Tough question. He had his bad moments, wasn’t much of a defender and tended to stagnate the offense with his isoball, which was frustrating. On the other hand you could do a lot worse than 14 points off the bench on around league average efficiency and 41% from deep, especially with how very not good the bench was and his shot diet. At his best, he was an X factor with the ability to hit big shots. At his worst, he turned from a ball stopper with no defense who bailed your offense out to a ball stopper with no defense who didn’t do anything. But overall I could go out on a limb and say that he helped the Blazers make the playoffs in 2021.
That’s from a purely basketball perspective. If the question becomes “was it cool to have first ballot HoF Carmelo Anthony on the blazers”? Then the answer is yes.
sir-charles-churros
I miss Melo all the time. I don’t miss Stotts starting him and playing him 35 minutes a game in order to be a “responsible steward of his legacy” or whatever that insane quote was
Sa-Tiva
The games where Melo would turn back the clock and light it up were some of my absolute favorite times as a Blazer fan. Melo is one of my all time favorite players, so I loved having him here in Portland. It was just tough because our team defense was sooooo bad during that era and he was a part of that problem. We needed him when he first came, he gave us some great memories (shoutout to his great games in the bubble,) and it was probably the right time when he ended up leaving.
Mixing_It_Hot
Melo when he turned the clock back and went full ISO ballhog/post footwork was beautiful.
5 Comments
Well damn, I do now. 😔
Tough question. He had his bad moments, wasn’t much of a defender and tended to stagnate the offense with his isoball, which was frustrating. On the other hand you could do a lot worse than 14 points off the bench on around league average efficiency and 41% from deep, especially with how very not good the bench was and his shot diet. At his best, he was an X factor with the ability to hit big shots. At his worst, he turned from a ball stopper with no defense who bailed your offense out to a ball stopper with no defense who didn’t do anything. But overall I could go out on a limb and say that he helped the Blazers make the playoffs in 2021.
That’s from a purely basketball perspective. If the question becomes “was it cool to have first ballot HoF Carmelo Anthony on the blazers”? Then the answer is yes.
I miss Melo all the time. I don’t miss Stotts starting him and playing him 35 minutes a game in order to be a “responsible steward of his legacy” or whatever that insane quote was
The games where Melo would turn back the clock and light it up were some of my absolute favorite times as a Blazer fan. Melo is one of my all time favorite players, so I loved having him here in Portland. It was just tough because our team defense was sooooo bad during that era and he was a part of that problem. We needed him when he first came, he gave us some great memories (shoutout to his great games in the bubble,) and it was probably the right time when he ended up leaving.
Melo when he turned the clock back and went full ISO ballhog/post footwork was beautiful.