When Royce White said Carmelo Anthony was “blackballed” from the NBA this week, he raised a question that’s fairly easy to answer: Why isn’t Melo in the NBA? Anthony is a 10-time All-Star, three-time Olympic gold medalist, and one-time scoring champ who’s a no-doubt Hall of Famer. He’s also a 35-year-old power forward who doesn’t rebound or play defense, and he’s coming off a season where he played only 10 games despite being healthy.
Melo is still popular, so his final season would be well received by fans, certainly better than Paul Pierce’s retirement tour, but there’s no basketball reasons for Anthony to be on an NBA roster.
Anthony’s supposed strengths aren’t that strong anymore, and his weaknesses are very weak indeed. For years, Anthony was a devastating one-on-one scorer, able to get his shot off at will against anyone. But that’s a difficult skill to maintain into your mid-30s unless you’re Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant.
With his burst gone, Melo must forsake his usual diet of mid-range jumpers and remake himself as a spot-up three-point shooter. He took over 40% of his shots behind the arc during his Oklahoma City season, and over 50% in his brief stint in Houston. But he’s poorly suited for the role. For his career, he’s only a 34.7% three-point shooter, and for four of the past five years, he has shot below the league average from three-point range. By comparison, newly signed Laker Jared Dudley, the inspiration for White’s rant, shoots 39.2% for his career behind the arc.
And the less said about Melo’s defense, the better. Anthony wasn’t a strong defender in his prime, and he’s an awful defender now that he’s old. Moving to power forward hasn’t helped: Players shot 4.8% better when matched up with Melo last season, and 12.5% better near the basket. That difference means that, if guarded by Melo, Jeff Green turns into Kevin Durant. Melo didn’t rebound well as a young, big small forward; the boards aren’t going to start coming now that he’s old and undersized at the four. So it’s unclear what he’s contributing to a winning team in 2019 -– workout videos in a hooded sweatshirt?
Normally, a surefire Hall of Famer can go home for a final farewell season. It happens all the time: Dwyane Wade got a year-long going-away celebration last season in Miami, Scottie Pippen went back to the Bulls in 2003 and even Vlade Divac finished his career with the Lakers at age 36. Of course, none of those teams made the playoffs -– it’s nice for the fans but not a good strategy for winning.
But Carmelo Anthony really doesn’t have a home to go back to. His best seasons were in Denver, but he forced his way out of town. Plus, the Nuggets are too good to devote a roster slot to Melo for sentimental reasons. He didn’t exactly leave the Knicks under good terms, and New York already has signed five other power forwards this summer. The Thunder did trade a power forward this summer, and OKC always needs shooters, but it didn’t work out when Melo was there the first time. Nor did it work out when he and banana boater Chris Paul were teammates in Houston last season.
Anthony probably should be on Team USA in the World Cup, because international play is where Melo’s star has shined the brightest. He shot 10-for-12 from three in an Olympics game, for instance. A ton of Team USA players have dropped out of the tournament, including two members of the Sacramento Kings. If the Kings are too good for your team, Team USA is really unpopular. Would anyone be upset if Melo took Mason Plumlee’s roster spot? Send Melo to the World Cup, see if FIBA will let him wear his hoodie on the court, and let everyone say goodbye.
Just don’t put him on an NBA team.
