Carmelo Anthony once again suggests he might waive his no-trade clause

The drama just never ends

As the Knicks turn ...

OK, so when last we left you, Carmelo Anthony had met with Phil Jackson and told him he did not want to be traded from New York. Then word surfaced the Knicks had approached the Cavaliers about a deal for Kevin Love and were, ahem, politely rebuffed.

So that's that ... right? Melo wants to stay, the Knicks can't get him where he wants to go, the end. Right?

Wait, no, hold on. Reporters talked to Melo after the Knicks lost again, this time to the very bad Mavericks. And now he said this:

Carmelo Anthony on possibly waiving his no-trade clause: "I mean, if they want to go in a different direction, that's something that I have to consider. I would have to consider that. Like I said, all the talk that's going on right now, that's out of my control. Nobody called me. Nobody got in contact with any of my representation or anything like that, so it's something that I don't worry about. I'm not thinking about that right now."

Source: ESPN.

OK, so, let's break this down:

1. So the only way to read this is that Melo and the Knicks are basically trapped in that situation where neither of you wants to go to that social engagement but you also don't want to be the one to make the decision to not go. So you keep saying, "Whatever you want is fine." Anthony doesn't want to say he wants out. He wants the Knicks to say, "We want you out." The Knicks don't want to say, "We want you out." They want him to say, "I want out."

2. Anthony literally says here "that's out of my control." Anthony has a no-trade clause. He's referring to the talk that's going on about the trade, but if we're going to be clear on this, Anthony has all the control in this situation. If he says, "Hey, I waive my no-trade clause, I want out," then the Knicks would at least pursue a deal. Getting one done is tough, because they seem to genuinely not want to send him somewhere he doesn't want to go, and Melo wants to go only to contending teams in major cities or Cleveland. (Melo's pretty picky here; he gets to be, he has a no-trade clause.)

3. So now this is a whole thing again, and for the zillionth time, I have to point out that the trend here suggests the only reasonable ending to this saga is Anthony being dealt ... but finding a deal that works seems impossible.

The drama continues ...