30 most unguardable moves in NBA history: 19. Carmelo Anthony, triple threat
As you’ll come to find out, many of the greatest moves throughout NBA history are the result of crafty footwork by the league’s elite. The art of the triple threat is one that future Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony mastered from an early stage in his development as an NBA player.
The triple threat position allows a player to do one of three things: Shoot, dribble, or pass. In this stance, Melo flusters his matchup with an array of moves including his signature jab step, ball fakes and pivots from a face-up position to a post-up position. Your average basketball player wouldn’t know how to make plays from the triple-threat, but Carmelo has made a career off of it.
Melo boasts a unique blend of size, speed and skill that makes it particularly difficult to guard him. By forcing opponents to react from the triple-threat, Carmelo can either dribble into a shot, find an open teammate, launch a long-range jumper or barrel his way to the rim. Doing this helped the veteran win an NCAA championship at Syracuse and climb up to No. 14 on the NBA’s all-time scoring list as of this article.
Carmelo also dominated for Team U.S.A. on numerous occasions using this unique skill. Plenty of guards in today’s NBA use the triple-threat stance. It allows them to leverage their quickness and shooting range into better plays by forcing an opponent to either play up or sag off.
Perennially underrated and overlooked, Anthony is one of the most dominant pure scorers that basketball has ever seen and his signature triple-threat was a major contributor to that success.