After an unceremonious Round 1 exit, the Oklahoma City Thunder were ready for change. One of the more polarizing iterations of the small-market franchise happened in the 2017-18 season. Akin to a superhero movie, they provided Russell Westbrook with help from a couple of star-studded names in Paul George and Carmelo Anthony.
Recovering from Kevin Durant's shocking 2016 departure, Westbrook provided a much-needed distraction and a highly entertaining brand of hoops. As the undisputed best player, he averaged a historic 30-point triple-double en route to his sole MVP award.
Alas, Westbrook's one-man show wasn't enough to build a contender. The Thunder knew this the moment Durant jumped ship, but they needed to get some serious star power. In comes
George — who requested a trade from the Indiana Pacers. And eventually, Anthony — who did the same with the New York Knicks.
Westbrook, George and Anthony were a blockbuster trio in name, but on the court, they never meshed well. The Thunder went on to have an inconsistent 48-34 record and lost to the Utah Jazz in another Round 1 loss. After paying for the most expensive roster in NBA history at the time, OKC had to move on from Anthony. Especially since it needed to sign George to a contract extension.
According to Anthony, the Thunder were hell-bent on moving on from him. Even if he tried to finagle the NBA's cap-space rules to stick around. He detailed his divorce from OKC on Dwyane Wade's Feb. 2024 podcast episode.
"That summer, I was supposed to sign back. I still had a year left from OKC. I was going back to OKC," Anthony said. "I start hearing the whispers, 'Hey, you want to restructure your contract?’ I’m owed $28 million. I said, 'Y’all want me to restructure this? How do y’all want me to restructure? I want to be here. I’m willing to do what I've got to do to be here. I want to build me, PG and Russ.'"
On Anthony's original contract when he first joined the Thunder, he had an expiring $27.9 million salary for the 2018-19 season. That obviously was not attainable to have on your books. Especially if he was going to be a bench player. That type of salary is for a borderline All-Star player. Not somebody on the downward slope of their career.
"I’m willing to do that. I’ll take less. What kind of deal do y’all want? You want to cut this down into three years? 28 over three? Let’s do four years. Give me seven a year," Anthony said. "Let’s do it. I’m gonna work with it."
It's easy to see why the Thunder gave Anthony the cold shoulder. Even after he tried to work his way around his bloated salary. There were just no salvageable paths to go to. So OKC traded him to the Atlanta Hawks in a three-team deal. Eventually, his contract was bought out.
"They were trying to figure out a way to make the contracts work for everybody. At this point, I was owed 28 at one year, my last year. PG had deals coming," Anthony said. "So I’m talking to them like, 'Yo, P, y’all want to be here, Russ? We gonna make this work. I'm gonna break my deal down.'"
Afterward, Anthony signed with the Houston Rockets on a one-year deal. They were the team most linked to him in his 2017 summer sweepstakes. Of course, most know about Anthony's notoriously short stint there. He didn't even make it to Thanksgiving before they pulled the plug on that experiment. He was sent home and eventually played three more years in a bench role with the Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Lakers before retiring.
Things just didn't work out between Anthony and the Thunder. He struggled to excel in a third-option role. He averaged 16.2 points on 40.4% shooting and 5.8 rebounds. And in the 2018 NBA playoffs, he was borderline unplayable. At that point, the best course of action is to just move on. It was the right call by OKC.
Carmelo Anthony says he offered to turn his $28,000,000 deal into $7,000,000 a year to keep the team together, only for OKC to tell him to come off the bench
— katsu (@katsuxbt) August 25, 2026
Melo: “That summer I was supposed to sign back. I still had a year left from OKC. I was going back to OKC. I start… pic.twitter.com/9o6EnlRNKV
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Carmelo Anthony was 'willing' to take pay cut to stay in OKC for 2nd year
