New Head Coach of the Brooklyn Nets Jason Kidd recently joked with Carmelo Anthony during a 9-11 dedication about changing uniforms. All Kidd-ing aside, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, and Kobe Bryant lead the list of the NBA’s free agents in the summer of 2014. Anthony’s name has been mentioned in connection with the Los Angeles Lakers and most certainly his current team the New York Knicks. After L.A.’s latest free agent snafus, losing Dwight Howard to Houston and Chris Paul to the Clippers (via David Stern), what are the odds the Lakers will strike gold with the next one? I’m anything but a Melo-hater, but here are 7 good reasons why the Lakers would pass on Anthony.
7.
74%, or the percentage of games Melo has played since the 2012 season
6.
0.61, his assist to turnover ratio in last season’s playoffs
5.
52 steals last season, tying him for about 94th in the league. For perspective, that’s fewer steals than Lamar Odom, Greivis Vasquez, and Gordon Hayward nabbed.
4.
For his career, Melo shoots an icy 41.7% from the field during the playoffs
3.
35.6% was Melo’s usage % last season, which ballooned to 38% in playoffs. That’s more than Russell Westbrook #3 (37.1), Kevin Durant #7 (31.9), and LeBron James, who was all the down at 11th (29.2).
2.
2, for the 2 times Anthony has made it past the 1st round of the playoffs.
1.
1 is amount of times Melo has scored upwards of 30.0 ppg in the playoffs (2010 with Denver). By comparison, Michael Jordan did that 12 times, Kobe Bryant 5 times, and LeBron 3 times.
Everyone knows the Lakers have to make a move when they are financially capable, and acquiring Melo, a 10-year pro and last year’s scoring champion, is certainly better than nothing. Despite his deteriorating health, Carmelo Anthony is statistically peaking in terms of his production. He led the league in regular season scoring last season with 28.7 ppg. His Knicks finished with the 2nd best record in the East behind Miami last season, a season that saw Anthony post career-highs in 3PT% (37.9%) and PER (24.8).
