The Carmelo Anthony free agency tour takes on a Texas theme today as the Leon Rose client visits the Rockets this morning and the Mavs in the afternoon. Here’s the latest on the No. 2 free agent in the Hoops Rumors Free Agent Power Rankings.
- The Mavs are determined to work on ‘Melo until the end but plan to move on quickly to Chandler Parsons and Luol Deng if snubbed, tweets Stein.
- Anthony’s meeting with the Mavericks ended after two-plus hours, significantly shorter than his six hour meeting with the Rockets, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com.
- Anthony may attend the World Cup Final in Brazil on next Sunday and his deal, likely to remain with the Knicks, should be done by then, tweets Frank Isola of the New York Daily News.
- Anthony spent about ten minutes talking privately to Rockets stars Dwight Howard and James Harden during his visit in Houston, writes Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports. Anthony gave off the impression that it would be hard for him to leave New York, but reiterated that winning was his priority, a source said. The Rockets feel that their meeting with ‘Melo went “well,” writes Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle.
- Anthony has landed in Dallas and will soon meet with the Mavericks after his six-hour pow-wow with the Rockets earlier today in Houston, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The Mavs, unlike the Bulls and Rockets, are going for a low-key approach with ‘Melo. The location of the meeting is being kept secret so that Mark Cuban can keep the media at bay (link).
- Anthony won’t be in Dallas long, as he’ll be flying out of Dallas tonight to Los Angeles so that he can meet with the Lakers tomorrow, tweets Dwain Price of the Star Telegram.
- Lakers co-owner Jeanie Buss wasn’t at the the team’s pitch meeting to Dwight Howard last July, but she’ll be present for Thursday’s visit with Anthony, as Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com details. The relationship between Jeanie and fellow co-owner Jim Buss, who oversees the team’s basketball operations, has greatly improved of late, as sources told fellow ESPN scribe Ramona Shelburne, who contributed to the same piece.
- Anthony has been focused on the health of Derrick Rose as he ponders signing with the Bulls, as Adrian Wojnarowski said Tuesday in an appearance on Fox Sports Live (Twitter link). Rose staged a private workout Tuesday to demonstrate his health to the visiting Anthony, according to Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders.
- The Mavs will try to sell ‘Melo on the strength of Rick Carlisle‘s coaching, the selflessness of Dirk Nowitzki, the quality of the rest of the roster and the front office’s pedigree and plan for the future, as Tim McMahon of ESPNDallas.com details.
- Phil Jackson might not want Carlos Boozer back in a sign-and-trade for Anthony with the Bulls, but some in the Knicks front office think he would make sense, tweets Chris Herring of the Wall Street Journal. Boozer can still score and, perhaps more importantly, he could be a good trade chip as an expiring deal, which could help in a play for Kevin Love (link).
Zach Links contributed to this post.
I don’t get why boozer is given such a bad rap. I mean a 6ft 9 dude that don’t play defense. That’s half of the guys around.
Yeah, but when you don’t play defense, are a pedestrian rebounder, can’t post a TS% above 50 and have your team on the hook for $16.8M….
Boozer’s a pedestrian rebounder? Methinks you don’t know much about him.
Methinks his best years are well behind him and he gives you nothing on the offensive glass. Donatas Motiejunas and Carlos Boozer had the same ORR last season. 97th in the league at 7.4%. I didn’t say he was a terrible rebounder; pedestrian just means it’s not enough to make up for being a black hole at both ends of the floor. $16.8M for a guy whose only above average skill is defensive rebounding….
Hi DRR was 17th of qualifying players. He doesn’t score high on ORR because he plays away from the basket on that end. Not because he isn’t a good rebounder.
No, that’s Motiejunas’ excuse. He plays in the mid-range or on the block, when a shot goes up, he should be in range. OR is about athleticism, and that’s not his game. He gets a high % of rebounds per chance, but a lot of his chances are uncontested. Probably a benefit of playing with Joakim Noah.
link to stats.nba.com…
I hate that stat, it’s a terrible stat used by people who don’t believe good players pick there positions based off of where the action is.
Whether or not Boozer’s lucky, he’s still amongst the best rebounders in the NBA. And most of it is effort. He still has an incredibly high motor, despite lacking the talent he once had.
Edit: and Boozer is not an inside player. He doesn’t shoot threes, but the Bulls don’t use him inside on offense either. He’s a mid range jump shooter, almost exclusively.
He took 394 shots (42.8% of his total attempts) from right around the basket this season. That doesn’t really sound like someone who’s “exclusively a jump shooter”
So 58% of his shots were from mid range, and you think that makes him an inside player? Most inside players have way higher ratios. Removing second chance shots on offensive rebounds, and it’s obvious he isn’t living there for his offense.
And for comparisions sake, Motiejunas takes way more shots under the basket. Vorped’s last shot chart shows its a trend that’s getting more extreme. In his last 30 games, he took 33 of 44 shots under the basket, 37 of them within 8 feet of the hoop. One of those player’s ORR is a reflection of his inability to rebound on the offensive end. And that player is not Carlos Boozer.
Not sure why you’re so insistent on defending Carlos Boozer. Are you Mrs. Boozer? The 42% is just shots from within 3 feet, so true midrange shots comprise about 38%. Saying he’s exclusively a jump shooter is still false.
Compared to other PF/C? Yeah, he’s probably the biggest jump shooter in the NBA.