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Trevor Lane here senior writer for lakers nation dot com And this is the Lakers nation news.

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We're talking Carmelo Anthony and the name that's been floating around the Lakers.

What feels like forever back again.

Should the Lakers sign Carmelo Anthony, That's I'm gonna be digging into you.

But first quick shot up to our sponsor up time energy drinks.

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So, Carmelo Anthony Look, he just appeared on first tape with Stephen A. Smith.

So we've got a ton of things to break down.

But before we even dive into that interview and everything going on there, let's talk a little bit about Carmelo Anthony and Kyle Kuzma.

That's right, Carmelo Anthony and Kyle Kuzma.

Koos is actually working out with Melo.

He's been working out this summer with Carmelo Anthony and look, I think it's a great thing.

That's a wonderful move for Cock.

Who's going to make because there are some similarities between the games of Anthony and Koosman.

No, it's not a direct translation or anything like that, but they're both score first wing players that are a little bit versatile conflict between the three and the four.

So there are some similarities to their game.

And let's face it, Carmelo Anthony, look for as maligned as he is today for as much crap as people give him for the way he plays the game, how antiquated his style appears to be.

This is a guy who has a ton of moves in his arsenal.

He knows all the tricks.

And so this is the kind of player that you want Kyle Kuzma to be learning from, especially on the offensive end.

Maybe not so much on the defense event, but I love the cow.

Cruz was getting out there and picking the brains of veterans.

It reminds me of back when Cosmo was a rookie and he was captured sitting on the sidelines when the Lakers were playing Sacramento picking the reign of Vince Carter.

Same idea here.

Local Kuzma is a spun.

She wants to soak up as much of the game is possible because he wants to be great.

And so, from that perspective, just looking at the Koosman angle.

I love it now.

Cosmo does say that Mellow is easily better than half of the league right now, and he recommends that somebody needs to sign Carmelo Anthony.

Now, look, is that just lip service? You know, Koosman giving a little bit of, ah, shout out to a guy that he's actually training with right now? Maybe, but that doesn't mean he's wrong.

Is Carmelo Anthony better than half the league right now? That's not an impossibility.

Amy.

Carmelo Anthony is one of the best players toe ever play okay? No, he's not an all time great.

He's not like on the Mount Rushmore of N B A players, right? They went out, But this is a really, really good eh NBA player who was tremendous for a number of years.

So look, you could see where he probably is still able to play the end game right now, So Carmelo Anthony has been looking to latch on with another N b A team.

He only played 10 games last season with the Houston Rockets.

Before GM Daryl Morey said, See you later said, We don't want any more.

Stay home for a little while.

The Rockets look that may be trading him.

Couldn't find anything, didn't work out.

He wore out his welcome the season before the Oklahoma City thunder.

Okay, See, was more than willing to to let Melo go.

So now here he is.

He spent most of last season at home, not playing only played in 10 games, and now he's looking for another team to latch on with, he said.

And this was a very candid interview and really was what Carmelo Anthony needed to do.

What he mentioned this In the interview, he said that look, other people were writing the story for him.

Other people were saying things for him saying things about him.

A lot of people were talking about him, and so he felt that he needed to get out there and say what he really thought.

So I thought that was a great move for them to get out there and really kind of let his guard down, let people see him as a person who has been playing a game for his entire life and wants to continue doing so and badly wants to.

He talked about his love for the game, and it's hard not to feel a little bit of empathy for Carmelo Anthony, given his situation in the fact that he is capable of still playing and he wants to still play.

And yet here he is, not on an N v A roster.

So why is this? Can Carmelo Anthony still play the N B A game at a high level? Look, a lot of people look at mellow and they think, Hey, he's a dinosaur.

He plays in that bygone era where long twos are the norm and it's OK and a lots of ice.

So ball and all that kind of stuff is the rage.

That's what people are doing.

That's the type of game he plays and look, guys who have gotten past by by by the game of the n b a n ba haven't fared too well.

I mean, look, Greg Monroe's out of the league, and this is a guy who's very skilled player, but he plays the old style.

He plays that post up style and Carmelo Anthony in some ways as a perimeter player.

I mean, he just he plays an antiquated style.

So can he still fit? Can he adjust and adapt his game to play in the N B A.

We'll actually think you can, and we saw it a little bit.

With the Oklahoma City already, about 25% of Carmelo Anthony shot attempts were out of spot up situations.

That's the most of any type of spot up situation that he had or any type of scoring situation that he had.

And this is PIR synergy.

So Carmelo Anthony was already starting to make that adjustment.

He was playing himself more as a spot up shooter, and he's not bad in that role.

I don't want to say that he's good.

He's an average shooter in that role.

He's right about league average.

