Carmelo Anthony 2008-09 exit interview
by Nate Timmons on Jun 2, 2009 5:31 PM MDT
in News and Opinion
11 comments
With the closing of the season each player goes through an exit interview process with the coaching staff … so I figured I would do the same here on Pickaxe. We’ll be going through the Nuggets entire roster. We’re going to start at the Nuggets most popular spot … small forward.
So, let’s get to it … I’ll be discussing small forward: Carmelo Anthony first. We'll go over each player’s contract status, what they bring on the floor, what they lacked, and what their role should be with the team going forward.
Some quick lingo that you’ll see in these player profiles:
Player Option: Player can opt out of final year of contract to become a Free Agent.
Team Option: The team can choose to not pick up the final year of a player’s contract and thus make them a free agent.
Qualifying Offer: "In order to make their free agent a restricted free agent, a team must submit a qualifying offer to the player by June 30. The qualifying offer ensures that the team does not gain the right of first refusal without also offering a contract themselves." –NBA Salary Cap FAQ
Unrestricted Free Agent: Player is free to sign with any team he chooses.
Restricted Free Agent: Player can sign an offer sheet with any team he chooses. The Nuggets then have 7 days to match the offer and retain the player.
For a great explanation on how Restricted Free Agency works see this link and go to question 36. This will come in handy because both Linas Kleiza and Johan Petro are RFAs. You can also read up on all sorts of other Salary Cap FAQs by clicking this link. Enjoy … some interesting stuff.
Let's get to Melo ... just follow the jump.
Carmelo Anthony: 6’8’’, 230 lbs. Will turn 26 years-old in May 2010.
Contract Status: Melo is under contract for 3 more seasons with Denver (Melo’s final season is a player option one that he can choose to opt out of) and is owed roughly $51.5 million from the Nuggets.
Melo is often at his best when he's
showing off his smile.
Overview of Melo’s 2008-09 season:
66 regular season games – 2nd lowest of his career. Lowest came during the brawl in New York season (2006-07) when Melo appeared in just 65 games.
22.8 ppg and 34.4 minutes per game (2nd fewest of his career). Melo hadn’t scored less than 25.7 ppg since the 2004-05 season.
Shooting:
Melo’s average shooting night: 8.1/18.3 … right around his career mark of 8.7/18.9
FG: 44.3% (down from 49.2% last season). Could be attributed to elbow issues throughout the season.
FT: 79.3% … (up from 78.6% last season). Melo averaged 7.2 free throws per game.
3pt: 37.1% = career high (63-170)
Rebounding: Averaged 6.8 rpg … 1.6 offensive and 5.2 defensive. Last season Melo averaged 7.4 rpg, but in his career Melo is averaging 6.1 rpg – 2 offensive and 4.1 defensive.
Assists: Averaged 3.4 assists per game … averaged 3.4 apg last season and 3.1 apg in his career.
Positives / What he brings: Carmelo is among the best scorers in the league. He can get points in all facets of the game. Melo has made a career setting up high on the elbow on the offensive end and going to work from there. However, Melo is most effective when he’s attacking from the top of the key as he has multiple options from that spot on the floor. He’s vastly improved his three-point shooting and is even showing improvement at the free throw line. Melo has shown he can be a surprisingly good passer out of double-teams and has continues to show improvement in his ball handling skills.
In the 2008-09 season Melo’s biggest improvement has been his professionalism. Symbolically, when Melo shaved off his trademark corn-rows his transformation to being all business was complete. Melo’s willingness to share the spotlight on offense and improved focus on the defensive end (especially with defensive rebounding) has helped transform him into a more complete player. Melo is now entering the prime years of his career and his game should take another leap next season.
Negatives / What needs to improve: Melo still has a tendancy to fall out of the limelight. In the first two games of the Western Conference Finals he averaged 36.5 ppg. In the last four games Melo averaged 23 ppg. While 23 ppg is nothing to scoff at, and he may have been a bit more hurt or sick than he led many to believe, there is still a bit of inconsistency in Melo’s game. I’d like to see his decision making continue to improve when he gets doubled by making quicker decisions about how to attack (drive, shoot, or pass). And when Melo does attack he needs to finish plays strong and make his opposition pay at the foul line. Melo must improve his free throw shooting. He’s the star of the team and has one of the sweetest shots in the NBA … shooting just a C+ at the free throw line is not acceptable. Melo missed 97 free throws this season and that number should be significantly less next year as Melo should aim to shoot 85% or better from the charity stripe.
While his defensive focus is better than it has ever been, Anthony must continue his defensive work. As a team Denver must get better with defensive rotations and Melo is no exception. While it’s extrememly tiring to play both ends of the floor, I’ll use the "Well if Michael Jordan did it …" argument here. Superstars are called just that for a reason and I think Melo is getting ever so close to entering that conversation.
Notice Linas Kleiza in this photo?
Outlook for the 2009-10 season: Melo wont be logging heavy basketball minutes this offseason with Team USA, so he should be nice and rested come November. A key stat: Melo logged his fewest regular season minutes of his career this past season with just 2,277 minutes played, but the 16 post-season games evened that out.
Expect to see the best version of Carmelo Anthony yet. At 25 years-old we will see his game grow even more as he enters his 7th NBA season. Melo is entering the prime of his career and now that he has tasted playoff success he will be even hungrier to take yet another step.
