NBA Rumors: Anthony, Siakam, Beverley, Thomas, Warriors

Carmelo Anthony wanted to return to the Trail Blazers before signing with the Lakers, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports writes.

Anthony has spent the last two years in Portland but said that management never contacted him about a return.

“No, not the way I thought. But honestly, I wasn’t expecting it,” Anthony said while appearing on Haynes’ “Posted Up” podcast. “… Not to say Portland did anything wrong, but I was sitting around because I’m a loyal person. I didn’t want to leave (Damian Lillard) and CJ (McCollum) and those guys. But I know the business.”

While the Trail Blazers didn’t express interest in keeping the 10-time All-Star, other teams did, including one of his former ones.

“New York was always there, always a story,” Anthony said. “I told my son when he made it to high school, I’d be there. Philly, I didn’t get a chance to converse with Philly, but there was interest. New Orleans had interest. It felt good to see that again and being a part of teams being interested in me when 18-20 months again, it was nobody.”

It will be interesting to see Melo finally teaming up with LeBron James, as LeBron himself reached out and told him it was time for them to team up.

More NBA Rumors

• Pascal Siakam‘s name was tossed around in trade rumors earlier this offseason, as he acknowledged that in a recent interview with Sopan Deb of The New York Times. Siakam especially mentioned that he heard of the Warriors and Kings’ interest.

• Patrick Beverley has never missed out on the playoffs throughout his NBA career, and he hopes to keep that trend going with the Timberwolves, Chris Hine of The Star-Tribune writes. Minnesota finished at the bottom of the standings last season, but if Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell can stay healthy, and Anthony Edwards takes that next step, then the Wolves can potentially compete for one of the play-in spots.

• Isaiah Thomas will work out with the Warriors next week, according to Jorge Sierra and Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. Injuries have plagued the former All-Star guard over the past few seasons, but if he can stay healthy, he could provide an excellent scoring option off the bench for a number of teams.