Plenty has changed since Carmelo Anthony last played an NBA game.
Zion Williamson had just made his Duke debut. Kyrie Irving had said only a month earlier he planned to re-sign in Boston.
Theres been turnover all over the league including a blockbuster trade between Anthonys last two teams that sent Russell Westbrook to Houston and Chris Paul to Oklahoma City.
When Anthony joins the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday in New Orleans, he will come to an NBA thats much different since Nov. 8, 2018, and he will try to show he still fits in it.
I just look at that opportunity, that team, and say, Look, this is what I can bring to the team, this where I can help, and it will only work if all parties see it the same way, Anthony said in a video posted Monday.
Plenty of fellow players think he can. A former coach hopes he will.
Hopefully this is a good situation, Houstons Mike DAntoni said. You never know why this didnt happen before. For whatever reason. Maybe he wasnt ready. I hope it works out.
Anthony had played 10 games for DAntoni when his season abruptly ended. Anthony hadnt played terribly, with three 20-point performances before the Rockets decided it wasnt the right fit.
The three-time Olympic gold medalist has kept himself in shape by working out with NBA players, but going from pickup play to NBA action is a major step. Hell be trying to make it at 35 and will be attacked defensively by players a decade or more younger and he wasnt a great defender even at their age.
But hes a top-20 scorer in NBA history and can perhaps provide some needed punch to a Trail Blazers team that is 5-9 after losing Monday in Houston, where the last team to give Anthony a shot had no complaints about his effort.
Hes a leader, DAntoni said. There was nothing at all, not even a hint of him not doing what we asked or trying or all that. It was just for us, for whatever reason, it just wasnt going to be a fit here.
Maybe it will in Portland.
SLUMPING SPURS
San Antonio has games this week at Washington and New York, a pair of last-place teams.
The Spurs arent much better than either.
Their losing streak is at six following a 117-110 loss in Dallas on Monday that started a four-game trip. At 5-9, San Antonio is off to its worst start since 1996-97, the season before it drafted Tim Duncan.
San Antonio hadnt dropped six straight since late in the 2010-11 season. The Spurs still won 61 games that season, but that was with a veteran squad.
This one is much younger its youngest ever under Gregg Popovich with nine players under the age of 25. That means the Spurs, with a record-tying run of 22 straight postseason appearances, have been in the playoffs almost every year of their lives.
Theres plenty of time to turn things around and make sure that streak continues.
