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Carmelo Anthony is a natural small forward but has had to play power forward in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s starting lineup since training camp began. Coach Billy Donovan, however, is looking to play him in his more natural position in the coming games.
According to Fred Katz of the Norman Transcript & CNHI Oklahoma, Donovan wants to see if he can move Anthony back to his more familiar playing spot.
“Billy Donovan said he will ‘look at’ sliding Carmelo Anthony to the 3 more. Also said he wants to find more minutes for Patrick Patterson.”
He’s been a model citizen so far, accepting a new role and embracing it well despite the many ups and downs in his first year with the Thunder. Since the modern NBA is practically positionless, Anthony is a perfect fit to play power forward in this new day and age. And he’s been benefitting from having Steven Adams around to help make up for any of his defensive deficiencies.
After an eight-game winning streak, the Thunder have now lost four in a row. As Katz pointed out in his article, the starting lineup issues are starting to show after Andre Roberson went down with an injury. Rather than keep going with the struggling Terrance Ferguson at the shooting guard spot, Donovan may look to slide Paul George at the position instead and have Anthony revert to small forward.
The starting power forward position will have to be manned by someone else.
During training camp, Anthony sarcastically laughed off the idea from a reporter regarding possibly coming off the bench this season.
Everyone wanted to know then where Melo would be playing. Donovan set the record straight, eventually, telling Royce Young of ESPN:
“No, he's going to start the power forward spot for us. That's what he's going to do.”
However, things are now different in Oklahoma City.
