Getty Carmelo Anthony
Carmelo Anthony isn’t in the NBA and one analyst things he deserves to be.
Insert Yahoo Sports senior NBA writer, Chris Haynes.
“Talent wise and skillset wise, he deserves to be in the NBA,” Haynes told me on the Scoop B Radio Podcast.
“I’d say he’s a top 200, 100 talent. But, there is this thing about ‘fit.’ That’s something that teams really consider. There’s a thing about how you’ve got to gel with the dudes on that team roster. So your options get thin. But I think the Lakers makes sense, the Clippers make sense too. But, Carmelo really has to buy in. And this is what I think is a conundrum for team coaches and managers: ‘It’s kind of easy to say all the right things when you don’t have a job.’ So, the problem was that the last three years were Carmelo’s window to kind of show teams that ‘I’m willing to reduce my role’ and ‘I’m okay and good with being the 15, 20 minute guy, know my role, know the leadership role I have to take on’ and he didn’t showcase that in the last two to three years. That’s the last defining image that this teams have of Carmelo. So I think he didn’t use these last three years as he should have, to where he wouldn’t be in this position right now.”
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 traded to the Chicago Bulls before the NBA’s trading deadline.
Melo hasn’t played NBA basketball since November 8, 2018 in a game against his former team, the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Carmelo Anthony was the third overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft.
He’s averaged 24 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3 assists in his career with the Oklahoma City Thunder, New York Knicks, Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets. “He could come into a team and sit,” Chris Haynes tells Scoop B Radio.
“But it’s always easy to say, like Antonio Brown, he just got released. But at some point, he’s gonna do an interview and say “I’m ready” and how the past is behind him and he’s a different person. But the last visual we see of him is him forcing himself out of the Oakland Raiders and only lasting one game without he New England Patriots. So, you have to walk the walk at a certain point, and I don’t think Carmelo has done that yet.”
NBA training camp begins at the end of this month. The NBA’s regular season begins next month.
Million Dollar Question: Where should Melo go?
“The place that wants him,” newly retired NBA legend, Dwyane Wade tells me.
“The place that’s going to allow him to be Melo and understand that he still can play the game of basketball.”
The Lakers do have one final roster spot and many believe that Carmelo Anthony still has some game left in the tank to compete against many of the NBA’s elite.