He can shoot from outside.

He's enough of a threat to our defense is have to cover him.

But that's about it.

It's not like you're gonna feed him the game, the ball, all game, every game and just love it every time he jacks up a three.

No, I mean, but he's good enough at it where he's he'll make enough them to make the defense at least think about him.

That's about it now he can still score a nice of situations.

He's okay.

They're not great again.

Struggles a little bit because n b A rules have changed just a bit.

And he's not quite a quick is used to be.

Used to be able to just beat guys with a quick first step because he's going against guys that were either he was bigger than or guys were bigger than him, but they were slower.

Now that he's not quite that quick.

He struggles a little bit more scoring in those eyes. So situations.

So you're mainly looking Carmelo Anthony as a spot up shooter.

Can he do that at this point? And look, he used to get by in ice of situations by getting to the free throw line and that that number dropped Aton when he went.

Okay, See? Wasn't getting the line nearly as much, so he wasn't nearly as effective there.

So can he be that spot of shooter? Sure he can.

I mean, he's passable in that situation.

He's not gonna He's not gonna, you know, bring your team to new heights by being your spot up.

Shooter is not like Danny Green, who shot 45% from three last season, was one of the most effective shooting guards in the league.

He's not gonna do that for you, okay, but he is going to atleast provide some type of floor spacing, some type of shooting.

We know he's got some tricks.

Is an Arsenal worst case scenario shot clock winding down? You can give him the ball and he can go create a look.

It might not be the best look, but it's better than throwing to say like Kentavious, Caldwell, Pope, someone who's totally not comfortable in that type of situation.

He can at least do those things.

So, yeah, look, Carmelo Anthony still has some value in this league as a defender.

Well, hate.

Not a lot to write home about there.

I think that at this point, he's afore he has to play the four and he's gonna be an undersized for.

I don't think he's quick enough to play the three anymore, so that's what you're looking for.

You're looking for a team that needs some scoring coming off the bench at the power forward spot Now, that being said, I thought it was great that in his interview with Stephen a sit mellow.

Put aside all of the rumors that he wouldn't want to come off the bench.

He said, No, look, I've adjusted to this and he admitted that it's not an easy adjustment for him.

I thought that was great, right, because everybody knows it's a tough thing to do.

It's not easy to do what Vince Carter did, where he transitioned from being the superstar to being just a role player to being the guy that's just there to mentor the young kids, to accepting a few minutes off the bench every night and being happy with that, being happy with just being around the game, that's a tough, tough transition to make.

It's not an easy one.

And so credit to Carmelo Anthony for admitting, Hey, I mean, look, maybe he doesn't have a whole lot of other options, but admitting that I'm a role player now, I'm coming off the bench.

I'm okay with that, Okay, that's a big step for him now.

The third point I want to get to is does he fit with the Lakers? Because again, I do think he fits in the N B A At this point, I do think he can play for an N B. A team.

Okay, Does he fit with the Lakers? Will.

Here's the thing, Okay, Fit matters on the team.

Ah, lot more with role players than it does with superstars or stars or even all stars, right? The reason for that is because if you are that talented, if you are that good, you don't care as much about fit.

You'll fit the rest of the pieces around that guy.

You will figure out a way to make it work.

Look on paper.

The New Orleans pelicans put together Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins.

That wasn't a great fit on paper.

It was a little bit odd.

Little bit awkward, right? Two guys who who liked to occupy the Post.

They made it work because both were so talented.

Now the Lakers were gonna be hoping to do a similar thing.

You will make things work for Stars for bench players, though.

They've got to be the exact right fit.

Look at the Lakers from last season.

The fit wasn't there.

Okay, Lane Stevenson shot better from three than I thought he would.

But other than that wasn't a great fit, turned the ball over a lot.

You can't have that out of role players, right? Rage on.

Rhonda was a reluctant shooter, even though his three point percentage actually went up.

The Lakers didn't target the right pieces there.

Michael Beasley certainly wasn't a fit paid.

They passed on Brook Lopez.

It would have been a great fit for them because he would have provided floor spacing.

So if you're looking at a role player, you have to consider fit Way Maur than if you're adding a star level player.

And Carmelo Anthony now falls into that category of role player.

So does he fit with the Lakers? Well, the short answer is no.

Okay, he doesn't.

Part of the reason for that is because the Lakers already have people had his position.

Anthony Davis has made it very clear he does not want to be, the center said.

Look, he'll play it a little bit every now and then, but the Lakers want to keep Anthony Davis happy because they want a free Simon, 2020.

And so playing him a ton of minutes at the center position is not a good idea.

Not only because Davis doesn't want to play there, but also because if he's playing tons of minutes at the center, that means his good friend Marcus Cousins is sitting over on the bench.

