The Last Melo Thread? Melo comments on his departure from HOU

cp3's contract unless playing for free wouldn't have brought another all star no matter how much less he took. people need to just stop with that false sense of logic. it portrays fake news 100%. can't even believe to this day this is even still coming up.

 

As DD and others mentioned. The team had to bend over backwards trying to get this guy the ball in his shooting spots.... He pouted when he didn't get the ball... Costed the Rockets how many Ws?

 

@Os Trigonum

 

He had all of training camp as well it was not just 10 games.

 

The burnout of the shooting star Carmelo Anthony

HE IS PREPARING to launch his 20,361st field goal attempt, but he has no idea it might well be his last. It's Nov. 8, 2018, and with 8:54 remaining in the fourth quarter, his Houston Rockets down 86-64 to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Carmelo Anthony had secured an offensive rebound. Two seconds later, he eyes a rim that sits 23 feet away, from a most ironic spot for him.

The corner.

For a volume midrange shooter -- a man considered the antithesis of the analytics movement that has revolutionized the NBA -- Anthony is about to take what that very movement has roundly declared to be basketball's most efficient and valuable shot: a corner 3-pointer.

Up to this point in the game, all 10 of Anthony's attempts have failed to reach the bottom of the net; his last resulted in a basket only because of a favorable goaltending call. Five of those shots were from beyond the arc. Also present in Oklahoma City, where his team now trails by 22 points, is Rockets general manager Daryl Morey, who in some 24 hours will meet with Anthony in a hotel room in San Antonio. Morey will tell Anthony -- who was expecting to play the next day against the Spurs -- that the Rockets, after just 10 games, no longer need his services.

After that, Anthony will spend the rest of the season on the sidelines as NBA players profess their love for him on social media and in interviews, all but demanding that Anthony, who turned 35 in May, belongs among the 450 players in the league. This cycle will continue into the summer, a chorus growing louder as the future Hall of Famer -- a 10-time All-Star -- remains untethered to any team. Other reclamation projects -- including enigmatic center Dwight Howard and 38-year-old wing Joe Johnson -- are expected to make NBA rosters. Anthony will even go on national television -- on ESPN -- and campaign for a different ending.

"I feel like I still can play," Anthony tells Stephen A. Smith. "I know I still can play."

In this moment, though, that is all in Carmelo Anthony's future. On this day, he is still 34, still in the league, still in a game, with the ball in his hands. As he's done 20,360 times before, he lets it fly. He has taken many shots that now measure as poor, because he came up playing a style that his heroes did before him, but this shot is quantifiably defensible. Ironic, then, that this one caroms off the back of the rim, giving him two points on 1-of-11 shooting while a national television audience looks on. A timeout is called two seconds later. He checks out of the game. He does not come back in.

After a 98-80 loss drops Houston to 4-6 on the season, Anthony boards the Rockets' charter plane. It lifts into the chilly Oklahoma City sky toward south Texas as a waxing crescent moon hangs above. Several staffers aboard have no idea that they just witnessed Anthony's last game. He has no idea he's just played in it. There is tomorrow, another game. Anthony doesn't know that it's over.

AFTER THE TIMEOUT is called but before he checks out of the game, Anthony lingers on the court at Chesapeake Energy Arena, giving a long look to the Thunder's bench. One season earlier, on the late-September 2017 day that the Thunder had introduced Anthony, he had been asked about coming off that very bench after starting every game in his career. Sitting in his introductory news conference, he'd worn a hoodie, his arms crossed. He'd leaned forward into the microphone, a smile breaking across his face.

"Who, me?"

That sound bite would be amplified when, in his exit interviews after a disappointing season in Oklahoma City, Anthony was asked a similar question. "Yeah, I'm not sacrificing no bench role, so you can -- that's out of the question." And so the narrative went: an aging star who couldn't let go of the stature he had enjoyed, undone by his unwillingness to let go of what was ultimately holding him back.

