Who would of thought Carmelo Anthony would be on the market to join his fourth team after making the playoffs with the Oklahoma City Thunder? The Thunder were expected to go farther than they did and with making history by hitting 300 million in cap, the move had to be made after signing Paul George.
The Heat, Lakers, Rockets and Sixers are all interested in the veteran but according to Adrian Wojnarowski, the Rockets are going after Anthony after losing two forwards including Trevor Ariza.
Is this a good or bad move?
Anthony mentioned before that he wanted to go the Rockets but that wasn’t his choice as he was traded by the Knicks. Now he’s free to go wherever he pleases. If he joins the Rockets, he will be joining a team similar to the Thunder. A team with two All-Stars who control everything. That being Russell Westbrook and Paul George. In Houston, it’s MVP James Harden and Chris Paul. The plus here is that Anthony, Harden and Paul workout together offseason and have a great relationship on and off the court. Not so much with Westbrook and George. Bad chemistry can ruin a team. The Cavaliers showed us that this season, the Spurs and Kawhi Leonard or we can go back to when Anthony was on the Knicks or the old Thunder with 3 MVP players who couldn’t make it happen. Anthony has to put his ego aside and be okay being the third wheel like he did in Oklahoma City and fulfill Ariza’s spot. He also has to figure a way to fix his relationship with Mike D’Antoni as these two clashed in New York.
Defense is a must in the West since they will be playing against the snipers on Golden State, the new and improved Lakers, plus the Trailblazers, Timberwolves and Thunder. Anthony has slacked in defense and so does Harden but he did show up against him the Warriors in the West Finals. He doesn’t want to be a bench player so he has to give a reason why but I doubt any front office would want to bench a player who wants 20 million or more a year.
The pros and cons weigh on Anthony’s ego and honestly I wouldn’t pay big bucks for a former star who hasn’t proven much. The only reason would be to outbid other teams but do you really want to? He had good times in Denver, memorable moments with the Knicks and a temp position with the Thunder. Nothing has panned out for the 10-time All Star who we once had LeBron-like hopes for when they came into the league together. Maybe playing with friends will change that but if he’s still attempting to win a ring, the 34-year old forward might want to start now.