Carmelo Anthony is a legend for two different franchises, the Denver Nuggets and the New York Knicks. Anthony was one of the best isolation scorers of his era, and his midrange was unrivaled. Anthony got the heavy minutes befitting of a star for most of his career; he had to score a lot, and most of the time Anthony was the best player on the floor. There were speculations on his past teams that Anthony wouldn’t want to accept a bench role.
On the Trail Blazers though, it seems like Carmelo Anthony embraces coming off the bench while still getting to be a part of the action. Plenty of stars have converted their playstyles to become the sixth man off the bench at some point in their career: Derrick Rose and Bill Walton are some examples, primarily due to injury. When questioned on coming off the bench, Anthony seemed somewhat optimistic about it. The segment starts at 2:13.
While Anthony acknowledged that it did “feel different”, he also stated that he was “at peace” with that role. Perhaps some time changed his mind about being an integral piece of the Trail Blazers bench. Carmelo is skilled enough to start: the same can be said of almost all 6th men in the league.
Carmelo Anthony’s role off the bench is fairly simple: come in and score the ball while spacing the floor well. As Anthony becomes an older veteran, that is a role that suits him perfectly. He can make a huge impact in limited minutes with his bench scoring while leaving his best for the playoffs. In the starting lineup, his skills wouldn’t be fully utilized with two other elite perimeter creators in Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum.
Carmelo is playing his best role in the best of situations. While the Trail Blazers are not the favorite for the championship, they will surely make some noise in the playoffs, with Anthony leading the way.
