Carmelo Anthony officially signs with the Houston Rockets on August 14, 2018 and will reunite with Coach Mike D' Antoni. Melo signed a $2.4 dollars contract and also received the $25.4 million of his original 2018-19 salary minus a $2.4 million contract buyout with the Atlanta Hawks.Anthony was waived by the Atlanta Hawks on July 30 after being traded from the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Dennis Schroeder on July 19.And on August 7, Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports confirmed that Melo and the Houston Rockets verbally agreed to a deal.
Anthony met with Rockets' General Manager Daryl Morey and coach Mike D'Antoni during the summer league in Las Vegas. The Thunder gave Melo permission to do, once the sides decided that they need to part ways. Melo also considered signing with the Miami Heat and he also met with the team but he chooses the Houston Rockets.
Melo has been the 1st option in his team his whole career before being traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder. He struggled in his role in OKC and posted career lows of 16.2 points per game last season. He became more of a catch and shoot player instead of an isolation specialist he has been in his whole career. Melo didn't fit well with Russell Westbrook and Paul George in Oklahoma City but in my opinion, the Houston Rockets is the right team for him. He will best fit with the Rockets playing alongside close friend Chris Paul and the reigning MVP James Harden.
Melo is one of the best scorers in the league history. He is 19th in NBA history with 25,417 points and I still believe that he can bring his game back. After the season, Melo said that he prefers to play with the ball in his hands more and said coming off the bench is out of the question.
Anthony will help the Houston Rockets fill their void at forward after the team lost Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute during free agency. The Rockets will bolster their front court with the addition of Anthony and they can call for a play and put Melo on the post and make some mismatch. He can play the 3 and the 4 position and the Rockets will have more threat in the post and from long range.
I don't know why people are crazy about losing Trevor Ariza and Melo becomes his replacement. Are they thinking that Ariza is better than Melo? No way! that was very disrespectful. Melo is a 10-time all star and one of the best scorers and at 34 years of age he can still play on a high level. Look at the worst season of his career, he still averaged 16.2 points per game despite the struggles.
Anthony and the Rockets will pair up for the upcoming season in hopes of winning a championship. And with this pair up, Melo will be coach again by Mike D' Antoni. D' Antoni coached Melo for a short period of time during the 2011-2012 season when Anthony was traded to the New York Knicks in a blockbuster trade. He coached Melo for only 27 regular season games and 4 playoff games then the Knicks parted ways with D' Antoni in 2012-2013 season after a rough start of 18 wins and 24 loses. In that period, there are talks that D' Antoni was clashing with Melo and the two didn't get along well but that was in the past. Now, D' Antoni is envisioning the best for Melo and the Houston Rockets.
In an interview, Mike gave his thoughts on the addition of Melo and the future of the team. Here is what he said:
“Well, at different points of people’s careers or lives or circumstances, things are different. … In New York, when they gave away half the team (to Denver in the February 2011 trade that brought Anthony to the Knicks) and everybody expected us to win a championship, it really wasn’t realistic. It put a lot of pressure on everybody, and it kind of burst the pipes. I think this is totally different. We’ve got a team that is a whole bunch of veterans that really, we’ve got one thing in mind, and that’s to win a championship, and we have the possibility. We never had a blow-up before, so it’s not he wanted to play a certain way and I kind of wanted to coach another way.
“Back then, there wasn’t even analytics. I was going by my gut, and he was going by (his) gut, and it’s just, you know, styles clash. And I think now, things have changed and everybody is playing the same way. I think it’s a lot better fit and I think we have a really good chance to be really good.”
And when ask about how he see Melo fitting in with Houston :
“The style that we want to play, and we go through that process, it kind of sorts itself out. It’s like USA Basketball. If you’re committed to doing it, and committed to, ‘OK, this is how we’re playing, and then when it’s your turn it’s your turn, but if it isn’t then we’re still within these guidelines.’ Then the more talent you can have, the better the guys are, the better the team is going to be. Look at Golden State, how they had all those guys and you fit in (Kevin) Durant, I mean if you are committed to a certain style, and everybody is committed to the team, it works itself out. ...
Coach D' Antoni still believes in Anthony's talent and thinks that Melo is a great fit for their team. The Rockets lost to the Golden State Warriors last season in the Western Conference Finals. How much can the Rockets improve after acquiring the 10-time all-star? Can they reach the NBA Finals? Will Melo help them improve next season? Can't wait for the next season to begin. Let's find out when the season begin. Thank you.
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