Carmelo Anthony vs. Brandon Roy: Who's the Better Player?

If Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Dwyane Wade represent the cream of the NBA’s ultra-talented wing crop, then Brandon Roy and Carmelo Anthony help comprise the second tier of superstar wings.

Both Roy and Anthony have only been around for 24 birthdays, and each has awesome god-given abilities to put the ball in the basket.

Anthony’s five years of experience at the NBA level have given him innumerable ways to break down opponents one-on-one, while Roy understands basketball with the savvy of a 10-year NBA veteran.

And not only does each player make terrific plays and put up terrific numbers, but each is vital to their teams being as successful as they presently are this season.

But who is better? Let’s examine each players’ performance in Denver’s 106-90 victory over Portland to try and come up with an answer.

Roy: 9-16 FG, 0-2 3FG, 4-9 FT, 1 REB, 4 AST, 1 STL, 1 TO, 22 PTS
Anthony: 16-26 FG, 1-3 3FG, 5-6 FT, 2 REB, 2 AST, 2 STL, 2 TO, 38 PTS

Roy:

Roy has the talent that makes him a superstar wing, and the unselfishness that allows him to get the most out of himself and his team. This is seen through the touch distribution of what Roy did with the ball when he had it in the frontcourt.

On 53 touches, he only took 16 shots, and 12 of those touches he made simple passes to teammates to allow them to isolate, post up, or make the entry pass into whatever play call Nate McMillan drew up.

Most impressive of all was the number of shots and passes Roy forced in the game—zero! Nary a one! Every shot Roy took (except for a first quarter heave when he had to beat the shot clock) was either right at the rim, wide open, or designed to create an open look.

Never did Roy go-one-on-one and force a shot when his defender had the advantage. And every pass Roy made was the correct one with none placed in nefarious places where defenders could knock it away.

Roy’s 16 shot attempts came in a variety of different ways. Difficult reverse layups with contact, floaters in the lane after splitting traps, jab steps creating room for a mid-range jumper, a nifty right-to-left step back crossover jumper, and a right hook in the left box.

Roy even hit a spectacular elbow jumper after getting his arm bumped by Dahntay Jones, losing control of the ball on the way up, and still recovering to nail the elbow jumper.

Roy also was astute using a down-screen on the left wing to catch a pass in order to free himself for a shot. When he wasn’t comfortable with the shot, he passed the ball back to the top of the key and used a fake baseline cut, to use the same screen.

When he didn’t get open that time, he faked the baseline cut deeper, then came back for the same screen. Though he missed the shot, Roy demonstrated that he knows how to maneuver without the ball and around screens to create openings for himself.

With the ball, Roy has very convincing footwork, and an extremely tight crossover which allow him to set defenders up in one direction before exploding by them in the other. And his touch around the basket is feather soft.

Knowing that Roy is Portland’s top dog, the Nuggets sank their wings in on every isolation and screen/roll to prevent penetration and occasionally trapped his screen/rolls on the wings.

Sensing this, Roy often drove to draw the cheating wings deep before passing out to the wings or corners. Though Roy only picked up one halfcourt assist, he recorded at least four hockey assists where his passes found their way into the hands of open shooters, and countless more of his passes resulted in possible driving angles to the basket.

In fact, had the other Blazers connected on more of their open shots, Roy would have recorded plenty more assists and hockey assists.

Roy’s other three assists came on two great passes in transition leading to a Rudy Fernandez three, and an Aldridge alley-oop slam.

His third assist came when he picked up a steal and immediately looked down court to Nicholas Batum breaking ahead of the pack for an uncontested dunk.

Roy’s only turnover came when he curled off a baseline screen and fumbled the ball as he went up to make a move. He also had a dribble poked out of bounds late in the game. For those to be his only mishandles the entire game is remarkable.

Roy was also a trustworthy decision maker when other players’ had their numbers called. When the Blazers ran a series of baseline screens designed to free up Steve Blake, Roy comfortably looked for Blake in the left corner, then dribbled to the right corner, and instead of forcing a pass to the unopen Blake, read the defense cheating off Joel Pryzbilla to shadow Blake. A pass to Pryzbilla begot a pass to LaMarcus Aldridge at the hoop for a three-point play.

Defensively, Roy was able to stay in front of Chauncey Billups, J.R. Smith, and Carmelo Anthony, no easy tasks.

If Roy was late on a pair of closeouts, he always was alert in case he was needed to make a rotation.

Roy demonstrated his court awareness and pregame research by jumping out at Chauncey Billups at the three-point line with about 40 ticks left in the third quarter understanding Billups’ love of pull-up threes to create two for ones.

Roy also proved himself a quick learner after being beat by a baseline cut by Linas Kleiza—the next time Kleiza tried the same cut, Roy stepped in front and knocked the ball away.

