There are signs that Carmelo Anthony‘s stay in Houston may not be a long one, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Anthony and the team are having discussions about his current role and “how they might still be able to proceed together for the rest of the season.” Wojnarowski adds that talks remain fluid.
Houston has been among the league’s most disappointing teams with a 4-6 start, and much of the blame has fallen on Anthony, who signed as a free agent over the summer. The Rockets have opted to use Anthony primarily off the bench, as he has started just two of 10 games and is averaging a career-low 29.4 minutes per night.
The shooting problems that plagued him last year in Oklahoma City have followed him to Houston, as he is hitting just 40.5% from the field and 32.8% from 3-point range. His effort on defense has also been questioned as the Rockets have fallen into the bottom third of the league in defensive rating after being seventh overall last season.
Parting ways with Anthony wouldn’t present a huge financial loss for Houston, which signed him to a veteran’s minimum contract. He received full payment from the Hawks on his $25,534,253 salary when they waived him in July after acquiring him from the Thunder.
The Rockets had been trying to add Anthony for several years, meeting with him as a free agent in 2014, then attempting to trade for him in the summer of 2017. Anthony had told the Knicks that Houston was the only team he would waive his no-trade clause to join, but he relented near the start of training camp when the Thunder made an offer.
That didn’t take long.
“Hey Melo”
“Yeah man”
“Wanna discuss your role”
“Ya, bout time. You sending Ennis or Clint to the bench, Coach”
“Um. Yeah, about that. We’re kinda thinking a bit out-of-the-box”
“Oh yah. Cool. Whatcha thinking”
“Have you heard of Rio Grande? We got this killer squad there, they have everything but a leading scorer. “
Dude is oblivious.
REALLY? Just shut up and play!!!
What is it with all the malcontents recently?
Lol….he must think he’s still a starter….what team would sign this disaster at this point? Knowing that either he starts or he quits…..go away melo
Houston we have a problem. No butler and you have melo lol
You no a guy feels entitled when he b***** about only playing 30 minutes a night.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch. Team full of crybabies!
Shouldn’t have signed him to begin with. A cancer.
Houston knew exactly what they were getting when they brought him in.
This should shock absolutely no one.
Houston played better without him tonight even though they lost.
Houston played like crap. Was at the game. Harden was off, defense was not intense and the offense wasn’t flowing, except Gordon.
I think missing Ariza and D’Antoni as coach are the biggest contributing factors.
And there was no way that D’Antoni and Melo were going to work the second time around.
Gordon does that. Not trading him should pay off. It will always be hard to tell though, whether they’re better of with or without the trade MIN may have approved (four 1sts, Gordon, Tucker/Criss)
MIN did approve a trade without Dieng.
Funny how many people on here only read the headline before putting in their comments.
Is anyone here missing anything?
So how do you picture their discussion, @marlin? Scorch us.
Maybe, “just to be sure, this is all you got?”
Or, “excuse us while we scapegoat you.”
I don’t know why Morey has pursued him these past two offseasons.
My guess is that they were thinking they could get the “good” Melo in their system. He’s a great offensive rebounder, he’s a good offensive player in the paint, and he doesn’t hurt your spacing if he’s camped out on the 3 point line.
Melo has been known to play defense in situations – playoff games, Olympic teams – and Morey probably thought they could get him to do that in the regular season with the right group of guys.
Of course, Melo is Melo.
Still, if it had worked out, Morey is a genius getting a guy like that for the minimum.
Everyone knew Melo’s game does not fit in the current NBA where wings need to shoot 3’s and be able to switch on defense. Everyone except for the Rockets apparently. Darryl Morey is the one to blame for thinking Melo could help the Rockers
So where will he go overrate himself and not fit in next?
The guy has ALWAYS been a Prima Donna. The only reason he got so much run was he played in NY. Move on loser