These stats show just how terrible Carmelo Anthony was with the Rockets
The downfall of Melo was swift and very, very sad.
Carmelo Anthony’s downfall from NBA All-Star to eventual November roster waive by the Houston Rockets was every bit as predictable as it is depressing. The 34-year-old forward made 10 all-star teams, won a scoring title, and three Olympic golds, but his play rarely translated on top contenders. His career playoff record is 25-47, per StatMuse, and he reached the Western Conference Finals just once.
Anthony’s one-sidedness as a scorer was always apparent, but he was once so good at it that it made sense to feature him as a star. Now that even his bucket-getting ability has faded with age, he’s become unplayable.
At his peak, Anthony was an offensive marvel. A disciple of Kobe Bryant’s school of Shoot Everything No Matter What, Anthony was fearless in getting buckets regardless of the quality of his looks. It’s no coincidence he and Bryant share an all-time NBA standing as the only two players in league history to score 62 or more points in a game without a single assist.
That’s part of what made Anthony a fan favorite back then. But with no championship trophy or even an NBA Finals appearance, he isn’t receiving the Bryant sendoff.
Instead, he’s become a distinct reason for the faltering of a pair of title-hopeful teams in Oklahoma City and Houston. In an NBA that’s more mindful of shooting efficiencies and more reliant on defense from its wings, Anthony’s quickly lost his place on the stage that’s paid him the seventh-most cash of any player ever.
It’s hard to understate just how awful Anthony was with Houston
After a season in OKC where Anthony’s numbers plummeted, they’ve went down some more in Houston. Anthony’s biggest strength is supposed to be his scoring, but he’s not good at that, either.
- He shot 32.8 percent from three-point range with Houston. The league average is 35.1 percent.
- He made just 68.2 percent of his free throws. The league average is 76.1.
- His 13.4 points-per-game were a career-worst.
- His per 100 possession scoring numbers were also career lows, so he didn’t even score at the same rate in fewer minutes
The Rockets’ losses have been ugly, but no player was responsible for a worse points discrepancy than Anthony. In 294 minutes with Anthony on the floor, the Rockets were outscored by 63 points. The Rockets have outscored other teams by 17 points in the 330 minutes he’s sat on the bench.
That tallies up to Houston being 12.1 points per 100 possessions better without Anthony on the court (1.9 on offense and a whopping 10.1 on defense.) That’s more than enough to separate wins from losses.
This fit wasn’t working
Even when Anthony played with both of the team’s best players — Chris Paul and James Harden — it didn’t matter. That three-man unit was outscored by nine points in 37 minutes, shooting 41 percent from the field and 29 percent from three.
On defense, things were as bad as expected, too. Opposing players shot 3.6 percent better with Anthony guarding them on average. Within six feet of the basket, players shot 10.4 percent better than normal, and on two-pointers in general, they converted at a 5.4-percent better rate.
The most disappointing part is Anthony had kinda bought into head coach Mike D’Antoni’s offensive system. In particular, he took threes almost twice as frequently as he did in his last season with the Knicks. After launching more than 39 percent of his shots from the mid-range last year in Oklahoma City, he only took 25 percent of his shots there this year. He even accepted a bench role, which he laughed off in OKC.
But Anthony was exposed in his brief Rockets stint. Unable to light it up anymore, his horrific defensive tendencies and bad offensive habits were more fair than ever to target.
We’re nearing the end for one of the most prolific scorers ever, and it’s been anything but a storybook ending.
And now for another observation
Brook Lopez is a splash brother now
Brook Lopez has legitimately become one of the league’s best and most frequent deep-ball shooters. In Sunday night’s win over the Nuggets, Lopez made more threes (eight) than he had attempted in the first six years of his career (seven). And it was only a little bit weird — he’d hit six threes in two of his last three games before that.
After firing only a handful of threes a season in his first eight years, Lopez took 5.2 every night in his last season in Brooklyn, 4.4 in L.A, and is now taking 7.2 a game in Milwaukee, the fifth-most in the NBA. Altogether, nearly 75 percent percent of all shots Lopez takes are from distance, and he’s made 42 percent of them. Sheesh!
It’s even wilder when you consider that these are from wayyyy downtown. The three-point line ranges from 22 feet in the corners to 23.75 feet at the top of the arc. Nearly five of the threes Lopez takes a game are from between 25 and 29 feet. He ranks No. 22 in shots from the distance, trailing guys like Steph Curry, Donovan Mitchell and Damian Lillard ... you know, point guards. No center takes shots that deep more frequently, and he shoots a pretty decent 33 percent from beyond 25 feet.
Brook Lopez is one of difference-makers that’s driven Milwaukee from an above average team to a great one. And it’s happened because he’s completely transformed his game to a place we’ve never seen anyone seven feet tall take it.
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on Nov. 11 and updated on Nov. 15.