Carmelo Anthony is back in the League
Adrian Wojnarowski dropped another bombshell in the last few minutes where he has announced that Portland has signed Carmelo Anthony as a free agent. Details of the contract itself are limited so far but it is known that Carmelo is being signed on a veteran minimum deal that is non-guaranteed. This will mean that Anthony can be waived at the discretion of the Blazers’ front-office without their being any long-term cap repercussions. Neil Olshey has dug into his pockets and turned up a veteran scorer who could possibly be a key piece for the Trailblazers.
Anthony did not leave the game of basketball in a good way when his tenure with Houston came to an end. His ending was abrupt and Houston’s treatment of Carmelo felt transactional. He was an inefficient scorer who contributed nothing on defence and therefore had to go in order to keep the Rockets’ alive. In Portland, Carmelo has a chance to bring around a fitting ending as he joins a team firmly in the play-off chase.
Neil Olshey has to make a roster transaction after the issues that the team has suffered through to start the season. Jusuf Nurkic being out for a long period of time caused serious damage to the Blazers’ big man depth. The loss of Zach Collins for four months took away Portland’s starting four and arguably the team’s best big. Whiteside still cannot defend in space and will be picked and rolled to death unless Terry Stotts can find a system tweak that makes Hassan look effective on defence. After that, the big man depth starts to look sketchy. It is a combination of big wings playing up a position, Skal Labissiere and an old Pau Gasol who is good for ten minutes a night, he should not be playing any extended rotation minutes. The thinking will be that Melo can play as a scorer from the forward position off the bench which will allow Skal Labissiere to play serious minutes at the centre position.
It is a huge roll of the dice for Olshey as it is unknown what condition that Carmelo is in. It has been a long time since Carmelo has played a game of basketball in anger which could mean that his physical conditioning is not yet at a suitable level. We have seen plenty of Melo’s work-out videos over the summer but I choose to view these videos with a healthy dose of scepticism. Melo released a ton of these videos in the summer when he was traded to Oklahoma City and his performance did not match the expectations created by the private work-outs. This is an important factor to note in the Western Conference where every game counts, wins in November matter as much as wins in March when it comes to play-off seeding or even making the play-offs.
The gamble taken by Neil Olshey makes plenty of sense while Damian Lillard is in his prime as a player and before the super-max kicks in. Lillard’s super-max will start in earnest in 2021–22 and any semblance of balanced roster-building goes out of the window. The Blazers will not have much money to spend in a few years time so roster maximisation has to start happening now. A third scorer like Carmelo Anthony makes theory in sense in terms of stabilising a bench unit which does not have a bucker-getter who can get thirteen to fourteen points a night on a regular basis. The only issue with Olshey’s move is that it feels somewhat half-hearted. Portland needed a hyper-efficient scoring forward and there were two players on the market who could fit that brief. Both Kevin Love and Danio Gallinari are available for a suitable price and would provide efficient scoring, play-making and in the case of love, voracious reboundng.
In both packages, Whiteside as an expiring contract would have to been traded out in order to satisfy trade rules. There would be sweeteners attached such as Nassir Little and first-round picks which would limit the long-term outlook of the franchise. The short-term would be much improved and the additional roster spot could have been used on a free agent big man who could provide solid interior defence. A player like Joakim Noah would have provided great rim protection and defensive organisation on that end of the floor. Noah was highly effective in the limited minutes role that he played for the Grizzlies last season and he provided defensive solidity to a lottery team which lacked constant focus on that end. This move would have made the most sense if Olshey chose to push as hard as he can for this specific season.
In whatever case, Portland now have Carmelo Anthony on the roster and his fit on the roster needs to be analysed. Anthony was not an efficient scorer in his last season with the Rockets, he shot just 40.5% from the field and 32.8% from deep. Anthony did adjust to the system ran by D’Antoni but there were a few occasions where the ball stopped with him. It disrupted the flow of the offence and took shots away from Harden, the most efficient volume scorer in the NBA last season. The hope will be that a year away from basketball will have rejuvenated Anthony’s body and he now has that athletic juice needed to make jumpers at a consistent level. He could fit into a bench scorer role similar to Lou Williams providing that Anthony can be efficient in his shots.
Defence will be an issue for Terry Stotts to wrap his head around. Anthony does not expend much effort on defence and his lack of foot speed means that he gets roasted on pick and rolls, mismatches and ball screens. Stotts will need to have aggressive help coverages which could possibly cover Anthony’s deficiencies. I think Stotts could scheme something to cover the cracks as he made Kanter look competent defensively but it will be very hard to achieve these results consistently.
Despite the addition of Anthony, I am not sure if its enough for the Blazers in the present. Portland do not have the luxury of a roster which can be relied upon to consistently win forty five games and secure a play-off berth. Both Aminu and Harkless left during the summer, two key components of Portland’s run to the WCF last season. They need to start winning games now to have any hope of play-off ball. Dame having a career year is not enough to get to the play-offs, they need Whiteside focused and McCollum playing at a better level.
