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

Dominique Wilkins, Hakeem Olajuwon, Oscar Robertson, and Tim Duncan.

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, having led Syracuse to the NCAA national championship in his freshman year, entered the 2003 NBA Draft. He was chosen as the No. 3 overall pick by the Denver Nuggets and started scoring immediately from the onset.

In the 2003-04 season, Anthony was the highest-scoring rookie with an average of 21.0 points per game, just outperforming LeBron James, the Rookie of the Year winner, who scored 20.9 points per game. This exceptional 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, which is 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), 31.1% from the 3-point range (410 out of 1320), and 80.3% from the free throw line (3,582 out of 4,462).

Halfway into the 2010-11 season, Carmelo was transferred to the New York Knicks. Despite the shift from Colorado’s mountains to New York City’s streets, Carmelo’s scoring spree continued unabated, consistently accumulating points during his games at Madison Square Garden.

Indeed, the scoring continued at virtually the same speed as it did in Denver. Anthony averaged 24.77 points per game with the Nuggets and then went on to average 27.72 points per game with the Knicks. There was only a slight change in his scoring average, just 0.05 points per game, between his initial seven-and-half seasons and the following six-and-a-half seasons. This consistency over a total of 14 seasons made him one of the league’s top scorers.

Carmelo only secured one scoring title throughout his career, which was in 2012-13 with 28.7 points per game. However, he consistently ranked among the top 10 scorers for nine consecutive seasons, from 2005-06 through to 2013-14. During this period, he also finished in second place for the scoring title on two occasions.

After the 2016-17 season, Carmelo Anthony was traded from the Knicks to the Oklahoma City Thunder, marking the start of the third phase of his career. Currently, he is a significant reserve player for the Blazers in Portland. The team has achieved four consecutive wins and is aiming to rise from the Play-In Tournament to secure a playoff spot for the eighth season in a row.

Carmelo, who averages 13.6 points per game, is Portland’s fourth highest scorer. His contribution was particularly significant earlier in the season when CJ McCollum was out for two months due to a foot fracture. As the postseason approaches, having a dependable, experienced scorer like Carmelo, who can make open shots or create opportunities either off the dribble or in the post, is a valuable asset.

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Let’s take another look at the list of Hall of Famers that Carmelo Anthony has surpassed this season and is on track to surpass 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 players cover almost the entire history of the NBA and come from various positions and time periods. What sets them apart is that their skills could have excelled in any era of the sport. The same could also be said for Carmelo Anthony.

Carmelo’s strength as one of the game’s top wing players implies that the physical nature of previous generations wouldn’t have fazed him. His ability to play in the post, drive the lane, and finish through contact demonstrates this. Hand checking and hard fouls wouldn’t have discouraged him.

He isn’t excessively dependent on the 3-point shot. A significant number of today’s leading scorers heavily rely on the 3-point shot to accumulate their points. However, although Carmelo can shoot three-pointers, it was never his main scoring strategy. As shown in the above chart, most of his baskets were scored either within the restricted area (3,892 FGM) or the mid-range (3,543 FGM). These two areas contribute to 56.2% of Anthony’s total points, with an additional 23.4% obtained from the free throw line.

Anthony may not possess explosive speed, have the ability to leap extraordinarily high, or shoot from 40 feet out like his teammate Damian Lillard. However, he leverages his size, quickness off the mark, and exceptional footwork to continually unsettle defenders as they attempt to restrain him.

If you guard him too closely, he can outmaneuver you, either reaching the basket, drawing a foul, or executing a pull-up jump shot. If you give him too much space, he’ll exploit it by sinking a 3-pointer and then jogging down the court, tapping his forehead thrice to remind you not to leave him unguarded. If the offensive play stumbles or time is running out on the shot clock, locate Carmelo in the post and allow him to take over.

Anthony is poised to join the top 10 scorers club soon, regardless if it happens on Monday or later in the week, and is aiming to climb even higher up the list. Moses Malone, who holds a slim lead of 118 points over Anthony, is his next target. Given his current scoring average, Anthony would need nine games to surpass Malone for ninth place. Conveniently, the Blazers have exactly nine games remaining in the regular season for him to accomplish this.