Report: Carmelo Anthony has interest in returning to New York Knicks

The Los Angeles Lakers made their first really substantial move of the offseason earlier this week when they traded for veteran guard Patrick Beverley.

The move should help the Lakers solve the issue of their forgettable defense from last season. However, that positive addition is being followed by a report indicating a possible loss.

According to a recent report, forward Carmelo Anthony has interest in returning to the New York Knicks.

“I have certainly heard that Carmelo’s got interest in a reunion,” NBA insider Jake Fischer said. “I don’t know if the Knicks have much interest there.”

As many NBA fans know, Anthony enjoyed many of the best seasons of his career while playing for the Knicks.

Based on what Fischer indicated, it is not yet clear that Anthony has garnered much interest from the Knicks, but the story is still worth noting. After all, Anthony served as a pretty positive player for the Lakers last season. He was a solid rotation piece and managed to be one of the better shooters on the team in the 2021-22 campaign.

He averaged 13.3 points per game on 44.1 percent shooting from the field and 37.5 percent shooting from deep. Though he didn’t get a chance to be impactful in the playoffs because the Lakers missed the playoffs entirely, Anthony’s playoff experience and overall knowledge as a veteran probably would have helped the team a lot in the postseason.

There are surely some Lakers fans who are hoping that Anthony gets a chance to do that for L.A. this season. It was really fun watching the NBA legend play with L.A. last season despite an overall dismal campaign for the franchise.

The Lakers should definitely not be considered out of luck when it comes to potentially bringing Anthony back. In fact, an NBA general manager said last month that he expects the 10-time All-Star to return to the Lakers. It’s important to take such information with a grain of salt, but it’s seemingly not unreasonable to think that Anthony could be back.

Ultimately, this moment is one of great importance for the Lakers. The Beverley trade was a solid move, but there are indications that more elements are at play than just that trade going down.

If the Lakers really want to improve their chances of returning to league dominance with additional moves this summer, they’re going to have to make sure they make the right ones. Only time will tell if they can achieve that goal.