Several years ago, Carmelo Anthony was one of the NBA‘s great superstars and scoring threats.
He seemingly had 1,001 ways to get buckets, and he was always among the league’s leading scorers.
Anthony’s exploits earned him the scoring title in 2013 and six All-NBA selections while helping him climb to 11th on the list of most career points in league history.
Knicks Carmelo Anthony was criminally underrated pic.twitter.com/8VhYp90Hb2
— 💦🅿️ooleWRLD💦 😾 (@PooleWRLD_) July 16, 2022
However, winning a world championship had always eluded him, and after the Chicago Bulls waived him during the 2018-19 season, it looked like his NBA career was over, as his production had plunged significantly.
But the following year, he was picked up by the Portland Trail Blazers, and he had a mini-renaissance by remaking himself into an instant offense man off the bench.
This past season, he played with his good friend LeBron James on the Los Angeles Lakers, but they don’t seem to have any interest in keeping him around for the 2022-23 campaign.
These two squads might be Anthony’s best bet to stick around in the NBA for at least one more year.
Brooklyn Nets
If the Nets are going to hold onto Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving after all, as some have suggested they will in recent days, they will need some depth up front, and Anthony could provide just that.
In the 2021-22 season, LaMarcus Aldridge and Blake Griffin gave Brooklyn depth and scoring at the power forward position, but they have moved on, and Anthony could slide into the role they played.
Under head coach Steve Nash‘s free-wheeling small-ball system, Anthony could come in off the bench and put up shots from downtown to his heart’s delight without getting reprimanded for questionable shot selection or not making a pass to an open teammate.
He can still hit from the perimeter, albeit in a streaky fashion, and if new acquisition T.J. Warren just isn’t his old self after missing the last 18 months due to a stress fracture in his foot, Anthony could help fill the void.
Playing for the Nets would also be a feel-good story for Anthony, as he was born in the borough of Brooklyn and spent the first several years of his life there.
New York Knicks
If the Nets aren’t interested in Anthony, maybe he could sign with the other team in the New York City metropolitan area.
After all, he played for the Knicks for six and a half seasons, and while he was there, he led them to their first playoff series victory in over a decade.
New York badly needs offensive firepower, as it finished 22nd in offensive rating and 26th in points per game in 2022 en route to missing the playoffs with a 37-45 record.
The team is rumored to be trying to acquire star guard Donovan Mitchell from the Utah Jazz, and even if it’s successful in doing so, it will still need some pop off the bench.
Anthony became one of the better Knicks players of all time, and Knicks fans would likely welcome him back with open arms, as long as his game is still effective.
Throwback to when Carmelo Anthony dropped 62 PTS, 13 REB, 23-35 FG and set a Knicks franchise-high at MSG.
Prime Melo.🔥
pic.twitter.com/ju4RlgUpbU— Hoop Tracker (@TheHoopTracker) January 29, 2021
Lakers need to make it a must to retain Camello if they let him go it will be another dumb move comeon LAKERS get your shit together ask yourselves WHAT DR JERRY BUSS WOULD DO and then ask yourself what to do HE BUILT THE LAKERS WE OWE HIM