GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- Carmelo Anthony is expected to miss Wednesday's season finale with a sore left knee, sitting out what may be his last game as a member of the New York Knicks.
In his seventh season in New York, Anthony was the focal point of trade rumors prior to the February deadline, and the Knicks may test the trade market for Anthony again in the offseason.
Anthony has a no-trade clause and the power to veto any trade but said recently that he sees "the writing on the wall," indicating perhaps that he knows he is approaching the end of his Knicks tenure.
Anthony said last week that he's looking forward to his exit meeting with team president Phil Jackson, which is expected to take place no later than Friday.
"The chips will be on the table in that meeting," Anthony said.
Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek and GM Steve Mills will attend exit meetings. Hornacek said after Tuesday's practice that he assumed Anthony wouldn't play on Wednesday night due to knee soreness and he wasn't sure what to expect during Anthony's meeting.
"I'm sure a lot of things will be discussed," the coach said. "... Obviously we'll talk about the season, going forward, what's going to happen. It'll be about that."
When asked to assess Anthony's season, Hornacek praised the forward's offense but intimated that he needed to improve defensively.
"I think he played more games than I probably anticipated, knowing that he was getting older, with his knee," Hornacek said of the 32-year-old Anthony, who has played in 73 games this season. "... Obviously he can score the ball. He can put it in the hole. He's a guy along with Derrick [Rose] that late in games, veteran guys, that you can go to. They came through sometimes.
"I thought it's kind of what we expected. He'd be able to score the ball. Defensively, he was in the right spot a lot of times. As you get older -- he's got good reactions -- but getting back out to somebody, I think our whole team struggled with that this year. We didn't close out hard enough on a lot of guys. So it's some things we need to improve on."
Whether or not the Knicks will be counting on Anthony to improve his defense next season is an open question. New York spoke to at least three teams prior to the trade deadline about Anthony. Anthony, who has two years remaining on the five-year, $124 million contract he signed in 2014, said management never approached him with a specific offer.
Since the trade deadline, Anthony has been vague at times about his future in New York. He's also said that he doesn't understand the Knicks' plan for the future. New York will miss the playoffs for the fourth straight season and has lost at least 50 games in each of the past three seasons. The Knicks have a first-round draft pick in June and could have as much as $25 million to spend in free agency this summer. That number could change slightly depending on whether they trade Anthony and which players they get in return.
Hornacek, as you'd expect, said he's planning as if Anthony will be on the team next season.
"I think it's all his choice still, isn't it, with his contract? We'll go into the summer -- I think every year until guys are gone, coaches, we all assume we have the same team. That's how you prepare," he said. "When something changes you deal with it."
In addition to likely playing without Anthony, Hornacek expects the Knicks to sit Kristaps Porzingis (back) and Lance Thomas (hip) on Wednesday, though Porzingis and Anthony are officially listed as questionable. Porzingis has missed the past four games due to his back ailment.
The Knicks are at the point in the season where they are resting starters with minor injuries in an effort to give younger players more minutes and, more than likely, help their own lottery positioning.
If the Knicks lose to Philadelphia on Wednesday, they will finish with the sixth-worst record in the NBA and have a 6.3 percent chance of landing the top pick in June's draft.
If they win on Wednesday, the Knicks could finish in a three-way tie with Sacramento and Minnesota for the league's sixth-worst record. The tiebreaker in this scenario is determined by a random drawing conducted by the NBA.