Where are Portland Trail Blazers players hottest and coldest from the floor?

Hottest zone: Left block
— 25-of-54 (46.3 percent)
— League average (40.5 percent)

Coldest zone: Left baseline, midrange
— 5-of-18 FG, (27.8 percent)
— League average (40.2 percent)

For all of the fuss about Carmelo Anthony’s midrange game being unfit for today’s NBA, he certainly provides more positive than negative. All throughout the perimeter, the 10-time All-Star is only “cold” from one spot — the far left baseline.

Anthony is below league average from that side in every sense; from the left corner, he’s 5-of-14. On film, these shots are usually the result of swing passes when the defense collapses into the paint. From there, Anthony loves the head-fake, side-step into a somewhat-contested three.

And it’s unfair to say he’s “cold” from there. If he hits just one shot, he officially becomes above the 39.7 percent mark set by the NBA. And he makes up for it from the right corner, where he shoots a noteworthy 23.1 percent better than the average, 14-of-23 in total.

Right in that neighborhood, he has his two trusty spots. That right wing, where he can get post-ups, work the triple threat, and put defenders in the torture chamber. There, we find his highest volume of shots (92).

But what comes as somewhat a surprise — his best spot is on the left block. He’s fond of the hard drive toward either side, before quickly pulling up. That, or, he uses his patented bump fade-away, a boxer-type move where he uses the contact of his opponent against him to create space. Even to this day, it’s a convenient bucket.

It is somewhat odd that Anthony’s best zone is the left “block,” and his coldest is the left baseline, since that’s a game of inches. I would chalk it up to variance.

Film uncovers a different layer of Anthony’s game that doesn’t quite hit the spreadsheet. He’s having shooting the lowest percentage of his career within 3-feet (53.7), but there feels to be a parallel between him no longer being a superstar anymore, and the calls given for those guys. Anthony relishes physicality, but sometimes doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt. Regardless, there’s a lot to like about what he’s done as a 36-year-old. “This ain’t no retirement tour” indeed.