Anthony declined to participate for this story, and his representatives directed comment to previous interviews. But many people close to him and inside and around the organizations where he has played were willing to discuss his swift demise. "His name is a blessing and a curse," says one source close to Anthony.

"And it's more of a curse right now."

Anthony's headlong dive into basketball exile is partly the story of the game's dramatic evolution that placed him on the wrong side of history. But it's also partly the story about the pratfalls of greatness -- and how stars often decline as steeply as they rise to dominance.

"When you're one of the top 10 players in our league for 10 years, you think it's going to be there forever," says one of Anthony's former NBA coaches.

"They're always the last ones to know."

THE WARNING SIGNS first arrive in southwest Louisiana, where the Rockets have gathered for training camp at a complex in Lake Charles. It's late September of 2018, and after years of fawning over Carmelo Anthony, the Rockets finally have him. Team officials believe that his offensive punch will compensate for the loss of long-range shooter Ryan Anderson, whom they traded the month before. They believe that Anthony, with a fresh start, can bounce back from a poor season in Oklahoma City.

Which is not to say there aren't concerns. There's concern among some coaching staff members and others in the organization about the dynamic between Anthony and Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni; the two had had a fractured history during their time together with the Knicks a few years earlier. There's concern that Anthony, a midrange jump-shooter, will struggle within the Rockets' analytically driven offense, one predicated on 3-pointers, free throws and shots around the rim.

But the Rockets are ultimately confident in D'Antoni's system. They believe that it can accentuate the positives and minimize the negatives from a player's skill set -- not just Anthony's but any player's. The approach is risky. But under Morey, the Rockets are nothing if not aggressive. They're trying to hit a home run.

As one team source says: "We needed scoring."

 

In talks with Anthony, team sources say, his role was explained: He would be coming off the bench. Those sources also say Anthony embraced this role, was nothing if not professional and understood his fit on a roster that featured reigning MVP James Harden and Chris Paul and had ambitions of a deep playoff run after winning 65 games the season before and falling one win shy of the NBA Finals.

During training camp in Louisiana, though, another issue arises, one that some Rockets officials say they hadn't fully grasped until they saw Melo on the court: The 34-year-old is struggling in the team's defensive scheme, one that requires players to switch often on pick-and-roll action. (According to Second Spectrum data, the Rockets switched on 44% of screens last season, by far the highest in the NBA. The Warriors were second at 33%. No other team was above 25%.)

That Anthony was a subpar defender wasn't breaking news to anyone, but then the NBA's style of play changed -- in a big way.

When Anthony first entered the league in 2003-04, a total of 35,492 3-pointers were attempted leaguewide. By 2018-19, that number had jumped to 78,742, a 121% increase.

As teams, in response, began stocking up on long-range shooters, defending the perimeter became a top priority, especially with respect to switching pick-and-roll actions to deny those shooters open looks. According to Second Spectrum data, defenses switched on pick-and-rolls 7.2% of the time in 2013-14; that rate was 16.5% last season.

One rival front-office executive notes that the league's 3-point revolution makes it harder than ever to hide players who aren't strong defenders. He's talking about Carmelo Anthony -- someone, he says, "who can't defend, can't close out, his feet are slow and he gets blown by." More than ever, offensive teams will repeatedly target weak defenders in pick-and-roll actions, the executive adds.

And that very thing had played out in real time for Anthony during his Oklahoma City stint -- most notably during the Thunder's 2018 first-round playoff series against the Utah Jazz.

In that series, which the Thunder lost in six games, Anthony was the screen defender 157 times, per Second Spectrum; he was being targeted by a Jazz offense looking for switches. That figure was the second highest for a Thunder player in that series; only Steven Adams (186) had more. Then, in Game 5 of that series, Anthony was subbed out of the game in the third quarter with the Thunder trailing 71-52. With him on the bench, the Thunder roared back and took an 88-87 lead, further evidence of a trend that continued: The Thunder were minus-9.7 in that postseason with him on the court and plus-5.3 with him on the bench.

