Carmelo Anthony's resurgence is generating so many hot takes
The internet probably doesn't need your scorching take.
After a bit of a slow start with the Trail Blazers in his first few NBA games in over a year, Carmelo Anthony has finally seemed to catch a groove.
Over his last three games, he’s averaging 22.3 points and 7.7 rebounds per game while shooting 57.4 percent from the field and 45.5 percent from deep.
Melo has been pretty good! Those are great marks for any player — let alone a guy who was literally in street clothes until a couple of weeks ago. It’s great to see.
But, like everything else on the Internet, Anthony’s success has sparked a pretty needless debate about why he was out of the league for a whole year. Some are questioning the decisions his old teams made to let him walk.
Others are flat out blaming the evolution of NBA analytics for keeping Anthony off of a team.
Last night:
Carmelo Anthony had 19 points on 81.8% shooting.
Jabari Parker had 33 points, 14 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 block
I thought the analytics folks told you to forget about them
— Ben Stinar (@BenStinar) November 28, 2019
Anthony’s success has been exciting to watch, but we’re getting a bit carried away. This is a case of two things being true at one time. He has been solid for the Trail Blazers so far in half of the games they’ve played. He still wasn’t very good for the Thunder or the Rockets.
He shot a combined 40.4 percent from the field over 88 games with those two teams and was a major liability on defense. He lost his place in the league because of that. Those stints haven’t retroactively changed because Anthony is exceeding expectations now.
He’s playing well with Portland now and that’s great. He’s got a 10.1 net rating through six games and is shooting the lights out. But it absolutely has to be mentioned that, in their last three games, the Blazers have played the Bulls twice and the Thunder once — their combined records are 13-25.
This isn’t to take away from the success that Anthony has had. After all, most of what the NBA’s regular season is playing well against the teams you’re supposed to play well against. Anthony and the Blazers should play well against those teams.
It’s fine to question why Anthony couldn’t get another shot at the NBA while guys like Joe Johnson and Vince Carter could. It’s even fair to ask if the teams he played for previously handled him correctly. But to use the last three games Anthony has played as some sort of referendum on the state of the league isn’t fair.
The best thing everyone can do here is to sit back and enjoy how Anthony’s return and hope for the best for him as well as the Blazers. The NBA is a better place when he plays and plays well.