The Portland Trail Blazers have decided to take a chance on forward Carmelo Anthony. Off to a slow start to their 2019-20 National Basketball Association regular season, Anthony came to terms on a non-guaranteed contract with Portland on Thursday night.
Anthony is 35 years of age, and is without a doubt past his prime. However, the Trail Blazers are looking for some offensive skill to compliment Damian Lillard (30.5 points per game) and CJ McCollum (20.1 points per game).
With a record of four wins and eight losses, the Trail Blazers are definitely underachieving after their first 12 games of 2019-20. Their point per game average is a respectable 112.2 points per game, but they still have given up 113.9 points per game.
Anthony is expected to help the Trail Blazers from an offensive standpoint, but a major reason why it took him so long to sign with a team this season is possibly because of his weak defense according to Kurt Helin of NBC Sports.In 2018-19, while with the Houston Rockets, Anthony had a career-low in steals (0.4 steals per game).
Still, that average did come from a small sample size as he only played 10 games last season with the Rockets due to illness and simply not fitting into the Rockets lineup. Anthony was traded to the Chicago Bulls on January 22, but never played for Chicago, and was waived 10 days later.
In his prime, Anthony was simply a superstar. After leading the University of Syracuse to a NCAA title in 2003, Anthony went on to be a 10-time all-star (four times with the Denver Nuggets and six times with the New York Knicks). In 2012-13 while with New York, Anthony led the NBA with 28.7 points per game.
