Say it ain't so everyone. Carmelo Anthony is going to the Portland Trail Blazers on a non-guaranteed deal. https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id...gning-carmelo-anthony-non-guaranteed-contract
I could be wrong. Unless anybody on the forums the rules for non-guaranteed contract players being traded.
It was always obvious to me that when some teams underachieve on expectations, they become desperate sooner rather than later and get trapped into the Melodrama. Portland obviously has sucked early and the playoffs are moving on...and they had to do something and getting Melo is like an easy solution, even though it probably won't be a triumvirate.
there's been portland/melo rumors for weeks/months, iirc. but yeah, it took them really stumbling out of the gate for it to happen.
Low risk (non guaranteed) potential high reward signing. He could be their Howard or their horror. Only time will tell but I do think he will be on his best behavior. If Lebron really wanted Melo, I’d bet $100 he would have been on our team already. Being happy for your friend is one thing, being tied to them is another. I do expect some high scoring games from him though and some second guessing from fans.
I don't think Melo was ever a problem in the locker room. He just doesn't play D and hogs the ball Denver Melo was always fun to watch. They gave us fits in the PO.
Melo is not a locker room issue with his character. He is one of the nicer guys in the NBA. But if he refuses to come off the bench or clashes with the coach etc...then to me that becomes a locker room issue. Also his "selfish" way of playing can be a source of anger for his teammates. Melo is still better offensively than many other players. The questions are a) Can his offense overcompensate his atrocious defense? b) can he be efficient without 20 shots a game? Can Melo shoot 8-12 shots a game and average 15 ppg on decent percentages? As of right now my answer to both is no. But as usual, hindsight 20/20. We will find out.
data thus far indicate that he's not a very efficient offensive player at this point in his career. the decreased load in his last two stops didn't translate into greater efficiency. his defense was never good and has gotten quite bad over time. i don't think this is all attitude, either--he's just 35 and slower and never had great defensive instincts to begin with. maybe he'll help portland. i'd be pretty surprised, but on the other hand, maybe all they need is someone to be the focal point on offense for 15mpg and they feel they can cover him on the other end. i don't think they have the personnel for that last part, though...
^one thing that might work in his favor is that Portland just blows at the PF spot... so even if Anthony is bad, all he has to do is be better (read: less terrible) than the other PFs which is a real possibility.
Well .... if we rightfully gave Kuz "rust" for several games before shipping him out for IT or some other impatient armchair GM whim, then we fairly should see how this goes with 5-10 games in his Portland career. If 10 games in it's clear he's just not worth much any more @vasashi17 has promised to eat crow. Did he really promise that? Would he ever actually do that? F*** no.
Yeah save that noise for the birds. I’m a vegetarian. It’s beyond me to eat crow (get it, beyond?). It’s also impossible for me to be wrong about anything (get it, impossible?) So fire up the griddle and pass that crow off to bird brain carnis like Savs and KtG33. Now that I talked my s***, let me check the box score to Melo’s first triumphant game back...
Guy hasn’t played in like a year, I would expect rust. 10 points on 4-14 shooting, 4 boards in 24 mins. He’ll have meh games, he’ll have bad game, he’ll have good games. I have nothing against him, I just didn’t think he was a fit here. I hope he gets to go out on his own terms now with this chance, as long as he’s willing to take any role, even if that’s off the bench when other guys come back.
5 turnovers, too. some of that is on portland for throwing him into the fire; some of that is because lillard was out, making portland maybe the worst team in the league. and yeah, pretty much the only thing that will make me regret not signing melo is if kuz goes down for an extended period. at that point, even old melo might have more value than some of our end of the bench guys.