Carmelo Anthony on cusp of reaching Top 10 all-time in scoring

The names are Tim Duncan, Dominique Wilkins, Oscar Robertson, and Hakeem Olajuwon.

Those are the players that Carmelo Anthony has passed in career scoring so far this season. After beginning the 2020-21 season ranked 15^th on the all-time scoring list, Anthony enters Monday’s game needing 10 points to pass Elvin Hayes and enter the top 10 scorers in the 75-year history of the NBA.

In his 18^th season, Anthony is currently averaging 13.6 points per game for the Portland Trail Blazers, who face the Hawks in Atlanta on Monday (8 ET, NBA League Pass), giving Carmelo an opportunity to put himself in the top 10 scorers club with just one more double-digit scoring night in a career full of them.

Top 11 Scorers – NBA History (entering Monday, May 3, 2021)

RANK	PLAYER	GP	PTS	PTS/GM	TS%
1	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	1,560	38,387	24.61	59.2
2	Karl Malone	1,476	36,928	25.02	57.7
3	LeBron James	1,307	35,299	27.01	58.7
4	Kobe Bryant	1,346	33,643	24.99	55.0
5	Michael Jordan	1,072	32,292	30.12	56.9
6	Dirk Nowitzki	1,522	31,560	20.74	57.7
7	Wilt Chamberlain	1,045	31,419	30.07	54.7
8	Shaquille O’Neal	1,207	28,596	23.69	58.6
9	Moses Malone	1,329	27,409	20.62	56.9
10	Elvin Hayes	1,303	27,313	20.96	49.1
11	Carmelo Anthony	1,185	27,304	23.04	54.2

Carmelo led Syracuse to the NCAA national championship during his freshman year. He then entered the 2003 NBA Draft and was chosen by the Denver Nuggets as the No. 3 overall pick. From his first day, Carmelo began scoring points in abundance.

In the 2003-04 season, Anthony topped the rookie scoring chart with an average of 21.0 points per game, slightly surpassing LeBron James who averaged 20.9 points per game and won the Rookie of the Year. This highly talented class also included Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh among the top five picks.

Carmelo made an instant impact with the Nuggets, who went from 17-65 and 29^th in the league in scoring in 2002-03 to 43-39 and fifth in scoring in Anthony’s rookie season. He spent the first seven-and-a-half seasons of his career in Nuggets blue and yellow and made the playoffs every season.

While playing for the Nuggets, Anthony scored 13,970 points, the third highest in the franchise’s history, over 564 games, averaging 24.77 points per game. His shooting accuracy was 45.9% from the field (4,989 out of 10,877 attempts), 31.1% from the 3-point range (410 out of 1,320 attempts), and 80.3% from the free throw line (3,582 out of 4,462 attempts).

Halfway through the 2010-11 season, Carmelo was transferred to the New York Knicks. Even though his surroundings shifted from Colorado’s mountains to New York City’s streets, Carmelo’s scoring prowess remained constant. He continued to accumulate points every night at Madison Square Garden, his new home turf.

Indeed, the scoring continued at almost the exact same rate as it did in Denver. Anthony averaged 24.77 points per game with the Nuggets and slightly increased to an average of 27.72 points per game with the Knicks. The change in his scoring average was a mere 0.05 points per game between his initial seven-and-a-half seasons and the following six-and-a-half seasons. This consistency over 14 seasons places him among the league’s top scorers.

Carmelo only clinched a single scoring title throughout his career in 2012-13 with 28.7 ppg. However, he consistently ranked among the top 10 scorers for nine consecutive seasons from 2005-06 to 2013-14, and twice in that duration, he was the second-highest scorer.

After the 2016-17 season, the Knicks traded Anthony to the Oklahoma City Thunder, marking the start of the third phase of Carmelo’s career. Currently, he continues to play strong in Portland, serving as a key reserve for a Blazers team that has secured four consecutive wins. The team aims to move beyond the Play-In Tournament and secure a playoff spot for the eighth consecutive season.

Carmelo, Portland’s fourth-highest scorer, averages 13.6 points per game. However, he was a key player earlier in the season when CJ McCollum was out for two months due to a foot fracture. As the team heads into the postseason, having a seasoned scorer like Carmelo, who can shoot open shots or create his own opportunities, is a significant advantage.

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Let’s take another look at the Hall of Famers Carmelo has already surpassed this season and is slated to overtake this week – Tim Duncan (1997-2016), Dominique Wilkins (1982-99), Oscar Robertson (1960-74), Hakeem Olajuwon (1984-2002), and Elvin Hayes (1968-84). These five individuals cut across nearly the entire NBA history, embodying various positions and epochs. What sets them apart is the universality of their skills, which could have flourished in any game era. The same can be stated about Carmelo Anthony.

The robustness of past generations would not have fazed Carmelo – he is among the most powerful wing players in the game. He is capable of playing in the post, driving the lane, and finishing despite contact. He would not have been discouraged by hand checking and tough fouls.

He doesn’t excessively depend on the 3-point shot, unlike many of today’s leading scorers who heavily rely on it to accumulate their points. Although Carmelo is capable of making three-pointers, it was never his main scoring strategy. As shown in the chart above, most of his goals were scored either in the restricted area (3,892 FGM) or in the mid-range (3,543 FGM). These two areas account for 56.2% of Anthony’s overall points, with an additional 23.4% achieved from the free-throw line.

He may not have extraordinary speed, exceptional jumping power, or the ability to shoot from 40 feet out like his teammate Damian Lillard. However, Anthony employs his unique combination of size, quick initial movement, and excellent footwork to continuously unsettle defenders trying to stop him.

If you guard him too closely, he can drive past you and either reach the basket, attract a foul, or make a pull-up shot. If you guard him too lightly, he will punish you by sinking a three-pointer and running down the court, tapping his head thrice as a reminder not to leave him unguarded. And if the offense stalls or time is running out on the shot clock and a shot is needed, locate Carmelo in the post and let him take control.

Anthony is poised to enter the top 10 scorers club soon, possibly as early as Monday or later this week. Once he reaches this milestone, he can aim to ascend even higher on the list. His next target is Moses Malone, who is currently just 118 points ahead of him. According to Anthony’s current scoring average, he would need nine games to surpass Malone and secure the ninth spot. Conveniently, the Blazers have nine games remaining in their regular season, providing the perfect opportunity for him to achieve this feat.