Opinion: Carmelo Anthony is reviving his career with the Portland Trail Blazers
Carmelo Anthony, as we know, has been one of the faces of the NBA for a very long time. Carmelo has achieved a lot in the NBA, being a 10-time NBA All-Star, 2013 NBA scoring champion and the only American professional basketball player to win 3 Olympic Gold medals in basketball.
Melo, however, did find it tough to keep his momentum in the league going. His production for the New York Knicks started to dip since 2015 and he was eventually traded to the OKC Thunder in 2017. He then ended up with the Houston Rockets in the 2018-19 NBA season who waived him after just 10 games and Anthony was out of the league for almost a year.
Melo got recruited by the Portland Trail Blazers this season and he is proving that he is still fit to play in the league and can go against any player or team.
But why did the Blazers choose Anthony?
The Portland Trail Blazers are a strong franchise in the Western Conference. With star players such as Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, the Blazers went to the playoffs for several years. But, as every other team is beefing up and making their roster stronger and tougher to compete with, the Blazers also had to make additions to their roster to strengthen the team.
They traded Meyers Leonard to the Miami Heat and since Zach Collins and Jusuf Nurkic are out due to injuries, the Blazers needed more offensive options. The fact that Portland took on Hassan Whiteside's contract meant that they were left threadbare in terms of cap space. Carmelo turned out to be a value for money option in that department.
Blazers' top scorers are Lillard and McCollum, but they often get double-teamed individually leaving other players in the team wide open to take a shot. However, the Trail Blazers have failed to maximize this potential due to a lack of efficient go-to scorers besides the aforementioned duo. This is where Anthony comes in. The Blazers' offense still respects the mid-range pull-up jumpers and elbow shots, a weapon that Carmelo loves going back to.
Anthony has played 6 games with the Portland Trail Blazers so far this season and is averaging 17.7 ppg, 6.0 rpg, and 2.2 apg while shooting 46.2% from the field and 37% from beyond the arc. He has already helped in lifting up the Blazers' overall game and it'll be a lot of fun to watch Anthony redeem his career in the league.