One of the Most Overrated Players in NBA History Could Be Finished
Carmelo Anthony, the greatest “good stats, bad team” player in NBA history, could finally be washed up for good like a beached dolphin on Houston’s Gulf shores.
ESPN reports that sources within the Rockets organization believe Anthony has played his final game in a Houston uniform and will soon be released by the team.
Anthony was not in uniform for the Rockets’ 115-103 win over the Indiana Pacers on Sunday at Toyota Center and was not listed in the box score on the active roster.
The 34-year-old Anthony has been out for two games with what was described as an “illness,” although the only disease he seems actually to suffer from is a terminal case of cancer of the clubhouse.
As a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder last season, Anthony was arguably the worst player in the league, posting a -1.1 Value Over Replacement Player, which in layman’s terms means if you replaced him with a decent player from the G-League (like, say, the Warriors’ Quinn Cook, who had a 0.0 VORP in 2017-18) and gave that guy Melo’s minutes, the Thunder would’ve won three additional games (you multiply VORP by 2.7 to get what baseball calls Wins Above Replacement).
Anthony’s was by far the worst VORP among non-rookies in starting lineups.
This year? Ten games into the season, before the Rockets shut him down, Melo already had a -0.2 VORP, which would project to him costing his team five wins.
Saturday night, Anthony and the Rockets reportedly discussed the veteran’s role in the organization in the wake of his atrocious start.
While Carmelo Anthony is absent with an illness tonight against the Spurs, the Rockets and Anthony are discussing his role and how they might still be able to proceed together for the rest of the season, league sources tell ESPN. Talks are fluid.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 11, 2018
Anthony has shot 40.5 percent from the field and 32.8 percent from three-point range this season for Houston, and in a high-powered offense that was second only to Golden State in two-point percentage and led the league in three-point attempts in 2017-18, a guy who can’t shoot and whines about his role on the bench is a massive liability, especially since his cap hit in Houston is only $2.4 million even as Oklahoma City has to pay him the full $27 million from the awful contract Anthony opted into over the offseason.
So where will Anthony end up? There’s a lot of talk about China — after all, if Jimmer Fredette can score 75 points in a Chinese league game, surely Anthony can fit in somewhere.
There’s also talk of sending him to a team in need of “veteran leadership,” but that’s mostly just a smoke screen for Celtics fans to wish Kyrie Irving would shut his gob.
Kyrie: “Right now I think it would be nice if we had someone that was a 15-year vet, a 14-year vet that could kind of help us race along the regular season and understand it’s a long marathon rather than just a full-on sprint.”
— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) November 12, 2018
On the other hand, Anthony still has his defenders, most notably fellow 2003 draft pick and washed-up NBA player Dwyane Wade.
Trying to make my guy @carmeloanthony the fall guy huh!? Man y’all need to stop. That’s the easy way out instead of addressing what the real problem.
— DWade (@DwyaneWade) November 12, 2018
And, of course, no free agency bad idea rumor is complete without the Lakers.
Melo about to get his ass cut and pick up another $2.4 million veteran’s minimum contract from the Lakers ALL HAIL THE FINESSE GOD YOU MERE MORTALS https://t.co/5tJXyBXk6b
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) November 11, 2018
The Rockets are 5-7, two of those wins were against a Pacers team wholly owned and beaten down on a regular basis by any team that understands that three is more than two (see also Budenholzer, Mike, and his old Hawks and current Bucks; even a tanking Atlanta team beat the Pacers last year), and they’re 24th in the league in offensive rating and, shocking for a Mike D’Antoni-coached team, 28th in the league in pace.
Getting rid of Melo can only help Houston get back on track toward the 65-17 record they posted last season.
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