2. Carmelo Anthony
Still searching for the right fit, Carmelo Anthony has somewhat surprisingly remained unsigned two weeks into the 2022-23 campaign. In what was meant to be the 20th season of his career, a massive achievement in its own right, Carmelo is instead left wondering if he’ll even get to play at all.
If there’s a reason teams seem wary, it certainly isn’t due to a lack of ability while on the court. Anthony averaged 13.3 points and 4.2 rebounds per game as a bench player last season on the Lakers. He served as almost exclusively a 3-point maestro, with 54.9% of all his shot attempts coming from beyond the arc. He filled this role admirably well, which resulted in Carmelo posting a career-high in true shooting and several other shooting split metrics.
Carmelo Anthony could be a 3-point sniper for a team like the Chicago Bulls.
Before Javonte Green and Derrick Jones Jr. began tearing opposing teams up off the bench, I was at least vaguely intrigued at the prospect of signing Carmelo when the Chicago Bulls were named as potential suitors back in September.
Since then, however, it feels like there are not nearly enough minutes in a game to allocate a fair amount of play time to each of Patrick Williams, Green, and Jones Jr. Adding Carmelo to the mix, interesting as it may be, would only serve to further complicate things.
So while I do believe Carmelo has a little left in the tank and can genuinely help a contending team in the right role, the Bulls would be wise to steer clear here and allow their current core to continue building positive momentum.