The Houston Rockets are parting ways with Carmelo Anthony, and head coach Mike D’Antoni has weighed in on the decision:
“We tried to hit a home run and it didn’t work out,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said about Carmelo Anthony.
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpearsESPN) November 15, 2018
D’Antoni continued: “The way we play probably wasn’t conducive to his game. He was trying to make the necessary sacrifices. It wasn’t fair to him as a Hall of Fame player to play in a way that wasn’t good for him, wasn’t good for us.”
— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) November 15, 2018
The Rockets were hoping that adding the future Hall of Famer would help put them over the top after they fell just short of the NBA Finals last season. But as D’Antoni noted, instead of hitting a home run, they struck out after just a 10-game partnership as Melo didn’t fit in.
It has been an excellent career for Anthony, but he is in a fast decline and having trouble adapting to the modern NBA. In his 10 games with the Rockets, the 34-year-old averaged 13.4 points, 5.4 rebounds, 0.7 blocks and 0.5 assists in 29.4 minutes per game. He shot 40.5 percent from the field and 32.8 percent from 3. Those numbers aren’t impressive, and he struggled mightily on the defensive end as well.
The Rockets have recorded two straight impressive wins without Anthony, and now with some closure, they can move on and try to focus on the rest of the season. The Rockets play the Golden State Warriors Thursday night in Houston, a tough matchup to face just hours after this Melo news came down the line. The Warriors are still missing Stephen Curry, though, which is a break for Houston as it tries to make its way back up the Western Conference standings.
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