What's Up with Carmelo Anthony?

Denver has already been part of the biggest deal of the season so far (and considering there's already been three, it figures this might even top last season in terms of big-name deals) and is strangely one of the most least-talked about teams right now.

They have climbed to third in the Western Conference, currently standing at 9-5, but almost nobody seems to have mentioned just how successful the Billups-A.I trade has been. The Nuggets are now above Phoenix, Utah, New Orleans, and San Antonio, something they never could have hoped for in last season's standings brawl.

Perhaps even more surprising is that the Nuggets are seemingly doing this with a different Carmelo Anthony.

No, I am not referring to the hair.

Melo has been in a scoring slump all season and although it's nothing major (thanks to a good streak of late, he is averaging 19 points a game,) for a star of Carmelo's magnitude, who we are used to seeing as a scoring machine, it is slightly strange.

Carmelo began the season serving his team suspension, and it took him until his fourth game to break the 20-point mark. In all fairness, it was a 28-point performance.

In fact, I take it back. Slump is too strong of a word, rather inconsistency is the problem here.

After the 28-point game, he pulled off two consecutive 24-point games, but after that he had four straight games of not reaching 20, with a low of 14. Melo finally got back on the 20-point bandwagon with 21 against the Spurs. However, two nights later, Carmelo only scored 10 against the Lakers.

So overall, it's not the worst scoring stretch in history, and as mentioned earlier, the Nuggets are still winning thanks to Chauncey Billups. But, considering Carmelo has a career average of 24.3 points per game, he hasn't reached those type of levels just yet.

It's even more surprising that this has come after we had a summer of Carmelo being a pure scorer throughout the Olympics. Perhaps, he got used to the European rules?

At this rate, considering he is in the West, it wouldn't be totally insane to suggest that Carmelo might miss the All-Star game.

Carmelo isn't the only question mark popping up in the league. Over the summer, one of the long lasting storylines was that of the contract extensions of Andre Iguodala, Luol Deng, and Emeka Okafor. None are providing the kind of presence that deserves the money they got. Andre has shifted to a new position, Luol is in an entirely different offense that does not utilize his pull-up J's, and Emeka is suffering through his team's struggles.

In fact, Carmelo isn't even the only Nugget who isn't glinting a full gold. J.R Smith, a late candidate for sixth man of the year last season, hasn't been the same offensive force of the bench that he has been before. Perhaps, it is adjusting to Chauncey running the point, but either way, if the Nuggets want to hold on to homecourt in the playoffs, J.R will be a major piece of the puzzle.

The team is definitely only going as far as Anthony takes them. I want to be clear that I am not knocking Melo's performance as he has performed very well in some big wins for the Nuggets, but he has also performed poorly in some nasty losses.

With Iverson in Motown, and Billups only having a few seasons left in his prime, it is time for Melo to finally step up and take his place as the leader of the Nuggets with consistent offense and finally some defense.

Carmelo Anthony is capable of being a quality ball player, capable of being top 10. The question is if he is capable of doing this over the stretch of the season