The Rejuvenation of Carmelo Anthony

The NBA moves on at a fast pace. Isaiah Thomas was an MVP candidate in two seasons ago. He’s now a role player for the Washington Wizards. Jeremy Lin is out of the NBA and signed with China after winning a championship with the Toronto Raptors. Carmelo Anthony had no idea that he was about to be excluded from the NBA for an entire year. After two unsuccessful stints with the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Houston Rockets, Carmelo hasn’t found much success. In Oklahoma City, they failed expectations of being a top team in the Western Conference. It was a failed big 3 of Carmelo, Paul George, and Russell Westbrook. They lost to the Utah Jazz in 6 games led by Rookie of the Year Candidate, Donovan Mitchell. Carmelo struggled to find his role on the team and received a lot of backlash from fans and media alike. Carmelo wasn’t the superstar everyone had hoped he would be that season, he had underperforming averages of 11.8 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 0.3 assists per game on 37% of field goals and 73% of free throws made. After deciding to move on from OKC, he went to the Rockets after they lost in the Western Conference Finals to the Golden State Warriors. However, it didn’t pan out well. The Rockets went down into the 14^th seed and Carmelo received most, if not all the blame. Defensive woes, inefficient shot making, and players weren’t having fun. After 10 games, it was reported that Carmelo would no longer be on the team. Carmelo has been averaging 16.3 points, 6.2 rebounds, 1.3 assists a game on 43.9% of field goals. Also, he’s shooting 38.1% from 3-point range and making 82.6% of his free throws. CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard have praised Carmelo as a great teammate and player. Carmelo even had a game winner against the 2019 Champion Toronto Raptors. The Portland Trail Blazers are 12-17 with Carmelo on the team. They are still struggling with obtaining the eighth seed, but they aren’t out yet. Carmelo has said he’s found happiness being back in the NBA and has proved he still has what it takes to be in the NBA.