1. Prior to this year, he was a star or better in only one out of four playoff series, the 2007 Nuggets-Spurs series. This year, so far at least, he has broken out of that great regular seasons followed by miserable post seasons box.
2. Prior to this year, Carmelo Anthony was willing to defer too much to other offensive players, such as Allen Iverson last year. This year, tired of all the playoff flameouts of prior years, Anthony has decided he isn’t going to defer to anyone, that he is going to become the power scorer in the playoffs that he clearly was meant to be. He was not willing to play an equal or inferior role to Chauncey Billups or anyone else in this year in the playoffs.
3. Prior to this year, he was willing to believe in George Karl as an offensive Coach. That started to come to an end a year ago when against the Lakers Melo correctly concluded that the Nuggets quit in the playoffs and that George Karl was the most important reason for that quitting. At this point, it is clear he has realized that Karl is a very good defensive Coach but is not a very good offensive Coach, which is absolutely true.
Did Chauncey Billups explain this stuff to Carmelo Anthony? I couldn’t tell you, but I tend to doubt it.
So the Nuggets, with their aggressive, hard fouling, bulldog defense, and the classic, power scoring Carmelo Anthony snag game two in the 2009 West finals against the Lakers in Los Angeles, and go back to Denver still holding on to the title of America’s most amazing basketball team in years, probably many years. The Nuggets and the Lakers are tied one game each in their best of seven games series.
Completely raw and unedited but accurate game notes are here. Don't expect careful sentence structure or perfect spelling in that game commentary there.
Quest for the Ring has been learning some new things from this improbable run of the Nuggets, many of which have been reported recently. The latest thing we have learned is that if you know a player is smarter than he appears, just wait for a year or two and sooner or later he will surprise or maybe even shock you. Just like in non-sports situations, there are NBA players who “play dumb” for various reasons.
Carmelo Anthony has been enjoying an extended childhood and playing dumb for the past few years, for so long that I was more and more thinking that he might actually be dumb. But give me credit; I never actually concluded that he was dumb; I will never again waste any time in the future thinking he might be dumb.
You have been a sly, deceptive, and crafty one, Melo, lurking in the background, assuming or at least appearing to assume Karl knew what he is doing for too long and waiting to prove him and everyone else wrong when the time was just right to do so, when there was enough defense on your team, combined with your offense, to actually win playoff games, including one in Los Angeles no less. By doing it this dramatic way, you can make up for most of the stupid statements that have been made about you for many years in one foul swoop.
Melo is now in effect manipulating the media almost as well as Obama does.
The last few years have been like the ultimate pump fake: Carmelo Anthony pump faked out the entire sports world, laugh out loud.
SELFISH PLAYERS?
Rather often you see people refer to the concept of a “selfish” basketball player. For example, almost all of the Iverson haters refer to him as being a selfish player. One of the reasons I have been investigating the Iverson mess is that it was obvious to me from early on that this is a dubious concept.
Saying it is dubious is too generous actually. Learn this well kiddies: there is almost no such thing as a “selfish basketball player” in the NBA. (I would expect that it is more possible to have a selfish player at the high school level, but I can assure you that a selfish high school player is never going to get close to the NBA.) Remember for the future, every time you post on the internet that this or that NBA player is a selfish player, you are making a fool out of yourself.
As an aside, will all the highly paid TV announcers please stop using the word “chippy” to describe games with a lot of fouls, contact, and raised tempers? That word is goofy to say the least. But I digress.
Players who take a lot of shots don’t do so for the hell of it or because they are selfish. They meet numerous preconditions for doing so….
Players who take scoring seriously are invariably players who have better track records than other players at heavily scoring the ball. They have higher scoring percentages over the years. They have a greater versatility in how they can score. They have spent more time in the gym practicing shots than other players have. They have the skills to make a lot of shots, and just as importantly, different kinds of shots. They have in games an ability to maintain some degree of balance between different types of shooting. They have the mindset that they will take responsibility for losing a game if they don’t choose their shots well and/or if they miss too many shots.
There aren’t that many players in existence who meet all those qualifications, but they are extremely important for winning pro playoff games. While there are fools who call such players “selfish,” I call players such as this “power scorers”.
Any player who does not meet those qualifications will not game after game take too many shots. Players with even half a brain know that if they do that they will be more and more benched and eventually they will be out of the League. If a younger player is taking too many shots, the coach simply informs him that he is not qualified to take as many shots as he is taking, and I can guarantee you that the player will reduce his shooting after that.
As has been stated many times at Quest, it is much easier to win playoff games with a power scorer than without one. This could not be more obvious than this year, when now that Carmelo Anthony has thrown Karl’s theory that no one should heavily dominate scoring out the window and has joined the other three power scorers on the final four playoff teams of 2009:
1. Cleveland Cavaliers: LeBron James
2. Orlando Magic: Dwight Howard
3. Los Angeles Lakers: Kobe Bryant
4. Denver Nuggets: Carmelo Anthony
Wow, that is good company.
Carmelo Anthony has finally proved Karl was wrong about him when Karl claimed that Anthony would never be able to challenge for a Championship from the power scoring mode. I’ll be damned if he is not challenging for a Championship as a power scorer right here and now.
Last year Carmelo Anthony realized that Karl does not have all the answers for winning playoff games.
This year he decided to provide some of the answers himself.
So it turns out there is a little Che Guevara in Carmelo Anthony after all, a little bit of a rebel.
Now the next question is can Anthony continue to jab step the Lakers into the dust?
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