Houston Rockets: Carmelo Anthony will be more effective off the bench

The Houston Rockets are about to get one of the biggest names in professional basketball at a significant discount in Carmelo Anthony. But what about his effectiveness? At this stage of his career, he should come off the bench and here’s why I think that’s the case.

The Houston Rockets have slowly but surely assembled their team for the upcoming 2018-19 season and I still feel that they’re not done yet in putting a championship-contender back on the court.

I still think that the team lacks one more wing defender — who has a decent scoring aptitude — to make the this team whole on both ends of the court. Could it be Kent Bazemore? Could possibly be someone else that we haven’t envisioned that could be available? That’s certainly something to keep an eye on.

But to review the Houston Rockets moves this off season — the team has re-signed Chris Paul, Clint Capela and Gerald Green to their roster. They’ve also acquired James Ennis, Michael Carter-Williams and certainly Carmelo Anthony any day now for the veteran’s minimum of $2.4 million for 2018-19.

It seems as if we’re all watching the clock tick as to when the Houston Rockets will make it official and will they hold a press conference for a free agent that they’ve been trying to acquire for years on end. Carmelo is now at the twilight of his career now but I still do think that he has value in helping this team get ever so closer to the Larry O’Brien trophy in their hands.

But try this on for size…

Many are assuming that Carmelo will start this season for the Houston Rockets because of his veteran, superstar status but in terms of working the match ups. I think he’d be a more effective player off the bench in this stage of career.

Let’s take a look at some intriguing stats:

Out of the 1,054 career games that his under his belt, he has 124 of those where he played between 20-29 minutes on the court. In that stretch, he averaged 17.0 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.4 assists. Typically in those range of minutes, he would average around 27.1 minutes per game.

Anthony also has shot 43.1 percent from the field and 78 percent from the charity stripe but here’s the most interesting stat that makes a difference in this frenetically-paced offense.

To be honest, with all of the scoring punch that the Houston Rockets have surrounding them, the aforementioned stats are all what we need from him.

Here’s the kicker…

When his minutes are reduced, his legs are fresher, allowing him to connect easier on three-pointers. Within those range of minutes, Anthony is a 37.8 percent three-point shooter which is 3.1 percentage-points higher than his career average of 34.7 percent.

For this reason, I think he could be high-energy guy off the bench, especially if he commits to the idea of playing hard-nosed defense. Mike D’Antoni, Jeff Bzdelik and Roy Rogers will be tasked with that but as I’ve said previously, I think he’ll be able to buy-in to the concept and we will see a resurrection — an epiphany of sorts — of his career.

I’ll even go as far to say that if he accepts this role — to which it would take a lot convincing — he

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could squeeze his way into the Sixth Man of the Year conversation THIS SEASON as he approaches his mid-30s. Do you like the sound of that?

I sure as hell do because despite Anthony’s personality that does comes off as selfish at times, he truly is one of my favorite basketball players, dating back to his days at Syracuse.

I like the idea of James Ennis and P.J. Tucker in the starting lineup as both are defensive bruisers and we need that intensity right out of the gate with each and every match up. Those guys are tone-setters and it’s something I doubt Melo could match as a starter in this stage of his career.

I strongly feel that if Melo would’ve learned to eat crow earlier in his career with a redefinition of himself, he’d have multiple championship rings already but instead of that, he’s becoming a high-profile journeyman picking up meaningless checks wherever he goes.

Melo has earned nearly a quarter of a billion dollars over his 15 seasons in the NBA and doesn’t really have much to show for it in the form of notable accolades in the Association. I don’t want to hear about his multiple All-Star nods so you can take that argument somewhere else.

Change can be a good thing and in Carmelo’s case, change is necessary in order for him to thrive. Will he actually do it? That remains to be seen but I feel in my heart if he comes off the bench, he’ll reap plenty of dividends for doing so.

He will be an important piece but James Harden and Chris Paul are the superstars on this team so it will be up to Melo whether or not to think about his damn self or to make a sacrifice for the betterment of the team.

Listen to me Melo — I’d choose the latter.

Next. The ultimate trade that sends Ryno to South Beach. dark

Anthony, 34, averaged 16.2 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists with a shooting line of .404/.347/.812 through 78 games in 2017-18 with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

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