Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony wouldn’t need to agree to a new contract with the Mavericks for Dallas to trade for him.
Without speaking about Anthony by name, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said yesterday at the Garden that Dallas would be willing to acquire a player of that caliber as a free-agent-to-be rental.
“Yeah, in a heartbeat. Because then it’s up to me to try to convince them to stay,” Cuban said. “If everybody wants to give off a great player, we’re always going to try to be opportunistic. But those calls typically aren’t made. Those happen once every five years or so.”
Along with the Knicks, Nets and Rockets, Dallas is interested in Anthony, and Houston also has been mentioned as a rental option.
Cuban wouldn’t reveal the Mavericks’ interest in Anthony.
“I can’t talk about other teams’ players, but I’m always trying to be opportunistic,” Cuban said. “If someone wanted to offer me a perennial All-Star for a second-round pick, I’m going to say yes.”
In the interim, Cuban cracked that he’s enjoying the fact that the Anthony saga could be distracting the Nuggets.
“I feel bad for [new Denver owner] Josh Kroenke,” Cuban said. “He just comes in to take over and all of a sudden he has to deal with all this. He’ll figure it out. Anything that distracts other teams in our conference, that’s good. I want every player and every other team to revolt.”
Mavericks center Tyson Chandler possibly is the best unrestricted big-man free agent this summer.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Cuban said of retaining Chandler. “We always want to keep our great players. He’s obviously had a huge impact. We’re going to do what we can to keep him around.”
— With Marc Berman