Carmelo Anthony has been so statistically dominant throughout his NBA career that his comeback season with the Portland Trail Blazers in 2019-20 is his third-worst campaign in what has been a Hall-of-Fame career.
Of course, it has been great to see Anthony back in the NBA after he was exiled for no reason. All the players in the league knew Anthony belonged in the NBA and that it was only a matter of time before someone picked him up.
While there were certain points where it looked like Anthony's career was over, he never gave up hope and finally got the call from the Blazers in November of 2019.
Through 54 games with the Blazers, Anthony is averaging 15.2 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.5 assists while shooting 42.5 percent from the field, 38.1 percent from beyond the arc and 83.7 percent from the free-throw line. He's on pace to average the second-fewest points per game in a season in his career. The fewest came in 2018-19 in his disastrous run with the Houston Rockets, during which Anthony played in just 10 games and averaged a career-low 13.4 points before getting exiled by general manager Daryl Morey.
Anthony's second-worst season behind his Rockets stint was the 2017-18 Oklahoma City Thunder experiment with Russell Westbrook and Paul George. Anthony put up only 16.2 points per game in the regular season and shot 40.4 percent from the floor and 35.7 percent from deep. OKC lost to the Utah Jazz in the first round of the 2018 playoffs and Anthony was arguably the worst player in the six-game series.
Against the Jazz, Anthony averaged 11.8 points and shot a woeful 37.5 percent overall. The Thunder's offensive rating increased by 19.0 points when Anthony was on the bench. It was clear as day that the former All-Star couldn't adjust to being the third option on offense behind Westbrook and George after being the No. 1 guy for so many years with the Denver Nuggets and New York Knicks.
Anthony averaged at least 20.0 points per game for the first 14 years of his career. His best season was in 2012-13 when he led the NBA in scoring at 28.7 points per game and finished second in MVP voting behind LeBron James and Kevin Durant, respectfully.
Ever since that season, though, Anthony has only played in six playoff games despite averaging 21.0 points per outing in the regular season from 2013 up until today. While it's been beautiful to watch Anthony rejuvenate his career with the Blazers, it's still a below-average campaign for him since the bar he has set is so high.
However, maybe this is how Anthony can pull a Vince Carer and age gracefully. Instead of averaging over 20.0 points per game and shooting below 43 percent, Anthony can put up his 15 to 16 points on the Blazers as the third option behind Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum and make some clutch shots here and there like he's done down in Orlando, Florida.
Moving forward, Carmelo Anthony can vanquish the seasons he had with the Thunder and Rockets by continuing to play his role on the Blazers.
Follow Us
Subscribe