Washington Wizards point guard John Wall will ride the pine for perhaps the entirety of the 2019-20 season, but that hasn't kept him from opining on the current state of the NBA. Among it is Carmelo Anthony's situation, as the perennial scorer is still without a team and frantically looking for an opportunity to continue his left-for-dead NBA career.
Wall argued that the best way for him to pull of a farewell tour would be to join the Denver Nuggets.
“The only way it is really going to work for Melo is if he goes back to the Nuggets,” Wall told Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington. “It has to be a franchise you built something with.”
Melo has struggled to find the right fit after playing in only 10 games with the Houston Rockets, a fault that has left front offices concerned with how viable it is to fit him into an NBA roster. Since ending his tenure with the New York Knicks and getting traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Anthony has yet to find the dominant form that made him a surefire 20-point scorer during the first 14 years of his career.
“The NBA has changed,” said Wall. “You have to find that role where you might have to come off the bench. Melo has a resume that [says] ‘I don't want to come off the bench.' It's the same as [Allen Iverson].”
Anthony could have used the opportunity to crack a roster spot in Team USA as a vehicle for an NBA job, but USA Basketball was simply not interested in his return since he announced his retirement from international competition in 2016, following a gold medal in Rio.
“The Melo that we saw in the World Cup and the Olympic Games was the Melo everybody wanted to love,” said Wall. “In this new NBA, that's what Melo has to be.”
Melo still started in those USA teams, and while he wasn't the 20-point scoring machine, he was getting his touches through the course of competition. The Thunder relegated him to a third scoring option after Russell Westbrook and Paul George, and the Rockets did the same, burying him on a bench role.
There simply isn't an easy answer in a potential return to the Nuggets, who have a roster spot open heading into training camp. Denver simply has too deep of a rotation to warrant yet another forward vying for playing time and while the nostalgic motive is touching, it would likely end on a rather sad note if Melo can't find enough playing time.
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