For Carmelo Anthony and the Los Angeles Lakers, the timing was just never right.
Anthony very nearly joined the Lakers last season, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. The infamous Ivica Zubac-Mike Muscala deal had freed up a roster spot at the trade deadline, and his friendship with LeBron James would have theoretically helped the fit. But a string of losses that eventually knocked them out of playoff contention forced both sides to reconsider. The Lakers didn’t need another distraction. Anthony likely realized that boarding a sinking ship would capsize his chances of landing on a roster this season.
He was not so discerning over the summer. He was desperate enough to plead his case to the league and its fans directly during a telling interview on First Take, but the one line he never crossed was personal. “As far as LeBron goes, it’s something we’ve talked about since we were in high school,” Anthony told Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN on his interest in joining the Lakers. “It wasn’t in his power. Some people might say it was in his power. But it’s not something that I was calling him and talking to him about, asking him, ‘Can you do this for me?’ [But] I would’ve never put him in that position because a lot of times it’s deeper than that, and I started understanding the business of basketball.”
If James could have made Anthony a Laker, he likely would have. But the Lakers weren’t interested for the same reasons 29 other teams weren’t interested. Carmelo doesn’t play defense. His offensive numbers had also declined sharply. To that point, he’d shown no interest in altering his game to reflect his age.
Frankly, he still hasn’t, but the Portland Trail Blazers have adjusted their orbit around him to remarkable effect. Through eight games in Portland, Anthony is averaging an efficient 16.9 points per game while at least offering a shred of effort defensively. In the end, all parties involved are happy with how this played out. The 19-3 Lakers hardly need to concern themselves with a minimum contract they didn’t offer. The Blazers are back in the playoff hunt thanks in large part to that move. But as Anthony gears up for his first game against the Lakers in a Blazers uniform, it’s hard not to wonder what might have been.
After all, the Lakers have one major hole, and this version of Carmelo might have been able to fix it. While James and Anthony Davis are averaging over 51 points per game combined, only one other Laker is averaging in double figures. That would be the notoriously inconsistent Kyle Kuzma at 11.1 points per game. For all of his faults, Anthony never fails to get his points. He’s been held to single-figures only once this season.
Those points would come in handy during the minutes James needs to sit, when the Laker offense typically craters. Their lack of a consistent second ball-handler allows Davis to fall victim to some of his worst impulses. If nothing else, a contested mid-range jumper from Anthony is more valuable than one from Davis. Even if not, his presence could have nudged the Lakers’ star big man closer to the basket, where he is most effective.
You could hardly ask for a better team to cover Anthony’s defensive weaknesses than this one. Teams might not be so inclined to drive past him if their reward was a date with Davis, JaVale McGee or Dwight Howard at the basket. So long as Anthony did his part closing out on shooters, protecting him defensively wouldn’t have been much harder than hiding Kuzma has been.
But Kuzma and Anthony would likely be incompatible with one another. Both are playing at least 96 percent of their minutes at power forward this season, per pro-basketball reference. That is Davis’ preferred position, and McGee and Howard aren’t exactly ceding minutes at center. With LeBron to consider as well, forward minutes are scarce. Anthony couldn’t start if Davis and James continued to insist upon a true center. He’s made his feelings on a potential bench role quite clear in the past, but on this roster, even that wouldn’t be a guarantee. Jared Dudley isn’t in the rotation, and the Lakers consciously chose him over Anthony in free agency.
Even if they hadn’t, it’s hard to imagine James and Davis making the sacrifices for Anthony that Damian Lillard has. Portland’s franchise player has taken only 15 shots per game since joining Carmelo, down from 19.9 prior to his arrival. The two don’t occupy similar areas of the court. Anthony and Davis do, and the former likely wouldn’t be thriving if he were jostling for baseline jumpers against the latter.
It is a testament to the circumstance that Anthony has played as well as he has in Portland. The Blazers were able to accommodate him in ways that 29 other teams, the Lakers included, were not, and it is why league-wide regret over passing him by is likely limited. Both sides are in better shape than they ever could have imagined together. The timing wasn’t right for the Lakers in March. It wasn’t over the summer. And it still wouldn’t be now.