Although the Rockets knew of Anthony's defensive weaknesses before he joined, team sources say they didn't anticipate just how limited he would be in their aggressive switch-centric defense, which tasked him with running quicker players off the 3-point line. One team source speculates that, had they known he'd struggle so much in their defense, Anthony wouldn't have been brought aboard. "He really, really struggled with it," the source says.

But in the early going of the 2018-19 season, other factors would contribute to his ouster as well. For one: After losing their first game to New Orleans, the Rockets beat the Lakers in their second game -- Chris Paul is suspended two games for scuffling with Lakers guard Rajon Rondo. With Paul out, the Rockets drop their next four games; in that stretch, Harden strains his left hamstring. Anthony delivers games of 22 and 24 points during that losing streak, but at 1-5, the Rockets are already feeling desperation in the ultracompetitive Western Conference. "It was the perfect storm in those first 10 games," one Rockets source says.

Anthony turns in another vintage performance in their next game, tallying 28 points on 9-of-12 shooting in a Nov. 2 win in Brooklyn to help snap the losing streak. But the issue of Anthony's defense continues to fester. In the Rockets' first five losses, opponents shoot a whopping 54% when Anthony is the closest defender. "We just couldn't put him on the floor defensively," one team source says.

After starting every game of his career until this season, Anthony cooperates in his role, coming off the bench in eight of the 10 games in Houston. Still, the Rockets know they can't just take him out of the rotation; doing so would cause a media firestorm. "Because his name was Carmelo, we treated it differently," one team source says. And when getting two more wins brings the team to 4-5 with a game in Oklahoma City looming -- a reunion for Anthony against his former team -- it appears that things might be looking up for the Rockets.

But when Anthony struggles offensively in that 18-point loss to the Thunder, the central theme of internal conversations within the Rockets organization solidifies: The team is struggling, changes need to be made, there is no time to wait. The Rockets hope that parting ways with Anthony quickly might allow him to join another team. Morey delivers the news to Anthony in San Antonio the day before the Rockets are to play the Spurs -- though publicly, the team would say only that Anthony was out for the next three games because of an "illness."

In the days and weeks to come, rumors surface of Anthony potentially joining other franchises, and one source close to Anthony says he believes Melo will be joining the Lakers midseason. Multiple sources close to the situation note that the Miami Heat had also been interested in acquiring Anthony before he'd chosen Houston, but in the end, no option materializes.

IN HINDSIGHT, a question lingers: If the Rockets are such an analytically rigorous team and knew beforehand that an aging Anthony was a notoriously poor defender who might not fit in their switch-heavy scheme, why bring him aboard in the first place?

In 2018-19, Anthony had an offensive rating of 102.3 and a net rating of minus-9.9 -- both the worst of his career. "He just can't play NBA defense anymore," one Rockets source says, but the offensive woes ultimately calcified the Rockets' thought that they had gambled and lost. Still, there remains a measure of guilt among some in and near the organization and within Anthony's circle.

"I feel awful that it ended the way it did," says another Rockets source. "He would have been better off either going to Miami or just not playing. But those 10 games ... basically ruined him."

[...]

[...]

SIX YEARS LATER, Anthony now largely plays before an audience of Instagram followers and onlookers gathering outside windows that peer into a gym in Hell's Kitchen. Those close to him have referred to the gym as a sanctuary for Anthony, a place where he can disappear into the game he loves and escape the growing doubts that he'll never play it again professionally.

Those in Anthony's innermost circle are deeply wary of any information or narratives that might affect his ability to play in the league again.

And while Anthony believes -- or so he said on ESPN -- that he'd be "at peace" if he never plays in the league again, he knows that this ending will haunt him, a former teammate over multiple seasons says: "He doesn't want to go out like this." Wade and Kobe Bryant received a farewell tour, both of them Anthony's close friends. LeBron James, another longtime friend, will likely receive one too. "[Anthony] wants to go out like that," his former teammate says.

