New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony came in at No. 37 in Sports Illustrated’s top 100 NBA player rankings.
The NBA world turned on its head when Carmelo Anthony was ranked the NBA’s 64th best player by ESPN for the 2017-18 season.Melo slipped 33 spots from his ranking before the 2016-17 season; behind lesser players Danny Green and Robert Covington. Sports Illustrated showed Anthony more respect on Thursday.
SI ranked Anthony No. 37 in their ranking of the top 100 players. He was ahead of players that he was inexcusably behind in ESPN’s rankings. Guys like Joel Embiid and Danilo Gallinari were both in the 40s.
Ben Golliver gives his explanation for putting Anthony at 37.
The longer Anthony (22.4 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 2.9 APG) has rotted away in New York’s black hole, the trickier it has gotten to gauge his value in a vacuum. His ideal situation would look almost exactly like the opposite of the 2016-17 Knicks: He would have a pass-first point guard who knew how to set him up; a proven and healthy center to cover for him defensively; a veteran roster that was ready to compete now; a coach who could manage his ego and personality, get him to his sweet spots, and wasn’t beholden to an anachronistic offense; a GM who didn’t take shot after shot at him in the media while trying and failing to trade him; and an owner who treated his fellow human beings with decency and respect. Under those conditions, it’s possible to picture a happy and engaged Anthony, even at age 33, pumping in 24 points a night and leading a halfway-decent team to the East playoffs. While he’s gradually slipped from his prime efficiency year of 2012-13, Anthony has still managed to score in volume with respectable percentages despite very little in the way of help on or off the court.