5 Reasons Why Carmelo Anthony is OKC's Kryptonite

It was an electrifying setup in downtown Oklahoma City on Sunday night as the Oklahoma City Thunder hosted the Portland Trail Blazers at the Chesapeake Energy Arena. With the third seed in the Western Conference thrown open at the back of a two-game losing streak of the Trail Blazers, there was much on the plate for the Thunder as they looked to avoid a season sweep by Damian Lillard and Co.

However, the Oregon based outfit had different plans as they rushed to an 18-point lead early on in the game against the home side. What ensued thereon was a chargeback led by Raymond Felton and Jerami Grant with the rest of the Thunder bench following suit. By half-time, the deficit was cut down to five points.

The second half, however, was a fiercely contested ball game with the lead going to fro in what felt like a playoffs game. The Trail Blazers snatched all the spoils in the end with a 108-105 win but not without Carmelo Anthony failing to tie things up for the Thunder on two occasions.

#5 Carmelo with another torrid outing

While all the members of the OKC big three shot poorly tonight, coming up with many bricks in the process, Carmelo Anthony was the worst of the lot. Anthony just managed 6 points from 29 minutes of playing time. He went 3 for 13 overall and 0 for 5 from beyond the arc.

He was involved in some important plays for OKC as you would expect given his stature as a senior player. Anthony though, who is playing his 15th season in the NBA, failed to deliver on most occasions, especially the clutch ones.

Carmelo started the game poorly, missing his first three shots before scoring from a layup. He continued his underwhelming run against throughout the game. His antics in the clutch though were utterly disappointing.

With 18.5 seconds left to play and the Thunder trailing the game by two points, Russell Westbrook passed the ball to Melo who was double-teamed in the corner by the Portland defense. Westbrook made himself available for a return pass but Carmelo decided to ignore him and went for a drive to the basket which resulted in a costly turnover.

In the final play of the game, Carmelo Anthony was allowed the opportunity to shoot a wide-open three that would tie the game, but he missed that as well.

Early on in the fourth quarter, Anthony failed to shift the momentum with OKC's favor by missing two consecutive wide-open three-point shots. The Thunder were leading 101-98 at that point. Any of those attempts, if made, could have changed the narrative of the game for the Thunder.

#4 Unreliable in the closing stages

Carmelo Anthony isn't reliable in the clutch

Counted as an All-Star member in the OKC lineup, Carmelo Anthony is expected to come up huge in the closing stages of the game. He is trusted with the ball in crucial plays and expected to deliver on the trust shown by his team on him. However, he has done anything but that.

Anthony is recording meager returns of 2.9 points per game on 36.5 percent accuracy from the field in the fourth quarter. What's worse is his free throw percentage - a torrid 66.7 percent.

One can barely forget him missing those two free throws against the Boston Celtics five days ago which opened the door for the home team to swish a three-pointer in the final seconds of the game to steal a win. His most recent inaccuracies against Portland have been already explained.

#3 Worst shooting numbers this year

Carmelo Anthony is recording his worst numbers in terms of shooting and free throw percentages as well as points per game this year.

Melo boasts of a healthy career stat line of 24.2 points per game scoring at an accuracy of 44.9 percent from the field and 81.2 percent from the free throw line. This year, however, the forward from Syracuse has managed only 16.5 points per game, draining only 40.7 percent of his field goal attempts and making only 76.4 percent of his free throws.

His decline though is pretty evident from the shot selections made by Melo all throughout this year and there's little hope of improvement, given his age of 33 years.

Given the fact that Anthony had recorded below-career number points per game figures in each of his last three seasons, his downfall was always on the cards. However, such a drastic deterioration could have never been fathomed.

#2 Defensive liability

Kyle Lowry drives past Carmelo Anthony

Carmelo is one of the slower players on the Thunder roster when it comes to the defensive side of things. As a result of this, opposition players find it rather easy to drive past him to the bucket, scoring 29.6 points in the paint per game against him.

Anthony's defensive rating for the season is 105.6, which is the worst in terms of all frontcourt players on the OKC roster. He is not very efficient at preventing a switch-play either, as ball handlers find it rather easy to get rid of him through screens.

While Andre Roberson, arguably Oklahoma City's best defensive player was able to fill in for Melo's shortcomings, his season-ending injury against the Detroit Pistons has left a crackable opening in Thunder's defense.

#1 The trade-off

#00 Enes Kanter and #7 Carmelo Anthony

Carmelo Anthony was roped in by the Thunder but had to let go of their bench strength in the process, with Enes Kanter and Doug McDermott going the other way along with a second-round draft pick.

McDermott, who is playing for the Dallas Mavericks right now, is a perfect role-player. He is an efficient three-point shooter scoring at 42.6 percent from beyond the arc. Kanter, on the other hand, is a brilliant frontcourt player averaging 14 points per game at 59.5 percent accuracy while grabbing 10.9 rebounds per game.

It definitely appears that the Thunder have rather lost more than gained from this trade.

Conclusion

Carmelo Anthony may have a prolific NBA career but he is surely in his twilight now. He is inefficient at what his primary role in the team is, to score. While one may argue that this is his first season in the NBA where he is not the leader of the franchise, his shooting, in general, has been below par.

Despite letting the team down on several occasions this season, he is still given the nod ahead of other players while drawing plays in the clutch. This, in turn, has evidently harmed the Thunder in a season where they have lost numerous games by close margins.

The best possible solution to the Carmelo problem is to move him to the bench where he gets to lead a unit, something he is used to, despite it being comprised of reserves. What remains to be seen, however, is whether coach Billy Donovan decides to go this route and whether Anthony at all accepts this role.

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