The Portland Trail Blazers are providing Carmelo Anthony with an opportunity to play meaningful basketball again – albeit perhaps his last shot in the big league.
Carmelo Anthony arrival in Rip City can be beneficial to both parties. The Portland Trail Blazers in desperation are providing Carmelo with an opportunity to play meaningful basketball again – albeit perhaps his last shot in the big league.
Anthony will provide the Blazers with some much-needed depth. The Blazers are an abysmal 4-8 this season after appearing in the Western Conference Finals last year. They desperately need a forward. Zach Collins went down 3 games into the season.
Anthony’s contract becomes guaranteed on Jan. 7th, until then he will cost the Blazers $14,490 per day before tax. In theory, Melo frugally provides more reliability than an inexperienced G-league prospect.
In the last 9 games, the Trail Blazers have divvied up Collin’s minutes to Mario Hezonja, Anthony Tolliver, Skal Labissiere, and rookie Nassir Little. Adding Melo into the mix provides immediate depth relief without forcing the Blazers to address their problems immediately via trade.
The Blazers went into season with Collins and Hassan Whiteside as their only healthy reliable big men. Hezonja, Tolliver and Nassir were not planned to play meaningful minutes or start games. The Blazers do not rush rookies into the starting line-up and have shown calculated patience in the development of CJ McCollum, Collins and Anfernee Simons. Little has found his way into the starting lineup of late primarily due to necessity.
Offensively, Carmelo will make life easier for the Trail Blazers. On defense, they will need to be creative. I imagine it is a challenge that Terry Stotts and crew have accepted. It has been reported that Neil Olshey and Stotts have been in contact with Carmelo since the preseason.
Last year, he became a victim to the Rocket’s poor start and early defensive woes. His primary issue was his inability to switch on pick and rolls and adapt to the Rocket’s defensive schemes.
I am sure the Blazers are aware of his defensive shortcomings. Unlike the Rockets, the Blazers would be wise to plan to adapt their schemes to fit Carmelo into lineups as opposed to forcing an old Melo to learn new tricks. We have already seen how that turned out for the Thunder and Rockets.
Carmelo’s playing time in Portland will ultimately be decided by how much more impactful he is on offense rather than how deficient he is on defense.
Portland will have to play matchups and use Carmelo tactically in complement with Bazemore or Little, both of whom are tenacious defenders. Nassir was impressive against Pascal Siakam and will probably get more minutes than previous Blazer rookies considering their lack of depth.
Melo doesn’t need to re-invent the wheel in Portland. He simply needs to hit open shots, specifically open 3s.
In the NBA, a shot is considered an open look if the closest defender is 4-6 feet away. If the defender is further than 6 feet away the shot is considered wide open. On offense, the Trail Blazers are simply ending too many possessions by missing open shots.
When teams lock down the primary options on the floor in Dame, CJ, Ant or even Hood — the open man is failing to bail them out on open shots.
Hezonja is shooting a poor 33 percent (7-for-21) when given open looks beyond the arc. Tolliver has been a horrible 23 percent (6-for-26) when left wide open from deep. Bazemore, the more prominent of the bunch, is shooting only 35 percent (16-for-45) on open threes.
In Carmelo’s unsuccessful 10 game stint with the Rockets last year he shot 38% (18 for 48) on open three-pointers.
Carmelo needs to be utilized for spacing and shooting. On offense, if a 35-year-old Carmelo can replicate the open shooting he provided while under-delivering for the Rockets last year it would still be an upgrade over Hezonja, Bazemore and Tolliver this year for the Blazers.
Make no mistake, this is a desperation move on Portland’s part – regardless of the planning that went into it. The Trail Blazers are a 4-8 team with the second-highest payroll at $145 million. Carmelo should have been a luxury addition for the Blazers, not a mid-November catalyst of hope for Blazer fans.
Lillard and CJ have enough skills to garner most of the attention from defenses, leaving someone always open. A patient Melo will cherish his looks and take smart shots. Further, having to respect Anthony’s perimeter presence will make life easier for the Blazers when attacking the rim.
The Blazers don’t need jab steps and turn around jumpers from Carmelo. Portland just needs someone capable of converting open looks.