Houston Rockets: 3 goals for Carmelo Anthony in 2018-19 season

2. Re-commit on defense

The weakest part of Anthony’s game has always been his defense. In the past, we’ve seen solid stretches of defense from Anthony from game-to-game, but his effort is usually lacking.

Last season, the Thunder’s defense was better by 2.7 points per 100 possessions when Anthony was on the bench. A similar trend can be found by examining the Knicks defense in Anthony’s last season in New York.

Now that Anthony is in his mid-30s, he has lost some of his lateral quickness. Add his slower feet to a lack of effort and its easy to see why a team’s defense is usually better when Anthony isn’t on the floor. Moving Melo to the power forward position will mask his poor perimeter defense, but that isn’t enough.

The Rockets switch everything in pick-and-roll situations, so if Anthony doesn’t hold his own on defense, the opposing offense will attempt to force him to switch on their guards so they can attack him. Anthony will never be an All-NBA level defender, but he’ll help the Rockets a lot if he isn’t a liability on defense.

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