Now that Carmelo Anthony has been traded to the Chicago Bulls, it’s become very clear that if he wants his NBA to continue, he will end the season on what would technically be his fifth team in the last year. This type of late-career movement is reminiscent of a guy like Tracy McGrady. Once one of the NBA’s best scorers, McGrady saw his career end due to injuries and a gameplay style that never quite worked as he got older.
So maybe there’s nobody out there with a better idea of what should be Anthony’s next step than the Hall of Fame bucket getter. McGrady, speaking on ESPN’s The Jump, thinks Anthony should go sign with the Portland Trail Blazers should the opportunity present itself.
Tracy McGrady wants the Portland Trailblazers to pick up Carmelo Anthony. Here's why: pic.twitter.com/AdW8OMzfsM
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) January 23, 2019
“I look at at a team like the Portland Trail Blazers with (Damian Lillard and C.J.) McCollum,” McGrady said. “These guys have been pretty much treading water over the last few years, not being able to get over that hump. I think if you put a guy like Carmelo Anthony coming off the bench and providing offense, Melo can get you 16 and 20 points coming off their bench. They don’t play that type of upstyle tempo where he just catch and shoot. I think they play a style of play where you can actually go to Melo to his strength in the mid-post and take pressure off those two guys.”
The Trail Blazers are one of those teams that have been mentioned whenever Anthony has been available, dating back to when McCollum and Lillard expressed their desire to play with him when his tenure in New York came to an end. The idea, in theory, makes sense: Anthony could give the Blazers a scoring threat off the bench, and he can be staggered in some lineups with McCollum and Lillard to take pressure off of them.
The problem is that Anthony would be far better suited in a catch-and-shoot role than a role as an iso-heavy guy in the mid-post, but he proved in Houston that he’s not particularly great at that. Maybe there’s a chance Terry Stotts could pull out what’s left in him, but it’s possible this might just be the end of the line for a once-great player.
