If Carmelo Anthony intends to leave New York, then why not join the Dallas Mavericks?

This seems to be the message of Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki who openly batted for Anthony to join the 2011 NBA champions.

"If Carmelo would really love to come here, we'd love to have him," Nowitzki said on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas as quoted by the NY Daily News.

Anthony is widely anticipated to become a free agent on July 1 and the Mavericks are among the teams that have enough cap space to offer the scoring machine a very lucrative deal. However, it has been reported that the Chicago Bulls and another Texas team, the Houston Rockets, are the frontrunners to land the All-Star forward.

Still, the Mavs may be a dark horse in the Carmelo Anthony sweepstakes especially with the close relationship of Mavs owner Mark Cuban and Knicks owner James Dolan.

Anthony may also find Nowitzki a better partner in his pursuit of his first-ever NBA championship.

Asked if he and Anthony can co-exist, Nowitzki said he thinks they can play well together. He explained: "Listen, I think I've showed over my 16 years that I can play with anybody."

He continued: "The only tough season I think we've had is when we had (Antawn) Jamison and Antoine Walker and myself who are all three kind of the same four-men, but other than that I think I've shown over my career that I can play with anybody. I'll adjust, whether I have to get out of the way or go to the corner more, post up, pass. I'll do whatever, really, that needs to be done out there to win or for this franchise to be a winner."

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