Tag: Carmelo Anthony (Page 19 of 20)

      Carmelo Anthony to miss three weeks

      January 7, 2009 /

      ‘Melo has a fractured shooting hand and is going to miss AT LEAST three weeks.

      The Nuggets All-Star guard will miss at least three weeks after breaking a bone in his shooting hand in a victory over the Indiana Pacers on Monday night.

      He’s been told by doctors he’ll be out three to four weeks. Surgery would’ve sidelined him much longer.

      Anthony was injured with 9:44 left in the third quarter when Pacers center Jeff Foster swatted at the ball, catching part of Anthony’s hand.

      He continued to play despite numbness in the hand, scoring 21 points before leaving late in the fourth quarter of a 135-115 win.

      This is an opportunity for guys like J.R. Smith and Linas Kleiza to step it up. Both guys are capable.

      ESPN’s Ric Bucher gives his take…

      NBA, Video

      ‘Melo: “Anything you can do, I can do better.”

      January 3, 2009 /

      Check out this finish from the Nuggets/Thunder game last night. Pay special attention to the pair of shots that start at the 1:45 mark.

      The big difference in Kevin Durant this season is his shooting percentages. Last season, he shot 43% from the field and 29% from long range. This year, he he’s hitting 46% of his shots and is deadly (44.4%) from three-point range.

      The big problem with the Thunder is their defense. Carmelo Anthony caught the ball too easily in the corner, and once he had it, I have no idea why Desmond Mason had his hands down at his waist. He should have extended his arms up to contest the shot — who cares if Anthony tries to dribble around him? There was barely any time left on the clock. That shot reminded me of Raja Bell’s game-winner over Daniel Ewing in the Suns/Clippers playoff series a few years ago.

      As for the Nuggets, the Chauncey Billups addition has been huge, but Nene is also playing great basketball. Over the last four seasons, he has missed 59% of his team’s games due to injury. This year, he’s finally healthy, is averaging 15/8 and is shooting 62% from the field. I’m still not sure that it makes sense to trade Marcus Camby away last summer, but Nene is doing his best to make up for that loss. He posted 27 points and 14 rebounds in last night’s win against the Thunder.

      Fantasy Basketball, NBA, Television, Video

      The NBA’s Top 10 Young Small Forwards

      December 15, 2008 /

      Here’s a quick list of the top 10 small forwards under the age of 26, ranked in the order of a combination of current performance and trade value (regardless of salary).

      I’ll also list the player’s age and his Player Efficiency Rating.

      1. LeBron James, Cavs
      Age: 23
      PER: 33.28
      27.1 points, 6.8 rebounds and 6.4 assists on a 20-4 team – can you spell M-V-P?

      2. Carmelo Anthony, Nuggets
      Age: 24
      PER: 18.50
      The Nuggets are sitting atop the Northwest with a 16-7 record and with the arrival of Chauncey Billups, ‘Melo is starting to play defense, as evidenced by his career-high 8.2 rebounds.

      3. Danny Granger, Pacers
      Age: 25
      PER: 18.67
      His boards are down, but his points and assists are up. I bet that the six teams that drafted other guys ahead of him – Magic (Fran Vasquez), Clippers (Yaroslav Korolev), Bobcats (Sean May), T-Wolves (Rashad McCants), Nets (Antoine Wright) and the Raptors (Joey Graham) – are all wishing they could have that draft back.

      4. Rudy Gay, Grizzlies
      Age: 22
      PER: 16.54
      I’d like to see better assist numbers (1.7), but he’s still scoring at a terrific clip even though ROY candidate O.J. Mayo is in town. But what’s up with that three-point percentage (29%)?

      5. Luol Deng, Bulls
      Age: 23
      PER: 13.41
      It’s not good to see your FG% take a dive (to 43%) the season after you sign a fat contract. Even though his minutes are about the same, Deng’s production is down across the board.

      6. Thaddeus Young, Sixers
      Age: 20
      PER: 13.32
      Philly is asking a lot more of Young this season, which is why his run has taken a 12-minute jump. Predictably, his numbers are all up, but he’s not as productive on a per-minute basis, which has a lot to do with the dip in his FG% (-6.6%).

      7. Trevor Ariza, Lakers
      Age: 23
      PER: 19.45
      It’s not clear why the Knicks and Magic let him go – well, Isiah is to blame in one case – but their inability to see Ariza’s promise worked to the Lakers’ advantage. Defensively, he’s a terror. If he could only shoot the long ball, he’d be the answer to the team’s problem at small forward.

      8. Al Thornton, Clippers
      Age: 25
      PER: 13.37
      Thornton’s numbers are up across the boards thanks to increased minutes (+10.4) and better accuracy from the field (+2.6%).

