Updated Trail Blazers Roster, Lineup After Shocking Carmelo Anthony Signing
Carmelo Anthony has agreed to a non-guaranteed deal with the Portland Trail Blazers, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
ESPN's Bobby Marks offered information on the financial details:
And Wojnarowski provided further context:
Jason Quick of The Athletic, Kevin O'Connor of the Ringer and Marks also gave their first impressions:
The 35-year-old Anthony has averaged 24 points per game across 16 NBA seasons, which include 10 All-Star games, six All-NBA nods and the 2012-13 scoring title.
Here's how the Blazers' rotation may look with him on the court, assuming he lands in the starting five.
Projected Starting Lineup
PG: Damian Lillard
SG: CJ McCollum
SF: Rodney Hood
PF: Carmelo Anthony
C: Hassan Whiteside
The Blazers could opt to use Anthony to help a struggling second unit and keep rookie Nassir Little in the starting lineup.
Portland's bench is 27th in both scoring and field-goal percentage, and Anthony could presumably close games as the team's 4.
The 2003 NCAA champion has been off the court since Nov. 8, 2018, following the end of a 10-game stint with the Houston Rockets, who eventually traded the three-time Olympic gold medalist to the Chicago Bulls in January. Chicago then waived Anthony on Feb. 1.
Melo now returns to the Association to play for a 4-8 Blazers team mired in 13th place in the Western Conference.
The Blazers finished third in the West en route to a conference championship appearance against the Golden State Warriors last season, but this year has been a far different story. Of note, the offense has taken a significant dip, falling from third in offensive rating to 14th. The defense ranks 19th.
It's unclear how much Anthony will contribute in his 17th NBA season after being out of the league for a year, but the ex-Syracuse star has never encountered much trouble putting the ball in the hoop. At the very least, he should complement Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum's scoring load.
Anthony's offensive numbers took a dip in his last 88 games over two seasons with the Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder (15.9 points, 40.4 percent shooting), but he could find a good home on a Blazers team in desperate need of some help given the rash of frontcourt injuries they have suffered, namely to center Jusuf Nurkic last year and Zach Collins this season.
