I’ve been banging the “C’MON SOMEONE SIGN CARMELO ANTHONY ALREADY” drum for a while, and that hasn’t changed.
And now, there seems like some reported movement on that front, although we’ll see if that turns into an actual signing for the future Hall of Famer and veteran scorer.
“The Brooklyn Nets remain interested in potentially signing Anthony, who recently trained with a group of their players in Los Angeles, including Kyrie Irving,” wrote Frank Isola in The Athletic. “In fact, one source told The Athletic that Irving and Kevin Durant, who both joined the Nets in July, are ‘pushing’ the club to sign Anthony.”
This actually makes a ton of sense for Brooklyn for a variety of reasons. Here are a few.
1. The Nets are extremely deep
This is a team that now has a second unit’s worth of talent if you count Wilson Chandler (more on that in a second) with him, Spencer Dinwiddie, Garrett Temple, Rodions Kurucs and Jarrett Allen. That means you could throw Anthony into the mix and not have to depend on him too much, and Kenny Atkinson can find a mix of players to surround him with to help on defense, which Melo struggles with.
2. Kevin Durant is out a while and Chandler is suspended
Chandler was given a 25-game ban after testing positive for PEDs, and Durant is on the mend from his Achilles tear. So there’s certainly room on a young team for Anthony to play.
3. Irving and Durant reportedly want him
Read above. If the new stars want Anthony, that’s huge. Then it’s not just on the team should Anthony fizzle out and not fit in well. It also puts some of the onus of getting Anthony to fit in on Irving as the point guard and centerpiece of the East contenders, and maybe after what happened in Boston, he wants to prove he can be a leader.
4. They’re in the same city as the Knicks
I said back in February that there were clear reasons it was Nets over Knicks as a free-agent destination. In this case, it’s a factor because Anthony might have extra motivation to make one more run in the city where he fell short.
So DO IT, Brooklyn.
