The Houston Rockets have stumbled to a rough start to the 2018-19 season. It appears Carmelo Anthony’s tenure in Clutch City will be ending soon, here’s why.
TheHouston Rocketshad an incredible 2017-18 season. The franchise had two bonafide stars inJames HardenandChris Paulthat appeared to work perfectly together in spite of speculation that they wouldn’t be able to coexist.
These two guys were flanked by a very good supporting cast consisting of a budding star at center inClint Capelaand defensive aces likeTrevor Ariza,Luc Mbah a Moute, andPJ Tucker. This grew powered their way to the best record in franchise history, 63 wins to only 19 losses.
They carried this momentum into the playoffs where they were able to dispatch the Jazz and Timberwolves in short order. Then came the matchup with the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals. Unfortunately, the Rockets came up short in seven games.
So, after the best season in franchise history, they weren’t able to get to the ultimate goal of winning the Larry O’Brien trophy. TheHouston Rocketsthen had no choice but make a lot of personnel changes so they did just that in the offseason.
They weren’t able to land any of the big fish likeLeBron JamesandPaul Georgethus they had no choice but to pursue other options. They resigned Paul, Capela, andGerald Green. They also brought inJames EnnisandMichael Carter-Williams.Brandon KnightandMarquese Chrisswere also acquired in theRyan Andersontrade.
The last piece to the puzzle, in an effort to make the offense the most potent one in the NBA, was to addCarmelo Anthonyafter he was traded and bought out. The fit was a curious one but if anyone could figure it out it was Mike D’Antoni. However, after all of those additions, the team wasn’t able to pull it all together, the defense struggled then rebounded but the offense has been anemic at best.
Nearly every player on thisHouston Rocketsteam has struggled this season, so the blame shouldn’t be cast on one player.Eric Gordonhas been abysmal on the offensive end, Paul had struggled, Capela has struggled. It just hasn’t worked on a team-wide level.
That being said, Melo has not done what he was brought in to do. The team and fans alike knew that they weren’t getting any defense from him but that was okay because he was going to elevate the offense to a new level, right? Wrong.
Melo has stumbled out of the gate extremely hard and is actually performing at a worse level than he did last year with the Thunder. Nearly all of his stats on a per 36 minutes scale are at a career-worst, especially his shooting. Per 36 minutes, he’s only scoring 16 points per game.
This tale takes a turn for the worst even after that. He has tied a career-worst field goal percentage at 40%, he is shooting his lowest three-point percentage, 32%, since the 2006-07 season. He is also shooting nearly 10% worse than his previous career-low free throw percentage, 68%.
That’s nearly the exact opposite of what he was brought in to do. However, that may not be what is finally forcing him out of Houston after only 10 games. Melo was held out of Saturday’s game with an ‘illness’ that surfaced out of nowhere after he has been 100% all year, in practice and in games.
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Reports surfaced this morning that theHouston Rocketsare at an impasse with Melo on his role. This was a sticking point coming in as he has never wanted to come off of the bench at any previous stop. It now appears that he sees the fix to the Rockets problems as him being inserted into the starting lineup and the team likely disagrees.
Marc Stein reported that Melo’s time in aHouston Rocketsuniform would be ‘soon be ending.’ The main reason is likely the playing time dispute with the lack of production being the underlying cause surrounding it.
Is Melo likely the sole cause for the team’s struggles? Absolutely not. However, a guy that doesn’t want to be his role on a team could quickly ruin a team’s chemistry. So, if all of this is true, parting ways with Melo is the only course of action for theHouston Rockets.
Carmelo Anthonyhas averaged 13.4 points per game to go along with a shooting line of .405/.328/.682. He has also managed to grab 5.4 rebounds and dish out 0.5 assists per game. He’s done all of this on 29.4 minutes per game.
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