Anthony unlikely to be part of solving issues
When the Rockets convened for media day and the start of training camp filled with customary optimism and uncommon championship aspirations, owner Tilman Fertitta shared the welcome message he had given Carmelo Anthony.
Anthony would be more of a role player than he had been through his career, and especially when the Rockets worked so hard to recruit him four years earlier. But few understand public perception and messaging better than Fertitta. After the meeting in which the Rockets laid out their plans for Anthony to play as a backup at power forward, Fertitta shared how success would be viewed.
“I’ll tell you exactly what I told him,” Fertitta said at media day. “‘We couldn’t win a championship without you last year. And if we win a championship with you this year, you’re going to be the guy that got us over there. So, it’s all up to you.’ ”
A dozen games into the season, however, Anthony has gone from the missing piece to just missing and increasingly unlikely to return.
Fertitta’s comments were in many ways tongue in cheek. Winning a championship was never going to be up to Anthony. The Rockets always considered adding Anthony to be something of an experiment. He cost them next to nothing, signing as a free agent for a minimum contract. His role was to be limited relative to his Hall of Fame-caliber career.
They did not think it likely that his role would run its course in 10 games, but Anthony will sit out a third consecutive game on Tuesday when the Rockets visit the Denver Nuggets, with the team citing an unspecified illness and a person with knowledge of the situation saying the Rockets “are definitely looking at everything.”
A 10-time All-Star and one of the top 20 scorers in NBA history, Anthony was never thought of as the player the Rockets tried to give a max contract to four years earlier or as a replacement for Luc Mbah a Moute or Trevor Ariza. If anything, he was to replace Ryan Anderson in the rotation. With the injuries creating opportunities for additional playing time, he has had almost exactly the playing time (29.4 minutes per game) Anderson received in his first season with the Rockets.
Just one game before his stumbling return to Oklahoma City, he was a closer, playing a key role in the Rockets’ fourth-quarter run to win in Indianapolis.
A game later, he went 1 of 11 in Oklahoma City and hasn’t played since.Coach Mike D’Antoni and general manager Daryl Morey have repeatedly said Anthony cannot be blamed for the Rockets’ struggles, with Morey calling the attention devoted to Anthony’s play “unfair.” But after that one very bad game, a game that immediately followed the Rockets’ best win of the season, he seems to have been relegated to almost no role at all.
With the offense going from the league’s best last season to 23rd after Sunday’s relative success, the Rockets have become dependent on their defense to keep them in games. Since the 1-5 start, the Rockets have had the sixth-ranked defense in the NBA, going 4-2 in that stretch. They have had the third-rated defense in the past five games.
The Rockets appear ready to increase rookie Gary Clark’s playing time to get his defensive energy and effective activity, especially in help rotations, on the floor more often. In the past five games, since Clark has played at least 21 minutes per game, the Rockets have allowed 21 fewer points per 100 possessions with him on the floor than when he was off.
Anthony could not have expected to lose playing time to a rookie that went undrafted last June and is playing with a two-way G League contract.
“We’re talking about everything — everyone’s approach, everyone’s role, every aspect right now — because obviously we’re just way off from where we thought we’d be,” Morey said.
“I’m disappointed how we’re playing, very disappointed. It starts with Tilman. Tilman’s disappointed, Mike’s disappointed, our whole roster is disappointed. But we’re getting on the right track.If you look at the shots we’re getting and the shots we’re giving up, that’s been trending up since the start of the year.”
That might indicate a great deal about where they were when the season started, especially relative to expectations. Anthony cannot be blamed for that, but if the Rockets don’t believe he can be a solution or he will not want his role reduced even further, time could have run out remarkably quickly.