The Landscape of the NBA with (out) Carmelo Anthony
Brooklyn, N.Y.- The NBA season will conclude in less than two weeks with half the league racing to have home court in the playoffs or the highest chance at the Number 1 pick.
Still, former star Forward Carmelo Anthony remains unsigned with mere days to go until the playoffs. He last played in November for the Rockets, appearing in a blowout loss to his former team, the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Front office of Houston decided the “Carmelo Anthony off the bench” experiment was failing, and subsequently sent him home. He was later traded to Chicago, who then waived him.
While there were rumors of mutual interest between him and the Lakers, nothing ever came of it.
…it wasn’t fair for him as a Hall of Fame player to play in a role that wasn’t good for him. It wasn’t a fit.
Houston Rockets Coach D’Antoni
As a talented scorer, Carmelo led plenty of NBA teams to the playoffs, even going to the Conference Finals against the Lakers in 2009. He has career averages of 24 points and 6.4 Rebounds. In his later years with his teams less talented, he would shoot with every effort he could to try and get his team to win.
With the offensive skills he still possesses, he absolutely can help a winning team with defensive versatility around him.
This isn’t the story of Carmelo Anthony that most fans expected by the end of this season. Most fans and players chalked up the disastrous season in Oklahoma City to the system in place.
Melo, a high-volume, isolation scorer from the midrange was being asked to be a catch and shoot floor spacer. That, along with ceding touches to Russell Westbrook and Paul George.
Regardless of the process the team chose to go about, the results weren’t impressive. Oklahoma City lost in the First Round to Utah. Carmelo Anthony for the first time on a big stage, was almost unplayable.
Fair or unfair, the perception around the league is that Carmelo Anthony cannot adapt to the modern NBA. Whether if its a title contender like the Warriors or Rockets, middle of the pact teams like Miami or or even tanking teams; all have left Melo on the shelf with time ticking.
Carmelo Anthony has made spot public appearances in the public eye, most recently attending the Heat-Knicks game to watch his friend Dwyane Wade play at the Garden.
While he maintains, “I just want to be happy,” Carmelo certainly is waiting to to help a team win so he can show what gas he has left in the tank.
Dylan Anglade is a contributing writer for AllThingsHoops.com. Follow him on Instagram @that_guy_dyl