Portland Trail Blazers: Is Carmelo Anthony Back in the Groove?

From unemployed to one of the hotter starts in the NBA, Carmelo Anthony looks like he’s back to his old form. Once a rising star in the NBA, Melo won a scoring title all the way back in 2013 when he was with the New York Knicks. Fast forward to 2018 and Carmelo Anthony was left an afterthought by the Houston Rockets. Now given the chance with the Portland Trail Blazers, Anthony looks like he can be a big contributor proving the rest of the league wrong.

Carmelo shot up the college ranks with the Syracuse Orange taking the college world by storm winning a championship his only season with the team. Anthony was drafted by the Denver Nuggets and struggled to win at first in Denver. The Nuggets went out on a limb and paired him with the most unlikely pairing in Allen Iverson. Never really getting over the hype, Iverson and Anthony took the Nuggets to the playoffs but were unable to bring home a title.

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Moving on Anthony ended up with the New York Knicks. The Knicks organization being a laughing stock for a long time were unable to find a pairing that would utilize the strengths of the once scoring leader and bring a winning team to New York. Melo took a majority of the blame despite the organization’s dysfunction. Anthony’s career would take a big hit due to poor management and coaching in NY and once his tenure was done, a black eye was left on his career.

Now Portland is giving the former star a shot and he’s proving he can still play in today’s NBA. In just 8 games that he’s played, his role has been limited but he’s contributing to wins. Averaging 16.7 points per game, he’s not headed back to a scoring title any time soon, but he’s not out shooting duds. His spark is giving the Trail Blazers hope they can count on him down the stretch to keep the team winning. Carmelo Anthony might not be the player he once was, but as long as they keep winning, he won’t have to be.