Carmelo Anthony’s decline on offense and defense will spell the end to his career

Carmelo Anthony’s NBA career is likely over, and his decline on offense and defense is the culprit

Carmelo Anthony is one of the greatest players in NBA history. He is a future Hall of Famer, and one of the best scorers in our generation of basketball.

We all know this. No one is denying those facts. But despite being so individually accomplished, why can’t Melo make an NBA team?

Despite all of Melo’s accolades, there are three things holding him back from being signed to another NBA team. No matter how hard Melo tries, he most likely will not be able to get past these obstacles. With that in mind, the chances of him playing another minute in the NBA are very slim.

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As said earlier, Melo used to be one of the best offensive players in the NBA. However, the past two seasons have shown that Melo isn’t nearly as good as he once was on offense. He is an inefficient, iso-heavy scorer, and relies on the mid-range jump shot far too much.

Melo can still space the floor with catch-and-shoot threes, but that is the only part of his offensive game that NBA teams would want. Melo is a very poor passer and has proven to be incapable of making his teammates better.

Furthermore, Melo has also suffered a steep decline on defense and overall athleticism. He is 35 years old, which does have a lot to do with his fall-off in those areas. Melo was never that good of a defender in his career. Even in his prime, he was average at best. The only reason he was viewed as a superstar was because of his offense.

The past two seasons have shown that Melo is one of the worst defenders in the NBA, if not the worst. He can’t guard a single position consistently and is frequently beat in one-on-one situations. However, it is not just his on-ball defense that is bad. Melo’s off-ball defense is also very lackluster. Despite being in the NBA for 16 years, Melo does not know what he is doing off-ball, making him an easy target for offenses to attack.

Along with being a declined skillset, Melo’s presence has proven to be a distraction that teams do not want to deal with. There is nothing Melo can do to prevent this, but the media will fixate themselves on him as much as possible. Jerry Colangelo declined Melo’s request to join Team USA for the FIBA World Cup because of this very reason.

"[via SI.com]“I love Carmelo,” Jerry Colangelo said. “He made a great contribution. He was a very good international player. But for where we are and what we’re doing, that conceivably could have been a distraction. I understand why the request was made. He’s trying to reestablish himself. I think that has to be done in the [NBA].”"

When you combine all of these factors, you get an NBA player that is bad on offense, terrible on defense, and a distraction. No team would want to associate themselves with him, which is why he hasn’t been signed yet.

Despite everything I just said, Carmelo Anthony has had a prolific career and is a basketball legend. No one can take that away from him. But despite his elite resume, no NBA teams are majorly interested in signing Melo. This is really sad, but it seems that the basketball career of Carmelo Anthony is over.