Isola: Carmelo Anthony’s camp ‘cautiously optimistic’ he will be traded before Monday

The New York Knicks will start training camp next week and fans are feeling pretty good, which means it’s time for Frank Isola to emerge from his burrow to remind people that everything is very, very not cool!

Isola’s latest diatribe is mostly the kind of warmed-over gruel you’d expect, like speculating as to what personal vendettas kept Kristaps Porzingis in Latvia for so long this summer—he was playing in EuroBasket, dumbass—but there was also some talk about the long-rumored trade of Carmelo Anthony to the Houston Rockets. Over the years Isola has proven to have some reliable sources within Team Melo, so let’s see what is on their minds:

Anthony’s camp is cautiously optimistic that a deal will be struck before Monday, and trying not to think about the potential media circus that will take place if Carmelo is still with the Knicks. Two weeks ago, Carmelo’s wife, La La, said the family thought a trade would have been completed by now.

Mentally, Carmelo and his family have moved on to Houston. Reality is another story. Hopefully, Mills and Perry will have the right answers when they address the media on Friday because the Carmelo issue isn’t going away until he goes away.

I was talking to a fellow Knicks fan a few weeks, and we pondered this question: Does anyone have a legitimate reason to be confident that Melo will soon be on the Rockets, other than the belief that Knicks’ management will always the panicked, stupid move? I’m not sure why Melo’s camp would feel the slightest bit more confident, since Houston hasn’t acquired any new trade assets. Perhaps they too are just waiting for the front office to choke at the negotiating table. Call me a foolish optimist, but I don’t see that happening in the next few days.

As for Melo himself, he hasn’t worked out at the team’s Tarrytown facility, but has worked out with pretty much every non-EuroBasket participant Knick on the 2016-17 roster. Odds are he’ll be working out with them in Knicks colors come next week.