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Report: Carmelo Anthony Trail Blazers Contract to Be Fully Guaranteed for Season

Scott Polacek@@ScottPolacekFeatured ColumnistDecember 6, 2019

Portland Trail Blazers' Carmelo Anthony (00) smiles during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Clippers Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2019, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press

Carmelo Anthony has done enough to guarantee his contract with the Portland Trail Blazers.

On Thursday, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported the Trail Blazers amended the Syracuse product's contract to make it fully guaranteed for the rest of the 2019-20 campaign. They signed him to a non-guaranteed deal on Nov. 14.

Portland's decision to sign Anthony was one of the surprises of the early season. He played just 10 games in 2018-19 for the Houston Rockets and struggled on his way to 13.4 points a night behind 40.5 percent shooting from the field and 32.8 percent shooting from three-point range.

He also was far from a prime performer on the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2017-18 when he shot just 40.4 percent from the field for a team that lost in the first round of the playoffs.

While the 35-year-old will likely never replicate the production of his prime when he was a 10-time All-Star and six-time All-NBA selection who led the league in scoring in 2012-13 on the New York Knicks, he is averaging 16.9 points and 5.9 rebounds per game behind 44.8 percent shooting from the field and 38.7 percent shooting from three-point range for Portland.

He has taken advantage of the spacing created by playing alongside Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum and is hitting his three-pointers at his highest clip since 2013-14.

Anthony also already earned Western Conference Player of the Week recognition.

The Trail Blazers will likely need him to continue playing at a high level if they are going to reach the playoffs in the daunting Western Conference, and he will be doing so on a fully guaranteed deal now.