Carmelo Anthony is finally on a contender for the first time since he was in Denver, as the star forward finds himself as the third option in Oklahoma City alongside Russell Westbrook and Paul George. With the Thunder, Anthony will not be the focal point on offense, which may be for the best as he enters his age 33 season.
Anthony has spent plenty of years carrying his teams on offense, especially in New York, but now he can let Westbrook and George be the guys and provide auxiliary scoring punch when teams focus in on the other two. Anthony is still a significant scoring threat and he’s become a very good spot-up three-point shooter, lighting it up at 41.8 percent from three-point range on catch-and-shoot situations a year ago, which will be very useful with Westbrook and George on the ball.
Aside from scoring, the Thunder hope they can get Anthony to do the little things. We’ve seen in the past that Anthony can be a willing passer when he trusts his teammates, and he’s also always been a solid rebounder. As the Thunder are quickly learning, Anthony has a bit of a quirk when going after boards, as he tends to blurt out “get the f*ck outta here” as he snatches a rebound. House of Highlights was kind enough to put together a supercut of some instances of Melo dropping f-bombs as he goes for a rebound and it’s quite hilarious.
The best part is Melo appears to be an equal opportunity cusser, yelling it at teammates and opponents alike. I don’t know if it’s a self-motivation thing or what, but this is why I’d pay for premium broadcast streams that are simply the game sounds with the court heavily mic’d up so you could hear the raw interactions between players. I can’t wait for the first time he does this while snatching a board away from Westbrook just to see Russ’ reaction.
