Carmelo Anthony season review – Aging superstar at career precipice

Carmelo Anthony had an interesting season with the OKC Thunder if nothing else. Will it be his last in Oklahoma City?

As he continues to let us know, Carmelo Anthony is a specific kind of player. He believes that he is at his best when he is playing the way he has always played. Aside from an admirable scoring average and fat paychecks, where has that gotten him in his career?

This season’s OKC Thunder team was very different from last year’s squad. The main reasons being the additions of Carmelo Anthony and Paul George. A period to gel was expected, but having a nearly identical season to last year was not.

First let us examine how Carmelo played into all of this statistically:

• Melo’s 15th season in the league marked the first time he averaged less than 20 points per game – 16.2. Not a bad figure for an OKC starter, but not up to Melo’s standards either.
• 32 minutes per game were also a career low, by two minutes per contest.
• Anthony average 3.2 assists in his full seasons with the Knicks. For the OKC Thunder, that number dipped by about 41 percent to 1.3 playing alongside Russell Westbrook & company.

• His turnovers dipped to a career low 1.3 also, another sign of the basketball not being in his hands as much as he is used to.
• More career lows in field goal and free throw percentage, as the volume scorer struggled to establish rhythm in his new role.