15 players the Rockets landed past their prime

1. Carmelo Anthony

Prime Carmelo Anthony was a professional scorer, if such a thing has ever existed. Melo was going to get his and there wasn't anything you could do to prevent it.

The Syracuse product was one of the best players in the league for well over a decade. Not to mention the fact that he was a top-ten scorer for nine years, made six All-NBA teams and was even the league's top scorer once.

Melo carried the Denver Nuggets to the Conference Finals and led the Knicks to the second seed in the East. Rockets GM Daryl Morey wanted Melo for some time and finally got him in 2018.

Just not the version that was described. 

Melo came to the Rockets hoping to be a focal point offensively, while the Rockets were hoping he could provide a scoring punch off the bench, which he was vehemently disinterested in doing at the time (although he accepted the role much later in his career- funny how that works).

Melo averaged 13.4 points, 5.4 rebounds, 40.5 percent from the floor (second-lowest of his career), 32.8 percent from deep (lowest in the final 15 years of his career), and 68.2 percent from the free throw line (the lowest of his career). It wasn't pretty. 

And the Rockets cut ties with the future Hall of Famer after just 10 games.