Despite the cache he may bring with his name, Carmelo Anthony doesn’t appear to fit what the Houston Rockets do on either end of the court.
After losing both Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute in free agency, it was reasonable to expect the Houston Rockets to scour the market in the hopes of finding a suitable replacement at the small forward position.
What they found was a 10-time All-Star and one of the greatest scorers in NBA history and all they had to give him was the veteran’s minimum. Sounds like a great deal, right? Eh, not so much.
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At 34 years of age, Anthony still believes he is the player of old, the one who struck fear into the hearts of opponents with the ability to go for 40 on any given night. Only now, his offense has declined significantly while his defense is as bad as it’s always been.
Given the circumstances, it certainly wasn’t the worst of choices for Houston to bring Melo’ into the fold. After all, the deal is only for a year, and they weren’t the team that had to take on the remaining $25.5 million on Anthony’s contract.
But, given how close they were to the NBA Finals last season with a very specific style of play, Carmelo seems to move things in the opposite direction.
For a team trying to un-seat the Golden State Warriors as the best in the NBA, even the slightest of backpedaling could prove extremely costly down the road.