Fansided

Carmelo Anthony was depressing to watch in Game 4

By Jason Patt

SALT LAKE CITY, UT - APRIL 23: Carmelo Anthony #7 of the Oklahoma City Thunder looks on during the game against the Utah Jazz in Game Four of Round One of the 2018 NBA Playoffs on April 23, 2018 at vivint.SmartHome Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY, UT - APRIL 23: Carmelo Anthony #7 of the Oklahoma City Thunder looks on during the game against the Utah Jazz in Game Four of Round One of the 2018 NBA Playoffs on April 23, 2018 at vivint.SmartHome Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Hope permeated around the Oklahoma City Thunder after they acquired Paul George and Carmelo Anthony last offseason. The George trade seemed like a heist at the time, while visions of “Olympic Melo” and “Hoodie Melo” danced in the heads of fans and analysts alike.

Fast-forward to the present, and things are unraveling for Oklahoma City. The Thunder are in a 3-1 series hole against the feisty Utah Jazz after a 113-96 shellacking in Game 4, a game in which Anthony really looked his age throughout a painful performance.

Melo has had his moments in OKC, but mostly he looks like a guy in his 15th season with a ton of miles on his body. While LeBron James has spoiled us with continued dominance into his 15th year, Anthony is following the path of normal players by steadily declining as he heads into his mid-30s.

Read More: Jazz dominate Thunder in chippy Game 4

Monday’s game was a perfect snapshot of that decline. Anthony jacked up 18 shots in 36 minutes and made only five of them en route to 11 points. He missed all six of his 3-point attempts, including this sad air ball in the second quarter:

All of Melo’s 3-point attempts in Game 4 were reasonably good catch-and-shoot opportunities, but only one came anywhere close to going in. He’s now shooting 23.1 percent from long distance in the playoffs, including a brutal 20 percent on catch-and-shoot triples, per NBA.com. This after he shot a league average 36.1 percent overall from 3 in the regular season, including 37.3 percent on catch-and-shoot 3s.

While Melo struggles to cash in from deep, he isn’t faring that much better inside the arc. His athletic decline keeps him from getting to the basket like he used to, and the lack of explosion makes it more difficult for him to finish around the rim. While he did have one nice finish over Rudy Gobert in Game 4, he also offered up this ugly sequence:

This point-blank miss wasn’t much better:

Anthony hasn’t been a prolific finisher around the bucket for quite some time, but now he’s getting there less and less (just 20 percent of his shots came inside the paint in the regular season) and he barely draws fouls. His free-throw rate dipped to a career-low .165 this season, and he has only attempted nine free throws in this series, compared to 59 field goal attempts. He’s shooting 37.3 percent from the field.

Defensively, Anthony still has quick hands and can make the occasional play, but opponents know they can attack him because his lateral movement has diminished.

Watch Donovan Mitchell roast Melo on this pick-and-roll:

On this next play, Melo had no chance out on an island against Mitchell:

Now, Anthony is certainly not the only one to blame for the predicament the Thunder find themselves in. Given the expectations, Russell Westbrook has been even worse than Melo in this series, with Westbrook’s Game 4 performance reaching embarrassing levels as he lost his cool.

But Melo has been more depressing because we’re watching a once-great player lose his ability to make a major impact in real time. It’s not that he’s not trying; he just can’t bring it like he once could.

This doesn’t mean Melo is completely washed. Yes, he’s washed in terms of being a big-minute impact guy, which is what the Thunder are asking him to be right now. But he can still provide value in a smaller role on a smaller contract.

The problem for Oklahoma City is Melo’s $27.9 million option for next season. There’s little reason to believe he doesn’t opt in given his decline on the court. If George leaves, the Thunder could be in a real tough spot next year with a capped-out roster that’s mediocre at best. There are ways out of Melo’s contract even if he opts in, but a trade seems laughable and a buyout/stretch situation would still have an effect on the cap sheet.

Perhaps Anthony can redeem himself in this series. It’s not over yet, and crazier things have happened in the NBA.

However, the Jazz have looked like the flat-out better team, not to mention the more poised one. Their rugged defense makes it difficult on Anthony and Co. to find a rhythm.

Next: 30 best NBA players who never won a championship

One last enduring sequence of Game 4 came when Anthony tried posting up on two consecutive possessions after a Joe Ingles 3-pointer made it a 21-point bloodbath. Melo got one contested fadeaway to fall and didn’t get the ball on the other post-up, but that struggle on the block as the Jazz were raining fire was a microcosm of the hopelessness of the situation for the 33-year-old and the Thunder.

Home/NBA Playoffs