Recent Hall of Fame inductee won't be remembered for his Rockets tenure

The Houston Rockets technically rostered recent Hall of Fame inductee Carmelo Anthony. It's hard to recall his time with the organization fondly.

Sometimes, that's how the chips fall in the National Basketball Association. It's difficult to anticipate a player's decline. The Rockets knew they weren't getting prime Anthony, but they thought they were getting a better version than the player who arrived in Space City.

The year prior, Anthony still looked effective. He averaged 16.2 points and 5.8 rebounds per game for the Thunder in 2017-18. The Rockets were coming off an incredible season and looking to bolster their championship odds. Adding a credible third option behind James Harden and Chris Paul was the right move.

Right?

Rockets erred by acquiring Carmelo Anthony

That simple logic checks out, but it begs for deeper analysis. Once that analysis is applied, the logic falls apart.

Sure, adding a third option to make the offense more dynamic made sense. Anthony was not the right option. The Rockets should have seen that his basketball principles hadn't aligned with Mike D'Antoni when the pair were together in New York.

These were the analytics-driven Rockets. They wanted threes and layups. Watching Anthony pass on catch-and-shoot threes to step into a midrange probably still gives D'Antoni nightmares.

It was muscle memory. Anthony had never been the "wait for the ball and shoot" wing that complemented Harden and Paul. That would be Trevor Ariza, whom the Rockets had let go in free agency over the summer.

Ariza was irreplaceable, but even if he wasn't, Anthony was not the replacement. Houston also signed James Ennis III in Ariza's absence, but he was basically just off-brand Ariza.

The rest is history. The team collapsed into itself like a supernova. The Rockets tried to salvage their title odds by acquiring Russell Westbrook during the following season, which is widely recognized as the beginning of the end.

As for Anthony? He played a grand total of 10 games with the Rockets. He averaged 13.4 points with a True Shooting % (TS%) of 51.3%. It was a dark time in an otherwise bright career:

Let's try to remember the better days.

Carmelo Anthony remembered for more than his Rockets tenure

Opinions on Anthony are varied. Some revere him as one of the best bucket-getters in NBA history, while others consider him a black hole.

Was he a winning player? It's a debate that can no longer be settled. Here's what's undeniable: Anthony is one of the best scorers in NBA history. In 2012-13, Anthony averaged 28.7 points and 6.9 rebounds with a 4.3 Box Plus/Minus (BPM). Anthony is a deserving Hall of Famer, and he was a star:

He just wasn't able to shine in Houston.