Gimme 10! Player Profile – Carmelo Anthony

The Closest Thing to D in Denver

We tried to get a picture of Carmelo playing defense. Honestly we did.  All jokes aside, there are two things missing from Carmelo Anthony’s impressive skill set, defense and leadership. He has had a roller coaster ride of a life the past few months (a lousy trip to the playoffs, a DUI, an Olympic gold medal), but we have faith that Carmelo is finally going to get it going on both ends.

Why do we believe in Melo? We think he is desperate. Denver was by far the worst defensive team in the playoffs, despite having arguably the best defender in league (Marcus Camby) as a starter. Now Mr. Camby is gone to the Clippers so if Denver’s wings do not step up and defend, they can kiss the playoffs goodbye.

It is that simple, and it starts with Melo. When he came into the league with LeBron James and Dwayne Wade, many argued Anthony was the best of the three. Five years later, he is the only one who has not taken his team to the NBA Finals. As with last year, his team is more talented this year than that of his classmen, but the window is closing fast in Denver. That super talented team needs someone to step up in the locker room and on the court and address the pink, no-d playing elephant in the room.

Did we mention Carmelo needs to be a leader? Certainly we all make mistakes and we all want to forgive Melo’s DUI as well as some of his on the court antics, but he needs to give us a reason to do so.

Carmelo Anthony is a scoring machine. After watching him torch every set of nylons in the every gym he’s been in (NBA and FIBA) tfor the last three years, that is not up for debate. Still, without some attention to keeping his opponents from scoring at will, his prolific point totals are in vain. We believe (or hope) that the defensive-mindedness of Team USA will rub off on the kid from B-More and he will in fact be more.

~ by Tizzo on October 8, 2008.