decline any offers, it was reported that he was going to spend the holiday weekend deciding between the Lakers' maximum offer (four years and $96 million) and the Knicks' offer. The Rockets also offered him the four-year maximum deal, but it's not likely he accepts it.
Melo's alleged decision to wait for James isn't hurting him, but it might be wasting his time. James expressed last week that he wants a maximum contract, which is going to cost any team that offers it to him at least $20 million per year. No team except the Miami Heat would be able to offer both Anthony and James maximum contracts, unless the Knicks pulled off a miracle and traded away Andrea Bargnani and Amar'e Stoudemire to shed nearly $35 million in salary cap space. The Cleveland Cavaliers are heavily pursuing James and can only afford to pay him the maximum after they recently signed Kyrie Irving to a five-year $90 million extension.
Despite complaints and groans from fans and analysts over the time it's taking these superstars to decide, it doesn't matter whatsoever. Anthony and James can wait as long as they want and they don't owe anything to anybody. But if Anthony is waiting for James, hopefully the two enumerated some sort of plan or else they'll definitely be playing against each other during the 2014-2015 season.
You can read more about Carmelo Anthony's free agency decision in this ESPN article.
