The Bulls finally acquired Carmelo Anthony. Sort of.
Five years after the 10-time All-Star spurned them in free agency in 2014, the Bulls acuqired Anthony and cash from the Houston Rockets in a deal that amounts to little more than a salary dump for Houston. The deal won't be official until Tuesday, but Anthony will never play for the Bulls, but ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported Monday that the team may wait until after the Feb. 7 trade deadline to release him.
The Bulls, then, would have the option of trading Anthony to a contender in a one-for-one trade, though that seems unlikely seeing as Houston couldn't find a trade partner for months.
The Rockets were looking to free up a roster space to sign the recently bought out Kenneth Faried, and the Bulls were happy to use their open roster space to acquire Anthony from the Rockets while picking up some cash in the process. The Bulls made an identical deal with the Rockets last month for Michael Carter-Williams.
It's been a turbulent two seasons for Anthony, who is on the tail end of his career after 12 All-Star seasons. He was dealt to the Oklahoma City Thunder in September 2017 and failed to make any sort of impact. The Thunder dealt him to Atlanta in exchange for Dennis Schroder; Atlanta then bought out Anthony's massive contract totaling $25.5 million after Anthony agreed to pay back $2.4 million to make him a free agent.
Anthony then signed with good friend Chris Paul and the Houston Rockets, but that experiment lasted just 10 games. Anthony averaged a career-low 13.4 points on 40 percent shooting and just 32 percent from beyond the arc, and as a negative defender he didn't bring much of anything to a struggling Rockets team.
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So they benched Anthony until they could find a resolution, which wound up being a trade to the Bulls on Monday.
The Bulls had an open roster spot to absorb Anthony, so they won't need to release anyone or move anyone in the deal in order to make it happen. Anthony was making the league minimum - $2.3 million.
So the Bulls will acquire Anthony. But he'll be just as much a part of the Bulls as he was with the Hawks, a tenure that lasted less than a week. He may technically be on the roster longer than that, but there won't be any Melo-in-Red sightings this season.