Getty Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James
The Los Angeles Lakers have a bomb squad!
The Lakers put a team together that is looking to compete for an NBA Championship this season.
Already having LeBron James, Kyle Kuzma, JaVale McGee, Rajon Rondo, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Alex Caruso on their roster, LA added some vets Anthony Davis, DeMarcus Cousins, Dwight Howard, Danny Green, Avery Bradley, Jared Dudley, Quinn Cook, Troy Daniels and rookie Talen Horton-Tucker to their roster.
NBA training camp begins this month and the NBA’s regular season begins in October.
The Lakers have one roster spot remaining. Will Carmelo Anthony fill it?
“Maybe Carmelo isn’t ready to play for the Lakers, but is he gonna be able to handle not playing, facilitating the team form the young guys and facilitation the team as a whole,” Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes told me on the Scoop B Radio.
“I would say this: for Carmelo’s longevity, if he wants to properly facilitate is last years in the NBA right, maybe going to the Lakers (a team that he isn’t going to play a lot on), he can be viewed as a model citizen. He can do what Vince Carter has been doing for the last five years, show that you can do that! Because there will come a time they’re gonna need you to play, injuries happen all the time. Especially with all this maintenance that’s been going on in the last couple of years, he’s gonna have opportunities to play. So when you get int here, and produce, maybe that next team will swing by and say “we want you to be a role model citizen, we want you to be a leader, but we want you to play too.” You have to learn how to play both sides, and Carmelo hasn’t learned how to do that yet.”
Potential sage advice!
A 10-time NBA All-Star, Anthony signed with the Houston Rockets last summer after clearing waivers in a trade that shipped him from the Thunder to the Atlanta Hawks. After signing with the Rockets he was later dealt to the Chicago Bulls before the NBA trade deadline.
Many have said that he’s past his prime and can’t compete anymore.
The third overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft by the Denver Nuggets, Melo was traded to the New York Knicks at the NBA’s trading deadline in 2011.
His resume: Anthony has averaged 24.0 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists in his 16-year career.
Six times he was chosen as an NBA All-Star and he won the NBA Rookie Challenge MVP. He won a College Basketball National Championship at Syracuse under head coach, Jim Boeheim. Representing team USA in the Olympics, he won a Bronze Medal at the 2002 Junior Team and 2004 Athens Olympics. Additionally, he won two gold medals in 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics.
While Carmelo Anthony has been away from the game, he’s been spending a ton of time going to his son, Kiyan’s basketball games.
He’s also thought about calling it quits.
In an interview with Taryn Finley of the Huffington Post, Melo suggested that he is at peace with the fact he may not play much longer. “I’m sure [retirement is] coming soon,” he said.
“I’d be sitting lying to you if I said it’s not coming soon. I think I want it to come soon. I don’t think I want to do this forever, but because you love it so much, it’s hard to give it up. At the end of the day, at anything you do, when it’s your time to go, it’s your time to go. But as long as you feel good with that.”