NOVEMBER 15: Anthony still needs to pass his physical and won’t make his Blazers debut until at least Tuesday, Wojnarowski tweets.
NOVEMBER 14: The Trail Blazers have agreed to a non-guaranteed deal with free agent forward Carmelo Anthony, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. Woj adds that Anthony, once signed, will join the Blazers on the team’s upcoming six-game road trip, and that the team hopes to have him fill the void at power forward created by the loss of Zach Collins (Twitter link).
Portland, off to a 4-8 start, has been one of the bigger disappointments of the first few weeks of this NBA season. As such, it comes as no surprise that the team would take a flyer on Anthony, 35, as the 10-time NBA All-Star looks to reinvent himself as a role player after being out of the league for the last 12 months.
Interestingly, however, the Trail Blazers suggested earlier this month that signing a 15th man was not a priority for them and that they’d opt instead to rely on depth and positional versatility. Of course, at that time, Portland was only 3-4, so the club’s top decision-makers may have changed their minds after going 1-4 over the last five games.
According to Woj (link), Blazers’ GM Neil Olshey and Anthony’s agent, Leon Rose, had stayed in contact on Carmelo since the preseason, with conversations picking up over the past couple days. Olshey and head coach Terry Stotts talked directly with Anthony before reaching today’s agreement.
It will be interesting to see how Anthony meshes with the Blazers’ backcourt pairing of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. According to Chris Haynes of ESPN, Lillard was notified of the potential signing last night and made it clear that he’s always been supportive of bringing Anthony into the fold in Portland.
Jason Quick of The Athletic, who has covered the Blazers for the past 20 seasons, seems skeptical of the fit, opining that the team’s biggest deficiency at this point seems to be on the defensive end of the floor (i.e. – not Anthony’s strength). However, given the team’s poor start, Quick also appears to concede that the signing is worth a shot.
As Bobby Marks of ESPN notes, Anthony will earn $14,490 per day while a member of the Blazers, which mean he’s signing for the league minimum salary for a veteran with 10+ years of NBA experience. The Blazers only have 14 players on their roster currently, so no corresponding move will have to made, but the team will see its luxury tax bill grow with the signing.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
No. Way.
Interesting choice. By both sides.
Good for Melo. Hope it works out for him, and that he applies himself the same way Howard as done in LA.
However, this isn’t good news if you’re a Portland fan…smacks of desperation.
Melon has no options. I hope he comes in and helps the team.
Your kidding
No, you’re kidding.
Play him 15 – 20 minutes off the bench. No more than that. Maybe he can provide a bit of a scoring punch.
I hope he plays that much when the Blazers come to Houston.
As long as he realizes that Dame is the man and just a support role. Dames always showed himself as a good leader though. Hopefully it works out for both.
So far so good with Howard on the Lakers. So you never know.
Same problem as last year. Melo being brought in to replace guys lost in FA who played D. Think it’ll be the same result as the Rockets experiment but hope it works out for him
Hopefully Melo has one last good ride in him. I hope he can contribute and help the blazers out. They are a likable bunch.
Who knew the Blazers were so desperate? Won’t help a bit.
Uhm, yeah it will??? The only offense this team gets is from their guards, so even though Melo may not be the most team-friendly guy, he can score well enough to help aid some of their issues
He will give up way more points on defense than he scores himself.
About dame time
Hopefully he can benefit like Howard has melo can still ball just needs a chance at redemption. Houston def screwed him over
You can’t spell CarMElo without ME. And that is all that Carmelo has been about for most of his career. He has been a selfish player whose only concern was the points he scored. He has never played defense and hasn’t been a good team player. Is Melo actually going to be a team player this time? I’ll have to see it to believe it
An anagram of his name is Car Mole, which is also what he has been about for most of his career: Transportation and Use of Saliva to Immobilize Worms.
Lessshgo Melo it’s game time, time to ball out
Blazers need forward options and Melo is definitely an option.
Really happy for Melo, he deserves it, great chance for him & safe pick up for Portland. Hopefully it works for him & gets to choose when is his end, not the teams choosing it, that would have been tragic.
20+ comments about a 35 year old dude on a non guaranteed deal. Is Melo the most polarizing non-retired player in basketball?
Normally I’d say Melo is trash but Portland is desperate and Melo might actually help them
Look, for all of Melo’s shortfalls as a player (ISO scorer, weak on D end), he’s always been well liked by his teammates as a guy, and I see this working.
Dame and CJ have tried to recruit him before, and apparently they have a friendly relationship. No one plays D in the NBA anymore, and the Blazers get no production from their frontcourt.
Melo shouldered too much of the blame in Houston (Harden confirmed that), and I think he knows this is both his last shot at staying in the L, and will be extremely grateful for it. I see this turning out more like Howard in L.A. than going badly.
It’s like D is obsolete now! Offensively things are more anti-Melo-like than ever. If Lilliard wants him he will fit but it should be interesting.
He will be gone within 20 games. His time has passed.
Will teams never learn?
I hope he does well with them
And fits in and gets to go out with some respect. With all the bad sides he has still been a quality player at times.
Hope he gets to finish up with a happier ending then it appeared.
I don’t see why this is a bad thing. If it doesn’t work out let him go. It’s worth a shot.
That’s really cool, I hope he’s got something left in the tank.