No Stephen A. No ESPN. No NBA games to analyze. Just two friends having a glass of wine on instagram. Probably not the best idea.
On March 28, 2020, Carmelo Anthony and D-Wade decided to talk about the 2003 draft and how it would play out differently for Carmelo is he was drafted at #2 by the Detroit Pistons instead of going #3 to the Denver Nuggets.
Melo says he probably would’ve had 2 or 3 rings if he got drafted by Detroit pic.twitter.com/ayPPcy76P1
— NBA Central (@TheNBACentral) March 27, 2020
To be fair with Carmelo, Dwayne was the only seen drinking wine and he did say that everything played out the way it was suppose to be. The controversial part would be him saying that he would have won 2-3 rings with Detroit even though historically, they only won 1 championship in 2004 and lost to the Spurs in 2005. It is known in NBA circles then Pistons coach, Larry Brown, does not play rookies. It could have been different with Carmelo but we’ll never know.
Detroit has not been the best managed team in the NBA in the past 14-15 years so it would be suspect for us to think that Carmelo could have won 2-3 rings. He probably would have won it in 2004 just by sitting on the bench, ask Darko Milicic.
After that, Detroit has had quite several questionable transactions such as signings:
2004 Smush Parker (Kobe Called Trash), Antonio McDyess (29 + 2 major surgeries, lowest production in his career)
2005 Elden Campbell (36)
2006 Tony Delk (32)
2007 Chris Webber (33 yrs old & was hated in Michigan), Drafted Rodney Stuckey
2008 Kwame Brown(35), Will Bynum, Allen Iverson (32)
2009 Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva to 5 year deals in 2008, Chris Wilcox, Ben Wallace (33)
2010 Tracy McGrady (30)
2014 Traded 9th pick which could have been Dario Saic, Zach LaVine, Gary Harris, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Joe Harris, Nikola Jokic
Detroit could have signed younger players, below 30, could have drafted better players or developed them. However, it takes two to tango. The 2010 class was not just assembled by team management but also orchestrated by players. Lebron, Bosh and Wade took pay-cuts to play with each other. Carmelo Anthony did not want any part in that so he was not available to team up with anyone in 2010. Instead, he had his contract arranged so he’ll be teammates with someone by 2011.
So he did.
In 2011, instead of waiting to be a free agent by the summer, Carmelo demanded a trade from Denver and was shipped to the New York Knicks that included the entire roster except for Amare Stoudemire, who signed a whopping, uninsured, $100million for 5 years. Stoudemire has had in run in Phoenix and was barely productive without Steve Nash. Carmelo wanted a trade instead of signing with the Knicks over the summer, so the Knicks can sign him for more cash (Bird Rights).
He then signed another extension in 2014 for $120m, with a no-trade-clause, thus, had the Knicks by the coconuts. The Knicks have been holding their own coconuts and has been badly managed since James Dolan took over. Add Carmelo into that and here we are now. Knicks are still bottom feeders.
Since getting traded to the OKC Thunder, Carmelo has struggled to be a third man and the team has done better without him. Houston got rid of him after 10 games. Though clips of him doing well in Portland are circulating, record before him was 7-9 and has had an 18-22 record with him in the roster.
He definitely passes the eye-test of a good player. The numbers speak otherwise. That’s a no for 2-3 rings.
