Allen Moll is an avid NBA and College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen is a regular columnist for thehoopdoctors.com, Bleacherreport.com, UpperDeckblog.com, and his own blog, Hoops Haven .
I know it is not exactly going out on a limb since Melo is currently leading the league in scoring at a 37+ppg clip. I may even be accused of jumping on the Carmelo Anthony bandwagon. We have all known that he has had all the tools to be an elite NBA talent since he led Syracuse to the NCAA National Title as a freshman in 2003. At age 25, Melo has apparently finally matured and has taken his game to the next level like Kobe, Lebron, and Dwayne Wade before him. The one thing missing for Anthony to compare to those players is a scoring title…….. This year that will change.
With a great supporting cast around him in Denver, and by continuing to shoot better than 53% from the field, Anthony should be able to sustain his monster scoring throughout the entire season. His league leading average of 37.7 ppg is already more than 6 points higher than 2nd place Kobe Bryant’s 31.3 ppg. He already has scored more than 40+ points in two of 4 games, a mark which he hit only 3 times last season, including the playoffs. He would become only the second Nugget in franchise history to win a scoring title, joining Hall of Famer Alex English in ’82-’83.
His supporting cast in Denver is a big reason for his success. Having one of the game’s consummate point guards in Chauncey Billups, to distribute the ball definitely helps. Having a frontcourt consisting of Nene, Birdman, and K-Mart, who are more likely to do the game’s little things like defense, blocking shots, and rebounding also helps. He won’t admit it, but having the ball hogging Allen Iverson in another uniform probably makes it easier for Melo to be the go to guy for the Nuggets. Melo and the Nuggets will get JR Smith, a 15+ppg scorer last season, back from serving a 7 game suspension soon, which could conceivably give Anthony more open shots.
As a career 24.2 ppg career scorer, it’s amazing that Anthony has only been selected to the Western Conference All Star Team on 2 occasions(’07 and ’08). One has to speculate that his temper and penchant for breaking the NBA’s behavior policies has had an effect on his selections. He does have a somewhat of a “bad guy” reputation that precedes him, because of his involvement in the Nuggets/Knicks brawl from ’06 and numerous possession of a controlled substance arrests. Even with the negative issues, USA Basketball has selected Anthony to represent his country and has won Gold and Bronze medals in the ’04 and ’08 Olympics.
Anthony has come close to winning a scoring title before. In the ’06-’07 season, he averaged 28.9 ppg, in finishing second to Kobe’s 31.6 ppg, but his team finished 45-37, losing in the Western Conference first round. This season Melo wants more after a Western Conference Finals appearance last season, and has his sights set on NBA hardware like, not only a scoring title, but possibly an MVP trophy and an NBA Title.
Make him mad and he will do this to you:
