We will probably be watching Carmelo Anthony in the Oklahoma City Thunder jersey. According to ESPN‘s Royce Young, Anthony didn’t use his early termination option for the final year of his contract, which means he will be officially a member of the Thunder organization in the 2018-19 season as well.
Carmelo Anthony will earn $27.9 million for the next season, courtesy of the five-year, $120 million contract he signed with the New York Knicks back in 2014.
It remains unclear how happy the OKC front office is with this decision. While Anthony will go down as one of the best scorers in the NBA history, he certainly didn’t show he is worth $27.9 million with his performances for the Thunder in the last season.
He averaged 16.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game, all career lows. One of the reasons for that was the fact that Thunder coach Billy Donovan decided to use Anthony as a power forward, instead of putting him on his natural position of small forward. Also, Anthony didn’t have the ball in his hands as much as he used to, which also affected his ability to score, and later his confidence.
“I think for me, my focus would be on kind of figuring out what I want out of the rest of my career, what I want in my future, what am I willing to accept, if I’m willing to accept that at all,” – said Anthony at the end of the Thunder’s disappointing season which saw them getting bounced in the first round of the playoffs. “I think everybody knows that I’ve sacrificed kind of damned near everything, family, moving here by myself, sacrificed my game for the sake of the team, and was willing to sacrifice anything and everything in order for this situation to work out. So it’s something I really have to think about, if I really want to be this type of player, finish out my career as this type of player, knowing that I have so much left in the tank and I bring so much to the game of basketball.“
The Oklahoma City Thunder face a lot of uncertainty ahead of the next NBA season. One of their star players, Paul George, will become a free agent, while few key bench players are also out of contract.