And that's not a good look, either.

So it makes all kinds of sense for the Lakers to give a D a ton of minutes at the Ford.

Who else is gonna give minutes of the four? While LeBron James can sop up some minutes of the four cow crews? Maquis need a minute's there as well.

Those air Probably your three most important players on this Lakers team, right? Four.

If you're including DeMarcus cousins in there as well, you're talking about LeBron Kuzma, 80 and cousins.

So with those guys occupying minutes at the positions that you would potentially play Carmelo Anthony at being the four.

I mean, that's gonna make it pretty tough where the minute's gonna come from just logistically.

That's really, really tough.

Now I've said it a number of times.

The Lakers need a small forward.

They do.

They've got LeBron and then everybody else that they would play it small forward they'd be playing out of position to use of Danny Greene.

He's a two guard. He's not a small forward.

He couldn't do it.

But do you want him doing that all the time? Avery Bradley.

Maybe he could do it a little bit because he's got the wingspan, but he's only 62 Okay? Asking him to do that might be a little bit much, right? KCP? Same thing.

65 But he's more of a two than a three.

So if you're asking somebody to play the three Kyle Kuzma, same thing, I think he's better defending forwards than he is defending threes.

That's a difficult situation.

Okay, so the Lakers need three.

Carmelo Anthony, for most of his career, played small forward.

Why not turn to him while again? It's because as he's gotten older, naturally, he's going to get slower.

It's going to make it that much more difficult for him to defend small forwards.

So again, I think Carmelo Anthony is more of a four right now in the n B A, which makes him just minutes wise, a tough fit for the Lakers.

Now let's think about what the Lakers actually need.

What do they need out of a player that's gonna eat up their final roster spot because they do have roster spot open.

So you need somebody who can come in and do two things.

Two things only play defense.

Hit. Freeze.

If you could do those two things, you can be on this team, right? That's what the Lakers targeted.

That's what they're getting in Danny Green.

It's a guy who can do those things.

Avery Bradley guy who can play defense, hit threes.

Alex Caruso.

Same thing.

That's what you need on a team built around LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

Carmelo Anthony.

He can hit threes, but he's just average at it.

It's just okay, all right.

He's not great league average.

That's Carmelo Anthony from three right defensively.

No, and he's not gonna guard Paul George.

He's not gonna guard Kawai Leonard.

He's not gonna guard these high level wings.

You're Jimmy Butler's Kevin Durant.

When he gets back, you can't turn to Carmelo Anthony and say, Hey, go check this guy.

That's not gonna work.

It's not gonna happen.

And that's why it makes all kinds of sense for the Lakers toe.

Hold this open roster spot for Andre Iguodala.

Who can do that? Now? Look, he's getting older as well.

But still, he can do it better than Carmelo can.

Certainly, all right.

And even if Iguodala was off the board, that doesn't mean that Carmelo Anthony can suddenly do those things that you need.

That's what the Lakers need, so I can understand why the Lakers would want to sign him at this point.

And I haven't even mentioned Jared Dudley yet.

Who could do a lot of the things that you would want Carmelo Anthony to do without carrying about whether or not he gets the ball.

He can defend guys.

He can shoot from the outside a little bit.

Keep defense is respectable and he doesn't need the ball in his hands to really making an impact.

And he's not gonna be expecting a ton of minutes.

He's not gonna be sulking or anything like that if he doesn't get them.

You don't have to worry about Jerry W, who fully understands exactly what his role is and isn't.

It doesn't have to make the transition from being a star into being a bench player.

So when you add all of that up, it doesn't make a lot of sense for the Lakers to sign Carmelo Anthony look talent alone.

Can he play in the N B A.

Yes, I think he can write.

Use a very, very good player.

But it makes no sense for the Lakers for what they need if they sign him.

It was more of a sign that they're just Hey, they're doing LeBron a solid because he's buddies with LeBron and he can come in and he can hit some shots and get me wrong.

Maybe Carmelo Anthony would help them a little bit.

Maybe he could could provide a little bit of scoring off the bench.

Maybe the offense bogs down to mellow.

Could come in to hit some shots, but he's not ideal.

He's not the exact piece that you want coming in taking that last roster spot because what you need, like I said, is a three and g guy.

And no, there's not a lot of those out there Iguodala, maybe a few others.

But that's the ideal situations that you find somebody who complain defense, hit threes and preferred.

Lee can at least give you some minutes guarding some guys like your Kawai Leonard, like you're Paul George like these top scoring Wings in the N B A.

Because that is the one hole right now on the Lakers roster.

All right, guys, for more on this story and everything else going on in the world of the Los Angeles Lakers, head over to lakers nation dot com.

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