Carmelo Anthony – the “fallen” star version
Anthony, a player who came into the league many years ago in the heavy-weight class of 2003, was always considered a franchise player, no matter where he played. Throughout his career, he was a 20, 25+ points, 6+ rebounds walking man and he seemed to be a future superstar of the league since his rookie year, when he averaged 21 PPG, 6,1 RPG and 2,8 APG at age 19, while playing for the Denver Nuggets, a team who drafted him with their number 3 overall pick. After many play-offs appearances with the Nuggets, he only managed to play one Conference Finals, against the Lakers, losing it in 6 games; that marked the only time when he actually got past the first round with them. When he was traded to his hometown team, the New York Knicks, many thought that they finally landed an important piece that allowed them to build around, but sadly for both cases, Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks, things didn’t work out quite as they had drawn them on the chalkboard, given the fact that Anthony and the company got to the post-season only in his first three years there, while making it to the second round only in the 2012-13 season. After 2013, the fall of Melo began, as they were constantly losing in a much weaker East, they never got to the play-offs again and fans lost their patience and started to boo him in the Mecca several times. Those were the early signs that he will leave New York, and so it happened in 2017 when he was traded to Oklahoma City, to team up with Russell Westbrook and Paul George. Yet again, a lot of buzzing went around the league on this team, but as some of us expected, it didn’t go as expected, as there were too many players on that starting line-up who needed the ball in their hands in order to run the offense. They ended up losing in the first round to a much younger team lead by a then rookie Donovan Mitchell, in the first round. Now, he was free to do what he wanted to do since he left New York… to go and join the Houston Rockets, coached by a man well known by him, Mike D’Antoni, as he thought that was the best fit for him at that point in his career. It turned out that this actually wasn’t the best fit, as he got sacked by the team after only 10 games played in their uniform. Sure, it was a shocker for the entire world, and many started to discuss about whether he will play again in the league or not, as he is currently almost 35 years old. The problem with Anthony thoughout his career was his capability to involve others in offense, as he was only productive when he played ISO ball and he needed the ball too much in his hands, since the start of the attack until the end of the clock. It worked quite good while he was young, but it turned out that, while he was going further in his career, he just wouldn’t get past his ego and he kept on taking well contested shots off the dribble, and that was the main reason why he remained without a team, because he can’t accept that he isn’t the main go-to guy and he needs to take a step back and play a less important role on a team, since his time has kind of passed by. We know, it’s hard to accept that you are getting older and your career is almost over, but you need to let go of that big ego if you are willing to play another season in the NBA. Carmelo Anthony was always a great shooter, there’s no question about that, but, in my personal opinion, he was overrated in every other aspect of his game.
