NEW ORLEANS — Charles Barkley says the Knicks should trade Carmelo Anthony by Thursday’s deadline and the 32-year-old star would be a fool not to accept.

Speaking at a TNT event Thursday night, Barkley said Anthony should waive his no-trade clause not only to win, but for the financial bonus.

“He’s got a $5 million kicker added to his contract every year if he gets traded,’’ Barkley mused. “I’d get traded for the extra $15 million.”

In addition, Barkley sees Phil Jackson’s 23-34 squad as a bust despite the team being on the fringes of the playoff hunt, four games out of the East’s eighth seed. He advocates the rebuild.

The easiest player to pawn off is backup point guard Brandon Jennings, with a $5 million expiring contract. Jennings was a mysterious late scratch Wednesday with Achilles soreness after which he made his Twitter account private and deleted Knicks from his bio before flying off to Los Angeles. One Knick said afterward Jennings’ scratch was a surprise. With the team’s surplus of centers, sources indicated Kyle O’Quinn could be another pawn.

“If I was Carmelo, an older star, I don’t want to finish my career playing on a bad team,’’ Barkley said. “He should sit down [with Jackson] and figure out a trade for both of [them] and move on. I don’t understand why he doesn’t want to be traded. It could turn into a win-win for both of them. Sit down like men and work it because right now it’s a lose-lose situation.’’

Anthony, selected as an injury replacement to Kevin Love for Sunday’s All-Star Game, said in Oklahoma City on Wednesday he expects to remain a Knick but left the door for a trade ajar. Presumably he would consider a trade to Chris Paul’s Clippers, whom the Knicks have approached.

According to Barkley, the Clippers are clearly the third-best club in the West. As tantalizing as Anthony would be in Hollywood, Barkley said he believes they still would be hard-pressed to upset the Spurs or Warriors in the playoffs.

“I’m not sure — I would still take the Spurs and Warriors in the West,’’ Barkley said. “He’s not going to get the ball as much as he had. Chris wants the ball, Blake [Griffin], DeAndre [Jordan] wants it. J.J. Redick wants shots, too. Can he do other things? He’ll never be great defender or rebounder. [Sixth man] might be the best scenario — come in and be the offensive guy. Not a lot of balls to go around.’’

After another win-now failure, Barkley wants to see Jackson rebuild and senses he’s “trying to piss Melo off’’ with his tweeting and cold shoulder.

“They should blow it up,’’ Barkley said. “I think Phil has gotten a bad rap, [but] what happened is [Joakim] Noah and [Derrick] Rose haven’t worked out. That’s the key. They’re trying to do now, he’s only got one valuable piece and unless Carmelo waives [his] no-trade, he can’t start rebuilding.

“Noah used to be one of my favorite players but he hasn’t played well. Coming into the season people thought Rose would have a great year because he’s going to be a free agent. Bottom line it hasn’t worked.’’