Houston Rockets: Carmelo Anthony has to be comfortable as third option

The Houston Rockets have been attached to talks about acquiring the services of Carmelo Anthony. While this doesn’t seem to address their need on the defensive end, it would make their offense quite formidable alongside James Harden and the newly acquired Chris Paul.

The Houston Rockets, however, will have to figure out a way to make sure every player gets their fair share of touches as all three are ball dominant players. James Harden was second in the league in touches per game with 99.2 (behind Russell Westbrook who was at 99.5 touches per game). Chris Paul was not far behind at eighth in the league at 86.2 touches per game.

Now those aren’t surprising numbers considering both Harden and Paul are point guards, but you have to go pretty far down the list to find Carmelo Anthony. He is 58th in the league averaging 60.4 touches per game, behind other big men like Kevin Love, Demarcus Cousins, Karl Anthony Towns, Draymond Green, Marc Gasol, Blake Griffin and the list goes on and on.

This could be the product of the miserable triangle offense that Phil Jackson was imposing on the New York Knicks. But regardless Carmelo Anthony is not nearly as effective as the other two stars he would play alongside if he came to the Houston Rockets.

When it comes to Win Shares (which estimates the number of wins contributed by a player) Carmelo Anthony was at 4.7 last year. Compare that to Chris Paul who was at 10.6 and James Harden who was at 15 win shares in 2016-17 and this means that Carmelo would have to be comfortable being the third option on this super team.

It happens with every super team and normally it is the big man who gets pushed out. With the Miami Heat, Chris Bosh had to be comfortable as the third option. With the Cleveland Cavaliers Kevin Love had to get used to being behind Lebron James and Kyrie Irving when it came to getting the ball in his hands. The Golden State Warriors are a unique situation as Kevin Durant is a uniquely remarkable scorer.

To give you an example of his greatness and efficiency, he averaged 61.1 touches per game, only 0.7 touches more than Carmelo Anthony, yet had 12 win shares, over 7 more wins contributed to his team than Carmelo. Now he also plays on what is one of the greatest teams of all team so that makes it easier, but the disparity is so great it can’t solely be blamed on team support and system.

If Carmelo comes to the Rockets, he will have to know that he is behind Harden and Paul in the pecking order. He will not be the primary option that he has been his entire career and if he’s able to put aside the star status he is accustomed to having he would be a good addition to the offense.

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The truth of the matter is, I wouldn’t be thrilled with the addition of Carmelo as he is not what the team needs. He is primarily a scorer and while he is offensively superior to Ryan Anderson, he wouldn’t bring much in the way of down low defense and rebounding.

All that said the Rockets have to add another piece because as they are currently constructed, they are not good enough to beat the Golden State Warriors. And the Warriors are, no pun intended, the gold standard in the NBA. Every team is looking to acquire anyone who is available that is considered to be of star status as this is the trend in the NBA.

Without multiple all-stars you don’t stand a chance. The Rockets can acquire another one if they can get theirs hands on Carmelo Anthony. But he would have to accept the role of third option. Even if he is willing, is he enough to help the Houston Rockets conquer the best in the West? Can the team survive on an almost strictly offensive diet?

We’re jumping the gun as the Rockets haven’t even added Carmelo and the Cavaliers are still in the running for his services as well. But if the move happens, it will be interesting to see if Anthony can accept becoming that status of all-star role player that Bosh and Love have filled.

Next: Let's make a play for Leandro Barbosa

If he can’t, we could be looking at another 2015-2016 season full of chemistry issues and a lack of desire, and the franchise will have to look long and hard at how they want to move forward. Especially if Chris Paul decides to leave for free agency after this year rather than re-upping with the Rockets in an unhappy situation. It is indeed, a tenuous time to be a Rockets fan. And if this experiment doesn’t work out, the rallying cry of “In Morey we trust” will lose a bit of luster.

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