There was a lot of excitement for the Los Angeles Lakers heading into this season. The excitement quickly turned into misery as the team struggled to get anything going throughout the entire year. In the offseason, the Lakers chose to fill the roster with aging veterans hoping to compete for a title. Carmelo Anthony was perhaps the most notable free agent signing.
The 10-time All-Star is one of the most notable names in basketball but he’s accepted that he’s a role player in recent years. He was actually one of the few signings who played well for the Lakers. While he’s a major liability on the defensive end of the court, he brought a lot of help on offense. He averaged 13.3 points a game and hit 37.5% of his 3-point shots.
Los Angeles would be wise to bring Anthony back but the allure of playing for the team could be gone after such a bad season. Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report is predicting that the forward will go back to New York and sign with the Knicks:
The 10-time All-Star was supposed to find happiness and a ring when he linked up with close friend LeBron James last summer, but the Lakers seemingly had one of the more unpleasant campaigns in recent memory.
Maybe Anthony saw it differently and wants to run it back, but if happiness is what he truly seeks, he might dial up a different former team to find it.
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Anthony Not Sure if He’ll Return to Lakers
It’s no secret that Anthony and LeBron James are close friends. That played a role in why the former signed with the Lakers last year. However, Anthony doesn’t have many years left playing basketball, and being part of another disastrous season in Los Angeles can’t be appealing. He was asked if he’ll return to the Lakers after the season and was non-commital.
“I don’t even know,” Anthony told reporters during exit interviews. “I haven’t thought about next season at this point. I’m speaking very truthful and honest here. I haven’t even started thinking about my decision about next season, or what’s gonna happen, or where I’m at.
“As far as me, yeah, I want to win a championship. I’ve been trying for 19 years to win a championship. But I’m blessed. You understand? I’m blessed. I’m still able to do this 19 years in, and still able to enjoy it and still get motivated by it, and love to go to work and love being around the guys. So a lot of times I’ll take that over a championship, if I could, because that’s my happiness. If I’ve got to be unhappy to try to go fight and win a championship, I don’t want that. I don’t want that unhappiness. I don’t want that energy around me. So do I want a championship? Hell yeah. I don’t think that’s a question I even have to answer. But I think at this point in my career, it’s about just being happy, and being able to come to work every day with a good attitude, be positive, bring guys along with you, teaching, talking, learning, those are things that I actually look forward to now at this point in my career.”
Obviously, he left the door open for a return but he’s clearly keeping his options open.
Should Lakers Bring Back Anthony?
Anthony was a solid piece for the Lakers this season and proved that he’s still an effective scorer. He would’ve been a great fit on last season’s team that was great on defense but didn’t have a great third-scoring option. Whether or not Los Angeles should bring back Anthony will depend on how the rest of the offseason goes.
The Lakers desperately need to get younger and add some better defensive players. If they can find two or three of those types of players, then keeping Anthony is smarter. If the roster looks similar to last season, the team would be wiser to prioritize defensive stoppers than signing Anthony.
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Key Lakers Free Agent Predicted to Leave & ‘Run It Back’ With Former Team