I hope nobody S.W.A.T.’s me or something after writing this. These days, you can’t give criticism without being “disrespectful” or “too young.” Well, for the record, I apologize for not being born in 1990. Blame my mom and dad.
We’re going to be discussing a pretty touchy subject today, so let’s set some things straight first. Carmelo Anthony is a bonafide Hall of Famer. Anthony was a veritable Swiss Army knife when it came to the ways he could score as one of the greatest scorers of all-time. A walking bucket, a microwave, a flamethrower, whatever your favorite paradigmatic expression is, that was Carmelo Anthony.
He had everything he needed for superstardom: impeccable footwork, a buttery release, mastery of subtle fakes and jabs, and of course, the singularly excellent name of Carmelo Anthony (which is a wholly underrated attribute; if Carmelo was instead “Carl Anthony,” I guarantee you he’d be anything but a basketball player). In his prime, Carmelo Anthony had more ways to score than Barney Stinson and Joey Tribbiani combined. That’s impressive considering Barney had a whole playbook of maneuvers.
But, as we all know, it’s no longer 2013. In fact, it’s been four years since Anthony enjoyed proper “star” status. In 2019, Carmelo Anthony is on the doors of every NBA front office, while every GM tries to ignore the pounding outside. How can a player fall off so much in just four years?
Well, to tell the truth, Anthony didn’t actually regress all that much. In fact, if he were still on the Knicks today, it’d be pretty likely Anthony would still be putting up close to 20 PPG. The problem is, it’s no longer a matter of if Anthony is good enough at basketball to be in the NBA. It’s now the unfortunate reputation Anthony has developed and the too many questions about how he can actually impact winning basketball.
There are 450 players in the NBA, and we’re all in agreement that Carmelo Anthony is still a top 450 basketball player in the world. If you don’t think so, well, just know from now on that your opinion on anything in the world is now moot. I believe Anthony should still be in the league, but certain events have come to make it very difficult.
The fact is, there’s just little demand for a Carmelo Anthony in the NBA right now. I’ll explain exactly why that is in a minute, but first, let’s go over some of Anthony’s recent history. This is arguably the biggest reason why Anthony is no longer in the NBA, and it’s probably his own doing.
In 2018, Anthony scoffed at the idea of coming off the bench. “Ayo P, they say I gotta come off the bench” mocked Anthony, as he derided a poor reporter who had a perfectly justifiable suggestion. Anthony was having the worst season of his career with the OKC Thunder, and how dare that boorish buffoon ask him to do something 78% of the NBA does every night! Then, after the season, Anthony would say “I’m not sacrificing no bench role. So that’s out of the question.” They were minor comments at the time, but it likely sealed his fate in the NBA. Because, no matter how much Anthony says he’s changed since then, a double whammy like that wrecked his chances like a Chicago Bull in a china shop.
I can’t believe I actually wrote that. I’m not sure if I should be proud or disappointed.
Granted, Anthony did change his tune after signing with the Rockets. This probably wasn’t before Chris Paul pulled him aside and was like “Homie, I just promised James I wouldn’t cry about him not playing defense for a whole month if he gave the go-ahead to sign you. You know how it is with me and being mad at my teammates. Please don’t mess this up.” Good guy, Chris. Even he’s sacrificing something to get his buddy on the team. Even then, however, Anthony was more than just a sixth man. He played 30 minutes a night, which is more than starter (and better player) Eric Gordon did. This did soften the blow for Anthony’s ego but certainly didn’t help the Rockets out in any way.
Anthony played 10 games for the Rockets, averaging 13.4 PPG on 40.5% from the field before Houston traded him to the Hawks, and he was subsequently cut. Ever since we’ve only glimpsed him in short training clips from that mystical gym with the black center logo where everybody makes every freaking shot they can imagine. I do love reading the comments on those posts, however. It’s like a Carmelo Anthony fan page subreddit.
What’s baffling to many people (including those folks in the aforementioned comment sections), however, is why Carmelo Anthony is still a free agent. And, no, it’s not because the NBA is blackballing him. Take off your tinfoil hat. There’s literally no reason why NBA teams would blackball Anthony, aside from his odd obsession with bucket hats.
Google it, it’s actually absurd how often he wears those things.
What those people don’t realize is that it’s not a question of if Anthony is still good enough, it’s about risk vs reward. Right now, Carmelo Anthony simply isn’t worth the time.
It’s obvious that a rebuilding team would have no interest in signing Anthony. His playstyle isn’t conducive for developing young players, which both he and NBA teams know. The Cavaliers, for example, could sign Anthony and just not play him, but is that a realistic long-term arrangement? How long will it be before Anthony starts making passive-aggressive comments to the media or becomes unhappy? You don’t sign Carmelo Anthony to sit him on the bench. You sign him to get buckets.