Not a bad year though ... a gold medal at the Olympics and advancing to within two games of the NBA Finals ... just 6 wins away from a championship.
ntimmons73@yahoo.com
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Defense and Posting Up
Melo dealt with some nagging injuries and a low FG% but still probably had the most growth out of the last 3 seasons. His offense creates for everyone else, and with the 3pt shot he developed it’s extremely difficult to guard him. Another year with Chauncey in this system should only solidify his role as creator of most of the offense.
The 3pt shooting is great but midrange should be his primary weapon. We need to get him the ball in the middle of the floor and down in the post because he’s played extremely tough in those areas. Melo has bought into the defensive system and with a little more polish and some more post game he will be completely unstoppable next year. We need to surround him with defensive players and 3 point shooters and there’s no reason he couldn’t be an All-Star or MVP caliber player
by runningdonut on Jun 3, 2009 1:57 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs
I'm pretty much in agreement with what you guys said.
I’d like to see him work on the defense, and then just work out the kinks in his all around game.
"A spaceman. That’s what they say I am."
by Tempestuous Binary on Jun 3, 2009 6:46 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs
Melo is our future. He needs to keep doing what he’s doing and I think he’ll win a championship in Denver. I am incredibly impressed with his maturity and improvement on defense this past season. I think he finally gets what the NBA is all about…hard work, consistency, and perseverance. I’m glad he’s a Nug and hope he stays a Nug for a long time. btw…the haircut was key!
"C" is for Championship...that's good enough for meeeee!!!
by PosterNutbag on Jun 3, 2009 12:19 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs
He needs to work on the same thing every other Nugget needs to work on this offseason...
And that is how to properly double-team a guy, play a zone defense, and provide proper help defense. When the Nuggets played 1-on-1 D they were spectacular (with a few exceptions), but the moment they tried to pull something new out of the hat they flopped. Melo didn’t commit to double in the last game and left an easy pass for Kobe and a wide-open shot for whoever Melo was supposed to guard. Not just Melo had this problem.
That must improve.
I will say that I LOVED to see him on the offensive glass in the series against the Lakers and I think that he could be a beast if he utilized that more this next season.
And Nate, make sure you allow us to vet the coaches as well — GK has some work to do himself.
by NuggBuckets on Jun 3, 2009 4:16 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs
Oh ya...G.K. will have an exit interview as well.
Might save him for last.
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by Nate Timmons on Jun 4, 2009 8:49 AM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
I tend to agree with you Nate
He definately had something affecting him the last four games, he was not the same player and was not as quick or physical as he had been, definately wasn’t as aggressive. I would like to see him work on his all around game, I think he could be a little better on the defensive boards and one on one defense, I think he is pretty good offensively, maybe needs to take a page out of Kobe’s book and learn to pass off the drive to the open guy, but I think he is as dangerouos a scorer there is in the game today.
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by Broncoman on Jun 3, 2009 7:49 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs
The Lakers series left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth
And I really believe it had to do with Meloman. I truly believe he was injured because he is probably the best mid range jump shooter in the league besides Kobe. And his shot was not falling in the final four games. But what I really thought killed us was our team D and Melo was one of the primary reasons the Lakers got so many easy buckets in the final 5 quarters of the season. Melo needs to make a better commitment to defense this next season. By all means he got better this past year but we all know he is special, he just has to work harder on his Defense and it will spread throughout the team. Also what is the deal with Nene? We really need his presence down on the low block posting up and for him to take it strong to the hole and throw it down. Sometimes he does but mostly he doesnt. We are a strong year from Nene away from winning a title. Either Nene steps up or we need to look for a low block post up presence.
by wangstu13 on Jun 4, 2009 11:23 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs
I think a lot of the blame for poor defense falls on GK. We were fairly successful guarding the Lakers in the first three or four games of the series and then they inexplicably changed to doubling Kobe and Gasol to a disastrous effect. That is not how we played defense all year and we were clearly confused and our of sync doing it. I can’t understand why they made the change or why they didn’t change back once it was clear that it wasn’t working.
"C" is for Championship...that's good enough for meeeee!!!
by PosterNutbag on Jun 4, 2009 12:36 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
What I want to see
1) I want Carmelo and Hess to work on his legs. Carmelo seems to have lost alot of lift this year. He is averaging 1 less dunk PER GAME this year and has struggled to finish near the rim with contact. The reason Why LeBron finishes so well with contact is because of the extra time he gets in the air aswell as his aim to score (instead of an aim to create contact like Melo)
2)Melo also has slow feet and bad footwork, I think this is the only thing stopping him being a better defender of Wing players. He plays his best defense against players who attempt to post him up, he also plays passing lanes and denying the ball well. He is lost when his attacker puts the ball on the floor.
3)I also want Melo to learn from his friend and channel his inner Kobe. He needs to tell his team when he isnt getting enough touches (eg game 1 wcf). He also needs to call out his teammates on some of the knuckleheaded plays that Jones/Nene/Smith/Martin have perfected. Way too many wasted possesions, stupid fouls and technicals. None of the Lakers would get away with that, because of the discipline from the Coach and their best player (kobe). Melo is in the best position for this as a veteran and friend to all the players on the team.
by WhaHuh on Jun 5, 2009 11:51 AM MDT reply actions 1 recs
I've felt Melo has lot some explosion and lift as well.
I know he’s not a 19 year old kid anymore, but he sure seems to have become heavy on his feet. Great point that he needs to work on his lift.
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by Nate Timmons on Jun 5, 2009 12:37 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
+
I also hope he has surgery on those bone spurs in his elbow
I also want to see him initiate the offense more next season but this might be in the George Karl exit interview.
by WhaHuh on Jun 5, 2009 12:01 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs
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