The Brooklyn Nets: Bring Carmelo Anthony Home

One of the game’s all-time scoring talents has been in Free Agent purgatory for just under a year now. It’s time for a franchise to give Carmelo Anthony one final shot, and the Brooklyn Nets may be the perfect destination.

On November 15th, 2018 the Houston Rockets abruptly told their Small Forward Carmelo Anthony that his services would no longer be required. Coming as a shock to him as well as most of the fans of the league, he’s been searching for a new home ever since. Could the Brooklyn Nets be the home he’s looking for?

The answer is both yes and no. Logistically speaking, it’d be relatively difficult for the Nets to clear the roster space, let alone the salary cap space as the roster currently stands at 17 players. However, Carmelo was born in Brooklyn. That’s what made him playing for the New York Knicks so special. (That, and for once a player actually wanting to play for the Knicks, but I digress.)

In his last two seasons, albeit not full seasons as he only played ten games for the Houston Rockets, Melo averaged 15.9 points per game, 5.8 rebounds, and 1.2 assists on .404/.353/.758 shooting splits. He is no where near the scorer he once was, and although it’s always been something held in question about his game, his defense is lacking. However for someone to assert that he’s no longer serviceable is egregious and that premise is something most would reject.

So where is the problem? Why won’t he get signed? As it was pointed out on SiriusXM NBA Radio by Chauncey Billups; “Scoring 30 (points) meant too much to Melo.)

So those comments, along with the other rhetoric thrown around about him by national media prompted Melo to go on ESPN First Take and have a sit down interview with Stephen A. Smith. The conversation lasted over thirty minutes, and for most, people thought he said all the right things.

It was important for people to see that Melo can change. That he wasn’t so enveloped in his own accolades, but in his team’s success, and that’s where it sounds like he’s at. The Brooklyn Nets are a team who can take on a perimeter shooter like Carmelo for the veteran’s minimum and have it be a mutually beneficial relationship. However it is important to note, that if it’s for anything more than the veteran’s minimum, it’s a no go. It has to be an amicable relationship in terms of both parties knowing they’re doing the other a favor.

The game has not been kind to Carmelo Anthony. It’s been regrettably forgetful, it’s been slanderous and it’s been arrogantly wrong about him. One of the greatest scorers the game has ever seen deserves a final shot, both literally and figuratively. The Brooklyn Nets are coming out of one of the greatest off-seasons the NBA has ever seen, why not keep loading up?

It’s time to bring Carmelo Anthony home.