You Can Go Ahead And Crown Melo This Year's Scoring Champ

Durant is sitting tonight. And even if he did play he’d need to score 70 points anyway. So its just a matter of time before Carmelo Anthony is crowned this year’s scoring champ. Its a nice feather in your cap. A nice regular season accomplishment. But I feel like its got a different connotation for Carmelo.

When people describe Carmelo as a “scorer” is a backhanded compliment. You look at the other guys who were in the hunt for the scoring title this season and they’re all very different from Melo. Durant is a great scorer and considerably more efficient than Melo on a nightly basis. Lebron James is an immortal player who, along with doing everything else on the court, scores upwards of 30 a game. Kobe is a similar scoring type to Carmelo but has 5 rings so he’s untouchable. But when people call Carmelo a “scorer” is more saying “he doesn’t do enough of everything else to be called a great player.” Which is hard to debate when you look at Carmelo’s entire body of work. And even this season in comparison to Durant – KD35 shooting over 51% for the season. A lot more efficient than Carmelo. And that mid season stretch of .500 basketball was nothing to brag about from Melo.

But this past month is where I think Carmelo deserves some big time respect for earning this title, but more importantly carrying his team. After a hot start, the Knicks were injured and struggling for like a 40 game stretch. Middle of March they lost 4 straight games and 5 out of 6 and it looked like things were about to get seriously ugly for the Knicks.  And Carmelo then kicked it up about 5 notches. Went on essentially an unprecedented streak. Over the past month when his team needed him most he put up almost 33 points and 10 rebounds a game. His past reputation makes people call him a “scorer.” I know better than anyone – I’ve been Melo’s harshest critic. But this season, and particularly the last third of the season, Carmelo has been much more than that. Much more. He’s been a scorer and a leader. Playing big minutes, shooting efficiently, hitting the glass, and winning ballgames. Nobody touches Lebron in the MVP vote but Carmelo is you clear runner up this season.