Fresh off his first Player of the Week award since 2014, Blazers forward Carmelo Anthony will have his partially guaranteed veteran’s minimum contract with the team become fully guaranteed. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski first broke the news.
The 35 year-old Anthony will earn the full prorated veteran’s minimum of $2.15MM for the 2019/20 season. Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (via Twitter) that Portland, a taxpaying team this season, will only pay $1.36MM of the $2.15MM owed. The NBA will reimburse the Blazers for the remaining balance of that sum. With $148MM committed in salaries, the Blazers have the highest payroll for 2019/20.
After an uncomfortable 10 games with the Rockets as a bench scorer last season, Anthony was offloaded by Houston to the Bulls who subsequently waived him. The 10-time All-Star would not see hardwood action again until being conscripted as an emergency front court addition for the injury-plagued Blazers, one year and 11 days after his last NBA game.
Portland had until January 7 to fully guarantee the deal, but Anthony’s terrific recent play at a position of need made this a no-brainer for Trail Blazers GM Neil Olshey and the rest of the Blazers’ front office. Blazers head coach Terry Stotts commended Anthony on ESPN Radio’s Spain and Company, according to Wojnarowski’s report: “He’s been the breath of fresh air for us that we needed.”
In eight games as the Blazers’ starting power forward, Anthony is averaging 16.9 points and 5.9 rebounds in 31 minutes a night. He is shooting a stellar 44.8% from the floor, including 38.7% from deep on 3.9 attempts per game. Portland is 4-4 since enlisting ‘Melo.
Anthony’s comeback has not gone unnoticed around the NBA. His fellow 2003 draftee, LeBron James (taken No. 1 to Melo’s No. 3 selection), commented to The Athletic’s Bill Oram and Jason Quick that Anthony’s resilient performance in Portland has been “a beautiful thing. Beautiful thing. Only the strong survive.”
Back to his All-Star form!
As long as he plays like an All-Star against the Lakers on Friday.
He doesn’t even need to be All-star form. The fact that he accepted a role, is positively contributing to his team, and focusing on the game instead of the noise has been refreshing.
Although his game isn’t considered optimal for the style of play nowadays, it’s undeniable he has basketball skills that can be utilized. I love how he has slowly quieted his critics. You go, Melo!
So happy his money is guaranteed! And his team gets reimbursed oh boy. It helps to be a vet when the CBA gets written.
Lakers should have picked him up– James wants to be in the backcourt anyway. But maybe Melo would not be so humble in that case.
Melo probably didn’t want to be under LeBron’s thumb.
Melo said he was hoping for an offer from the Lakers
Good for him he worked hard for it….. his homies didn’t help him get back in the game sad
Give this time to breathe. IMO his ego will get in the way here
A 45% FG pct is not bad, but I wouldn’t call it “stellar”. Carmelo is playing well in the last few games, but he is still a terrible defender in a pretty bad defensive team. He might be unplayable against teams with a dominant PF. Also when Nurk and Zach get healthy, his playing time should probably drop. Let’s see how he takes that in. If he accepts a more limited role as someone that provides a scoring punch off the bench, this will be indeed a good signing. But that’s a big “if”.
Poor Blazers can’t catch a break. :(