      9. Brandan Wright, Warriors
      Age: 21
      PER: 20.80
      Wright is wildly productive in the 17 minutes of playing time he gets each night, but one wonders why Nellie is barely playing him? It’s not like the Warriors have a ton of great players; they’re 7-17 for Pete’s sake.

      10. Jeff Green, Thunder
      Age: 22
      PER: 14.47
      Green has made a big jump from his rookie season. His points (15.6), rebounds (5.5) and assists (2.4) are all up, but more importantly, he’s shooting with increased accuracy from the field (+3.2%) and long range (+13.7%). After looking like a bit of a bust last season, he now looks like he’s capable of being Kevin Durant’s sidekick for the long haul.

      Who am I missing? Before you jump all over me for leaving someone off, be sure to check the player’s age – all these guys are 25 or younger.

      Other lists:

      Top 10 Young Point Guards
      Top 10 Young Shooting Guards

      Fantasy Basketball, NBA

      Chauncey Billups is changing the Nuggets…for the better

      November 17, 2008 /

      Dave Krieger of the Rocky Mountain News says that Chauncey Billups is changing the Nuggets, especially on the defensive end. It’s hard to argue, as the Nuggets are 5-1 since he joined the team.

      Remarkably, the Nuggets have scored more than 100 points in just one of those five wins – the first one. Billups is rapidly changing their very identity.

      “We won a game playing defense,” Billups said after the 90-84 decision over Minnesota. “We’ve done that a couple times since I’ve been here. And I think for me personally, I get a lot more confidence winning games playing defense than winning the run-and-gun game. Now, when we can start making shots and we can get where we need to be offensively and continue to play defense, then we can be dangerous.”

      Although Billups hit only seven of his 23 shots, the Nuggets outscored the Timberwolves by 17 points when he was on the floor, the best plus-minus rating of any player on either team.

      “The scoring thing is just an extra bonus,” said Billups, who finished with a game-high 26 points. “So if I’m struggling from the field, I’m not going to let everything else in my game just lay down. I won’t allow that to happen. And I’ll try to teach a lot of the other guys on this team the same thing: ‘So what if you don’t make shots? Give me something else.’ And I try to lead and do that by example.”

      Carmelo Anthony, among others, seems to be getting the message. Despite hitting only four of his 17 shots, Anthony grabbed a team-high 12 rebounds, his second double-figure night on the boards in as many games.

      For the last few years, the closest thing the Nuggets had to a defensive identity was Marcus Camby, and they gave him away to the Clippers last summer. Billups brings hard work and determination, and that can be infectious, especially for a young team. George Karl’s teams have a notoriously short attention span when it comes to defense, so it will be interesting to see how long this renewed focus lasts.

      And I wonder just how much better they would be with Camby manning the middle.

      Fantasy Basketball, NBA

      2008 NBA Preview: #19 Denver Nuggets

      October 17, 2008 /

      Offseason Movement: In what can only be considered as a straight salary cap dump, the Nuggets traded stalwart center Marcus Camby to the Clippers for the right to swap second round picks in 2010. Given Camby’s more-than-reasonable contract (two years, $15.7 million) and defensive prowess, it left a lot of people scratching their heads, especially when the team turned around and signed J.R. Smith to a deal worth $16.5 million over three years.
      Keep Your Eye On: J.R. Smith/Linas Kleiza
      The team says that whoever plays better defense will get the bulk of the minutes. Both players are offensive-minded and are capable of putting up points in bunches. Smith has the better PER (18.15 compared to Kleiza’s 14.43) and is a year younger (22). The Nuggets are already defensively challenged, and neither guy is going to make anyone forget about Camby’s excellence in that area of the game.
      The Big Question: What is the Nuggets plan?
      They didn’t trade Allen Iverson, but they did trade Marcus Camby. Are the Nuggets trying to win now or are they building for the future? The Camby trade implies the latter, but the fact that they held on to both Carmelo Anthony (smart) and AI (not smart) indicates that the team is still trying to win with (mostly) the same group as the last few years. Iverson is in the last year of his contract ($21.9 million) so if the Nuggets don’t get off to a good start, expect them to move him before the trade deadline, assuming they can find a trade partner with something of value to offer (like a few expiring contracts and a first round draft pick or two).
      Outlook: Confused. The loss of Camby means that the Nuggets are likely to take a step back, which means they are at the bottom of the playoff picture in the West. If they miss the playoffs, Iverson won’t be on the roster next season, so this will be a very interesting year in Denver.

      Fantasy Basketball, NBA

      « Older posts Newer posts »

      © 2026 The Scores Report – The National Sports Blog

      Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