Anthony:

Anthony is a scorer du jour with unlimited ways of putting the ball in the basket. Much more of a finisher than an initiator, Anthony tallied 38 touches, with only two leading to simple passes, and 26 geared towards putting the ball in the basket himself.

Of his 26 shot attempts, 10 were on isolation jumpers, nine of those from the wing (making four). His other iso jumper was a late missed three over Steve Blake from straight on.

Three times he isolated from either wing with his right hand towards the basket, and ended up with three scores.

He connected on one of his three jumpers off of ball screens, and he connected on three of his four transition attempts, with his miss coming in garbage time. He was stopped by Roy on a topside isolation, and nailed a catch and shoot left wing three.

Twice Anthony cut backdoor and scored, once on a give and go with a backscreen disposing of his man, once with a cut and seal at the basket for a layup.

Both times he posted up, he scored, one on a powerful back down on Travis Outlaw who tried to flop, resulting in a layup, and the other on an explosive running left hook from the right box, with the ball coming down softly on the back iron and bouncing into the hoop.

Such power! Such finesse! What a combination of inside strength, outside athleticism, shooting, finishing, and posting up! Clearly, Anthony is an advanced scoring machine who dominates all but the best defenders in one-on-one situations.

Anthony loved to catch the ball at either wing a step inside the three point line and make his move. He has a nifty jab fake which he uses to create space for his wing jumpers. And that jab must be honored because his first step is a rocket launcher.

From there, he’d shoot, drive, or if the defense was overplaying, make nifty passes to weak-side cutters, one directly leading to an assist on a Nene three-point play, and a pair of others leading to either shots or fouls without registering as assists.

Anthony’s second assist came on a drive and dish to J.R. Smith for a jumper.

Despite the high volume of shots, Anthony was hardly selfish. Until garbage time when it was evident Anthony wanted 40 points, he only forced one shot, and one pass—a bad decision to try and fed Chauncey Billups on a UCLA-cut that never opened.

Carmelo’s other turnover came when he tried to drive left along the baseline on Outlaw and lost control of the ball.

Anthony’s right hand dribble is tight, though it appears he’s not as comfortable driving to his left, or spinning from his left to his right than the other way around.

Anthony was effective at using his broad, powerful shoulders to seal his defender and ward off ball-deniers, and was terrific at using v-cuts to free himself for entry passes.

While Anthony rarely was involved in a complicated off-ball maneuver—a curl, a cross-screen, etc.—this is a product of design. Since George Karl tailors his offense to Anthony’s one-on-one brilliance, he removes ways for defenders to double Anthony and jam Denver’s spacing.

Defensively, Anthony’s still a work in progress. His two steals came right to him, on a tipped pass, and a bobble. Otherwise, he was late on five closeouts, failed to box out Batum for an on offensive rebound, and was backed down hard by LaMarcus Aldridge, leading to a turnaround jumper with Carmelo’s hand at his side.

In fact, of all the times Anthony was engaged on one-on-one defense, I didn’t witness a single hand up challenging a shot.

Heads Up:

Roy and Anthony were only involved in plays involving each other a handful of times.

• Roy jabbed and jabbed again at Carmelo before nailing a wing jumper uncontested by Anthony.
• Anthony exploded from the left wing into the middle of the paint. With Roy draping him, Anthony created contact at the middle of Roy’s chest, hung, and nailed a beautiful floating jumper.
• Anthony forced and missed a jumper with Roy checking him.
• Anthony drove left from the top of the key on Roy and attempted to draw contact by pump faking him out of his boots. Roy stayed on his feet, and Anthony was forced to step to the side where he missed an awkward jumper.

Conclusions:

Both are exceptional point-makers, but Anthony’s release is a bit quicker, and Anthony is much stronger. Anthony is also a touch more explosive than Roy, and a slightly more creative finisher. For these reasons, Anthony is the better scorer.

Roy has tighter handles, and terrific peripheral vision. Roy is also both better at initiating sets, and better at moving without the ball to create open looks.

Anthony is a better post passer, but Roy is a better passer on the move and along the perimeter.

Roy is worlds better defensively, most noticeably on the ball.

Anthony is much more assertive when looking for his own shot, while Roy sometimes is unselfish to a fault. That trust Roy has though will pay off tenfold as his teammates evolve alongside him.

With Allen Iverson out and Chauncey Billups in, Anthony knows that he is the team’s first option, and he knows he is playing with a point guard who will deliver him the ball. In turn, this has led to a more comfortable, more mature Anthony. Roy, however, is sagacious beyond his years.

While Anthony stacks up as a near-unstoppable scorer on a good team, Roy has the ability to completely control every aspect of the offensive side of the ball with his ability to score, pass, and understand an offense.

And he doubles as a player who can neutralize an opposing team’s best perimeter player. In other words, Roy has the ability to be a future MVP-type player, and not just a gifted scorer. This is the difference that edges Roy past Anthony.