It’s early September in the National Basketball Association and despite the fact that there is some great basketball being played right now over in China during the FIBA World Cup, the NBA media as a collective just can’t get enough of Carmelo Anthony. And apparently, Anthony’s camp is trying to use that as a positive for potential teams to use to their advantage as they also try to convince teams he’s been unfairly scapegoated in his last few NBA stops.
Sean Deveney of Heavy.com reported yesterday about Anthony’s camp fighting perceptions of being a problem for the locker rooms of his teams. But the most interesting aspect of the article as it pertains to the Lakers and LeBron James is how they are attempting to sell the Lakers on bringing Anthony, believing that he can help LeBron James be something of a team spokesman to keep media attention off of Anthony Davis.
Anthony is accustomed to handling those questions by now and having him in the locker room surrounded by media after games will be a positive for any of the main contenders to sign him — the Lakers, Clippers or Nets.
With the Lakers, Anthony could share spokesman’s duties with LeBron James and keep media-shy Anthony Davis from garnering unwanted attention.
While it’s an interesting move on the part of Anthony’s camp to try and flip the script on the media attention he receives actually being a positive for the rest of the team, the notion that Davis doesn’t want attention does feel a little dated. After Davis worked his way out of New Orleans and started publicly referring to himself as the CEO of his own business, it seems he is ready for his star-turn.
Also, it’s worth wondering whether that would convince the Lakers even if they had a roster spot. While Dwight Howard’s deal is non-guaranteed, he fills a need for their roster next to Davis while the best version of Anthony would be very similar to the role the Lakers are hoping to see from Kyle Kuzma.