The gym where Anthony so often plays isn't far from Madison Square Garden, which he helped electrify six years ago; it's only a few avenues to the east, maybe a 20-minute walk. But the distance from where he was then to where he is now is nothing shy of an eternity.

 

For the tl;dr crowd. Multiple guys called "one team source" say it was all about defense.

IN HINDSIGHT, a question lingers: If the Rockets are such an analytically rigorous team and knew beforehand that an aging Anthony was a notoriously poor defender who might not fit in their switch-heavy scheme, why bring him aboard in the first place?

• "It was the perfect storm in those first 10 games," one Rockets source says.
• "We just couldn't put him on the floor defensively," one team source says.
• "He just can't play NBA defense anymore," one Rockets source says
• "I feel awful that it ended the way it did," says another Rockets source. "He would have been better off either going to Miami or just not playing. But those 10 games ... basically ruined him."
• One team source speculates that, had they known he'd struggle so much in their defense, Anthony wouldn't have been brought aboard. "He really, really struggled with it," the source says.

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btw: I wonder if that "one team source" is the same person.

 

No one loves you Melo. Go play with your favorite teammates , Jerome Lin , in China

 

that article reiterated everything I’ve said about Melo for the past year+

-atrocious defender who gets targeted at every opportunity by the opposing team...he’s a liability against a Utah offense led by a rookie Donovan Mitchell yet people thought he would actually help against GS...

-he’s a huge net negative who craters a team’s defensive rating whenever he’s on the court, and his offense is no longer close to good enough to make up for that

-if u outright bench him and start giving him DNPs, all of the sudden it’s a storyline due to his name...u can do the same to other end of bench caliber players with zero problems

-he accepted coming off the bench, but he wasn’t ready to accept not being a regular rotation player which he is no longer good enough to be, especially on a team with title dreams

most of these NBA players keep talking about how Melo deserves to be on a team, but I don’t see many of them campaigning for him to join their squad...not even Lebron is campaigning for Melo to come and join the Lakers

 

Awesome article. Think he became hostage to his own fame and is coined as someone unable to accept a lesser role.

His skillset today is one of a Gerald Green type player: spot minutes for some instant offense. But temas probably think or know he won't accept it.

Just sad to see the fast evolution of the nba is turning some of these past generation players in to dinosaurs. Oh well? It's life and melo had a great run.

 

The article was good! And your take away points are also the same ones I had. It almost is like the Rockets were squinting REALLY HARD to see MAYBE this can work, let's try. They should have stuck with their ideals.

 

Can't wait for Melo and Melo threads 2020.

 

Looking at the analytics, it really wasn't that promising in the first place.

I didn't have that info at that time. But I warned a lot of optimistic people that the risk was much higher than they thought because of who Melo was. You couldn't just push him out of the rotation if it didn't work out. It would be a distracting story if he didn't work out. And the odds of him working out didn't look very good.

 

In a age of EVERYTHING being on video, show me one shred of evidence of Melo pouting here. Also in a 11 game span, and both our superstars playing like crap, how much would a bench contributor cost us? The math isn't adding up

 

Hogwash. He's better than Ryan Anderson, who is currently on his 2nd stint here. You don't like Melo for reasons outside of basketball, so I understand your idiotic Melo perspective

 

u can’t refute anything I said so come with something of substance or stfu and have a seat and...hop off Melo’s dick

 

I'm not even sure you need analytics to see Melo's defense was horrible. You could see it even on offense because his feet look like they were in concrete when he tried to start his move sometimes. I would imagine this would translate to some slow closeouts on defense, as well.

 

LOL @ the Rockets not seeing this coming. Imbeciles!

Did they not watch Melo get exposed in the playoffs while he was on the Thunder just a year before?

He was unplayable on defense. Jazz attacked him relentlessly. Thunder was forced to bench him.

And he isnt even good on offense to make up for the calamity he is on defense.

A high volume inefficient chucker of long 2s with no interest in paying defense.

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Be consistent. Every single criticism you've had for Melo disappears when it comes to other guys. You haven't posted anything of substance to refute, just false Melo comments