Damian Lillard got his wish — Carmelo Anthony is now a member of the Portland Trail Blazers (even though Lillard thought the Blazers didn’t have the money to pay him).
There was much rejoicing around the league and on social media about “MELO IS BACK” and that’s really what it should be about. We’ve been pushing for Anthony to get one more job in the NBA, and not just because this might serve as a farewell tour.
It’s because we get to see one of the league’s most prolific scorers (22nd all-time in points and, now, counting) lace ’em up again. We’ll see if all that hard work while he waited for another job will pay off, whether we’ll see “Olympic Melo” become “New NBA Melo” and just the joy of watching a future Hall of Famer.
Now, look: he may not fit in with the Blazers and in the modern NBA. Part of the problem with Anthony is his defense — when he’s on the floor, opposing offenses can pick (and roll) on him because he’s slow, although he was never really known for his defense even in his prime. The Blazers lost defenders in Mo Harkless and Al-Farouq Aminu this offseason, and it’s cost them. My hope is that, offensively, he’ll shoot more from distance (we know he can do that) and reduce his iso post-ups that tend to slow down offenses — the Blazers are 10th in offensive pace this season.
But the Blazers have a humongous hole at forward. Pau Gasol is out. Zach Collins is out. Jusuf Nurkic is out. Anthony will get minutes, and because the Blazers are among the NBA’s biggest disappointments, it might be a highlight of what’s turning into a bad season at the Moda Center. Social media will go ballistic when he has one of those games where he nails four from deep. Remember the reaction to this moment at a Nets game last season?
What if he proves he’s transformed into Melo 2.0, who doesn’t need to back down an opponent in the post and can be a mismatch-creating nightmare stretch 4 for opposing forwards? And then, if the Blazers are out of it later in the year, he gets dealt to a contender who needs a stretch scorer off the bench and suddenly, there’s a shot for him to FINALLY win that elusive ring?
So let’s get into the fun of it all. We all got what we wanted. Melo is back, and that’s all that matters.
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