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Who is Carmelo Anthony, really?

Olympic Melo is the platonic ideal of the NBA stretch forward: a player that can hold his own on the block, stretch the floor, and take on an efficient, low-usage offensive role. With the shorter FIBA 3-point line, surrounded by All-Star teammates and playing against inferior athletes, Carmelo Anthony has been a literal world-beater.

Hoodie Melo is different.

Hoodie Melo was honed in Baltimore parks and school gyms, a talented young player getting his own shot, pounding the ball into the high-post and lining up that sweet, high-arcing midrange jumper. If you're a shooter, you can hear the sound: the lightest of swishes, maybe with a little ring from the basket bracket. Pure.

If you've ever played, if you've ever felt that moment when you're truly cooking, when you fade back and see your opponent's face and know you have him beaten before the ball hits the bottom of the net, you understand. It's a drug. And it's one that Carmelo Anthony just can't quit.

The Thunder brought Anthony in hoping they could get him to buy into a smaller offensive role. And to give him credit, he tried. As his usage dropped, Steven Adams came to the fore, with his rim-running unlocking the court where Melo's high-post game had padlocked the paint. Billy Donovan found a couple of plays that worked with each player's skillset. The offense breathed slightly easier.

But there was always a tension there not between Melo and his teammates, but between Olympic Melo and Hoodie Melo. You could see it in every screen he slipped to pop out and in the occasional hijacked high-post possession. And it boiled over at the end of the season, when a disjointed Thunder team was blindsided by a sharp, disciplined Jazz squad in the first round of the playoffs.

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http://dailythunder.com/melos-money-means-tough-choices-for-the-thunder/

This is the perfect description of current Melo.

He's still immensely talented and probably still one of the premiere block scorers in the NBA. But he's not a good passer off the block so when the ball is fed to him, movement stops and your possession hangs in the balance of whether or not he knocks down his hand-in-face fadeaway. He's better at knocking down hand-in-face fadeaways than most players, but there's not really a place for it in today's game of scoping out high percentage twos and threes.

He's also remarkably unaware of any of that. He still seems to think of himself as a top tier player and I suppose he could still be a 23 and 10 guy. But any team that designs its offense such that Melo gets his 23 and 10 will be a very very bad team.

That doesn't even mention how bad he is in switch defense. He was horrible with help defense in OKC last year too, though I think part of that was 1) getting used to his rotations at the 4 instead of the 3 (as he had not played the 4 much in the NBA) and 2) the loss of Roberson severely hampered OKC's perimeter D...which left Melo in help situations too many times.

With that said, I was impressed with the way he handled the situation in OKC last year. He said the right things. He was willing to scale back his role. Overall he seemed like a very good dude. There's just his lingering identity crisis between 1) things he's good at and wants to do on the court and 2) things he needs to be doing if he wants to be part of an efficient offense. If he didn't have hundreds of millions in the bank, I'd probably feel bad for him haha.

If I was the Rockets, I'd probably steer clear. But I also think Houston might need to take a chance on him for the same reason why OKC took a chance on him last year. Sitting in Presti's chair before the season, he knew the team as constructed with Kanter/McDermott had no chance against Golden State. And the team with Melo instead of Kanter/McDermott likely had no chance against Golden State. But there was an upside with Olympic Melo that made it worth the gamble. It didn't pay off but it's not like the season would have turned out much different with Kanter/McDermott on the roster.

At this point, the Rockets maybe feel the need to do something to counter Boogie to Golden State. I suppose it's possible Melo (if he's willing to truly accept his new optimal role in the NBA) could help offset that. I don't see it, but Morey and D'Antoni are pretty smart dudes. Maybe they can make it work. Though I'm disappointed with how last year played out with the Thunder, I'll still root for Melo and the Rockets if for no other reason than they represent the best chance to beat Golden State.

PascalsWager said:

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Forget about a 3, someone will probably try Carmelo as a small ball 5.

For the Rockets it comes down to this question: Can Carmelo guard Draymond?

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Can Carmelo guard anyone?