Nineteen-year veteran Carmelo Anthony is still without a team, and it's unclear if he'll ever play in the NBA again. One thing that does seem certain, however, is that if he does make another comeback it will not be with the New York Knicks.
According to Steve Popper of Newsday, the franchise does not believe Anthony would be a good fit:
Unlike the Phil Jackson era, when the front office tried to run Anthony out of town, his long-time agent, Rose, is running the show. His son, Kyan, is playing ball locally at Christ the King High School. So could he make one last farewell run through Madison Square Garden? Probably not. Anthony has been without a job this season, the second time this has happened to him in recent years. The first time, he resurrected his career in Portland and then helped out the Lakers. But based on one Knicks source, the indications are that Anthony would not fit the style the Knicks are trying to play — namely defense.
This is not the first time that Anthony has struggled to find a new home in the league later in his career. He did not play for an entire calendar year from November 2018 to November of 2019 before eventually signing with the Portland Trail Blazers in the middle of the 2019-20 season. There, he created a second act as a spot-up stretch forward and had some strong 3-point shooting seasons with the Blazers and the Los Angeles Lakers.
There's little doubt he could still knock down open shots, and he still may end up signing somewhere later this season. However, as the league becomes younger and more athletic, and the need for versatile defenders who can switch and chase opponents all over the floor increases, Anthony's deficiencies in the non-scoring aspects of the game stand out even more. He never excelled as a defender and is even worse on that side of the ball at this stage of his career.
When he was sitting out a few years ago, it seemed like just a matter of timing and situation for him to get back in the game. Now 38 years old, however, it does feel like we may have seen the last of Anthony in the NBA. If so, he'll go down as one of the greatest scorers of his generation.
