EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Carmelo Anthony heard the same things you did. When he wasn't enjoying a rare respite from Team USA responsibilities, 'Melo was listening to the offseason buzz. And his blood was boiling.
The Lakers got better. The Spurs got better. The Celtics, Magic, Cavs, Trail Blazers and Mavericks got better. Anthony waited for someone to mention the Nuggets, who had given the eventual champions, the Lakers, all they could handle in the Western Conference finals. All he heard was that the Nuggets didn't do anything to improve. Or worse: He heard nothing about them at all.
"That was motivation," Anthony said Wednesday night in the visiting locker room in New Jersey, where the Nuggets improved to 5-0 with a 122-94 victory over the hapless Nets. "For us to accomplish what we accomplished last year and get as far as we did, to lose one or two guys from our team and for people to say we didn't get any better, that was motivation right there.
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| In a peaceful takeover, Carmelo Anthony grabbed some of the leadership duties from Chauncey Billups. (Getty Images) |
So there it is, an explanation for Denver's best start in 24 years and some context for Anthony's all-out assault on the 2009-10 season. It explains plenty about what coach George Karl witnessed when he reconvened with his players in September.
"I was like, 'These guys are saying the right things, thinking the right things, acting the right way,'" Karl said. "And 'Melo was a big part of that. You knew he was working out, you knew he was thinner than he's ever been, you knew he was in the weight room, more serious than he's ever been. But the motivated person in that was him. Some other people can say they did that and they mentored, but deep down inside, I think he felt he had to make that commitment. And he did that at a very early stage."
By the time training camp got under way, Karl noticed something else: a subtle shift in the leadership pecking order from Chauncey Billups to Anthony. It wasn't an abdication of the role by Billups, and it wasn't a coup. It was Anthony stepping out of Billups' shadow in a concerted effort to give Karl something he'd never had: his best leadership from his best player.
"Chauncey came to the team and became one of our two or three best players and our best leader," Karl said. "Now you have 'Melo kind of in that arena. And it takes off my plate some of the daily demanding, the motivating, the calling people out. The team does that now. I still have my opportunities, but now because of Chauncey and 'Melo ..."
Karl lost his train of thought as he greeted someone in the hallway of the IZOD Center, but he didn't need to say any more.
"'Melo has taken a bigger piece of the leadership role," Billups said, "so I haven't had to do as much."
Anthony enters his seventh season with a better understanding of what's required of him -- an understanding that can only come from a string of playoff failures that preceded last season's run to the conference finals. In fact, the term "playoff failure" is one of the labels that infuriate him.
"We weren't a bad playoff team, but we were written as a bad playoff team," Karl said. "And it was frustrating, because the guys that get hammered in that situation are your best player and the coach. I think it hurt 'Melo a lot. People didn't give him credit as a 19-year-old kid for taking a team that was awful and making the playoffs six straight years. He didn't get that credit. He got the credit of failing in the playoffs."
Then this past summer, he also got the consolation prize of having his team dismissed for not making any flashy, big-ticket moves. It was served with a cold plate of humility, one that lands in Anthony's lap every time he hears about the greatest players in the game -- fellow 2003 draftees LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, not to mention Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard and Chris Paul. Basically, everybody but 'Melo.
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Recap: Nuggets 122, Nets 94 |
"I know and people know what's up when it comes to me," Anthony said. "I know I'm one of the top players in the NBA. That's just my thinking. If I'm sounding cocky or arrogant, it is what it is. If you're talking about the best players in the NBA and don't mention my name, I use that as motivation too."
There's never been any doubting Anthony's gifts as a scorer, going back to when he battled Bryant for the scoring title down to the final week of the 2006-07 season. What's been missing is the overall game; entering the season, Anthony was 21st among active players in career per-minute efficiency, according to Basketball-Reference.com. Entering Wednesday night's game, however, Anthony led the league not only in scoring with a 34.5-point average, but also in per-minute efficiency.
"Young guys coming into the league, they want to score in the NBA and establish something early," Anthony said. "But as you get older, you become smarter. You become more aware of basketball things. Myself and 'Bron saw Dwyane Wade win a championship early. And we both wanted to do something. 'Bron came back and took his team to the Eastern Conference finals, to the NBA Finals. Unfortunately, it took me four or five years to get out the first round, but we made it. As friends, we all motivate each other."
As for the Nuggets, who lost Dahntay Jones and Linas Kleiza from last year's team, the idea that they did nothing to improve over the summer is a lie, a damn lie, and a myth. In my book, replacing Jones with Arron Afflalo and trading into the draft to snag electrifying point guard Ty Lawson hardly qualifies as nothing. Afflalo, a versatile defender who can also score multiple ways, and Lawson -- "He's blazing fast," Billups said -- have been two pleasant surprises for Karl during J.R. Smith's suspension.
"When you win,"' Anthony said, "a lot of things come into place."
But there will be pratfalls along the way, and Karl seems to be waiting ever so patiently to identify them and then let his new co-leaders overcome them. Karl calls these pesky things "windows of failure," and one of them reared its head Wednesday night. Playing the second night of a back-to-back in the midst of a six-game road trip resulted in an unsightly first half. The Nuggets trailed 51-50, and Anthony was 1-for-11 from the floor. 'Melo eventually missed 12 straight field-goal attempts before finishing with a season-low 22 points on 8-for-24 shooting.
"There are windows of failure in the NBA," said Karl, always good for a Yogi-ism or two. "With back-to-backs, there's a bigger window to not meet the level of competition that night. There's always windows of failure in defensive scenarios. Now when he gets double-teamed, he knows the game will give him his opportunities. He doesn't force his opportunities. He doesn't create a window of failure."
A window of success is much harder to open. But as 'Melo has learned, there's a reason for that. The reward is much more satisfying.
