trade in which they acquired Dennis Schröder from the Hawks and Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot from the Philadelphia 76ers. The trade was widely seen as a cost-cutting move, as it saved the Thunder tens of millions of dollars in luxury tax payments. On July 30, Anthony accepted a contract buyout from the Hawks, and was subsequently placed on waivers. Houston Rockets (2018–2019) On August 13, 2018, Anthony signed a one-year, $2.4 million veterans minimum contract with the Houston Rockets coached by his former Knicks coach, Mike D'Antoni. On November 15, Rockets general manager Daryl Morey announced that the team was "parting ways" with Anthony, but had not released him. He played ten games for Houston, starting twice, but he was held out of the last three for what the club called an unspecified "illness." During that absence, much of his playing time went to rookie Gary Clark. Houston had started the season losing seven of their first 11 games. Morey said that Anthony "accepted every role" asked by D'Antoni, but that the "fit we envisioned when Carmelo chose to sign with the Rockets has not materialized; therefore we thought it was best to move on as any other outcome would have been unfair to him." D'Antoni stated that he "didn't ever want to disrespect [Anthony] and his career. He's going in the Hall of Fame." On January 22, 2019, the Rockets traded Anthony, the draft rights to Jon Diebler, and undisclosed cash considerations to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for the draft rights to Tadija Dragićević. This trade allowed the Rockets to alleviate luxury-tax penalties up to $2.6 million. On February 1, he was waived by the Bulls. Portland Trail Blazers (2019–2021) 2019–20 season On November 19, 2019, Anthony was signed by the Portland Trail Blazers to a one-year, non-guaranteed deal. With his last NBA game having been on November 8, 2018, Anthony made his debut as a Blazer in a 115–104 road loss to the New Orleans Pelicans on November 19; he started and had 10 points to go along with 4 rebounds and 1 block in 24 minutes of play. On November 25, Anthony scored a season-high 25 points along with 8 rebounds in a 117–94 road victory over the Chicago Bulls. In the same game, Anthony moved past Alex English into 18th spot on the NBA's all-time scoring list. A couple of days later Anthony was named Western Conference