Carmelo Anthony has yet to sign with an NBA team and training camps start next month, prompting questions over whether his NBA career has come to an end.
Anthony played just 10 games for the Houston Rockets last season before he was traded in January to the Chicago Bulls, who waived him. No team signed him for the rest of the season and he's currently a free agent.
Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter went on FOX Sports 1 show "First Things First" on Wednesday morning and made the case for why Anthony can still be valuable to an NBA team.
Kanter does have a point from a scoring perspective. Anthony has played 16 years and averaged less than 15 points per game only once -- last season in 10 games. The problem with Anthony on offense is he takes too many shots and doesn't shoot well from 3-point range. He hasn't converted on 36 percent of better of his 3-point attempts since 2013-14, and he's averaged 19.1 shot attempts per game over his career. 'Melo also isn't a great defensive player -- he's never averaged one block and one steal per game in the same season.
Another issue with Anthony is fit. He hasn't seemed very willing, even in the later stages of his career, to be a role player off the bench. If he was willing to accept a lesser role for about 10 minutes per game, maybe he would find a job. But he's no longer the type of player who starts games or plays 20-plus minutes each night.
Anthony has enjoyed a stellar career, and when you combine his international success (three Olympic gold medals), college basketball success (a national title at Syracuse) and NBA success, you can make a strong case he belongs in the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame. Making a case for Anthony playing a meaningful role in the NBA during the 2019-20 is a much more difficult task.
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