Everybody on the team would know that Anthony would be good enough to play. It’s just that there’s no reason to put him in the game. It’s much easier to just sign a proven veteran who can complement young players still figuring themselves out, even if they aren’t a better player than Anthony.
This rules out a lot of NBA teams, such as the Atlanta Hawks, Chicago Bulls, Charlotte Hornets, Cleveland Cavaliers, New York Knicks, Dallas Mavericks, Phoenix Suns, and New Orleans Pelicans. Anthony would definitely be good enough to play for any of them. There just wouldn’t be a point to signing him.
But we already knew that if Anthony was going to sign with a team, it’d be with a contender. He wants to contend (I think) and would be happier on a winning team. Unfortunately, it’s hard to think of a team that actually wants, much less needs a player like Anthony. Frankly, he’s just too one-dimensional at this point.
Just imagine how Anthony’s teammates feel when they’re on defense. The man had a defensive rating of 112.2 and a defensive plus-minus of -2.8 per 100 possessions. He was statistically one of the worst defenders in the entire NBA, and his defense isn’t going to get any better at age 35. Jeff Bzdelick (former Rockets defensive coordinator) literally retired a month after Anthony signed with Houston. It was probably completely unrelated, but I like to think that it was cause and effect. Clint Capela was probably tempted to as well after trying to contest the guy who just blew by Anthony for the fourth time in the last four minutes.
Not to mention, Anthony hasn’t exactly been able to cover for his porous defense with the usual gunslinging on offense. He simply doesn’t seem to do well in an off-ball role. He’s shot 40.4% from the field the last two seasons and just over 35% from 3PT. Spot-up shooting hasn’t agreed with Anthony the past few years, and it seems that he just can’t play without getting into a rhythm first. And, please, don’t bring up Olympic Melo. NBA defense is much better than anything the rest of the world could throw at him. It’s apples to oranges.
But, what about “Oh, he’ll come off the bench and give you buckets every night.” “If Lou Williams could do it, why not Anthony?” Well, first, although Williams is also pretty terrible at defense, he’s a much better passer than Anthony. Williams can at least run an offense semi-decently, something Anthony is no longer able to do.
At 35, Carmelo is no longer athletic enough to play small forward and can only guard opposing power forwards. This means no more easy post mismatches, and having lost the speed to blow by all but the slowest defenders, Anthony has been sapped of the versatility that made his game so great a decade ago. Of course, there’s more to his game than just easy mismatches, but those matchups are something Anthony lived off of for quite a while.
Which brings us to the biggest issue. Anthony has failed to deliver on every team he’s been on the last two years. The Oklahoma City Thunder struggled the entire year with Carmelo, although it’s idiotic to pin all the blame on him. The Thunder had many issues that year, and Anthony was only just one of the problems. Houston, on the other hand, left a much more bitter taste. To this day, we’re not sure what exactly happened, and we might not ever know if Anthony was simply a scapegoat for the Rockets’. What we do know, however, was that Houston dramatically improved once Anthony was gone, and people took notice.
The Rockets started 4-6 with Carmelo, then immediately rattled off a five-game win streak without him. James Harden found a stash of Michael Jordan’s Secret Stuff and launched his 32-straight 30-point games soon after Carmelo’s departure. Now, this could’ve all been coincidence, seeing how Houston was floundering like Dwight Howard at the FT line after losing key players in the offseason like Trevor Ariza. Additionally, the Rockets had close to zero depth and would lean heavily on mid-season additions Kenneth Faried and Austin Rivers later on in the year. Nevertheless, much of the blame fell on Carmelo, fair or not.
The reward with Anthony is a mid-teens scoring player who stalls offenses and is nonexistent on defense. That’s not a great enough payoff for a player who becomes unhappy when his role changes and is potentially a major distraction. People ask why guys like Michael Beasley and Patrick Patterson are so easily signed, while Anthony languishes at home. However, they fail to calculate the risk-reward ratio of such moves. Anthony doesn’t push any NBA team over the top to a championship, and the dangers just aren’t worth it.
One last thing to consider: Anthony is already 35 years old. Think of all the other NBA players you know who still contributed at age 35. It’s not impossible. However, it’s very difficult, especially for a guy like Carmelo who was never in the best shape.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why Carmelo Anthony is no longer in the NBA and may never be again. That was a sad tale. So, let’s try and end on a positive note, shall we? Carmelo Anthony once scored 62 points without garnering a single assist. What a bloody legend.