With Carmelo Anthony now 33 years old and joining a team with multiple other All-Stars, everyone expected his numbers to go down a bit this season. That's just what happens when you go from being the No. 1 option to, at times, the No. 3 option.
However, no one expected him to struggle as much as he has with the OKC Thunder, especially shooting the ball. For the season, Anthony is averaging 18.1 points and hitting just 40.6 percent of his field-goal attempts, which would both be career lows. And over his last four games in particular, he's hit a new low.
During the Thunder's last four games, Anthony is averaging just over 10 points, and shooting a miserable 33.9 percent from the field, and 11.8 percent from the 3-point line. Following OKC's loss to the Brooklyn Nets in Mexico City on Thursday night, Anthony, who scored 11 points on 5-of-20 shooting in the game, addressed his offensive problems.
Anthony's comments on his poor offensive performance lately:
But for me, I think the past three, four games has, offensively, been the toughest stretch for me as far as scoring the basketball, making shots. I think it's just for me, a rough stretch for myself personally. It's probably the roughest I've had throughout my career.
Anthony is not alone in his struggles. As a team, the Thunder are just 11-13, and if the season ended today, they would not be in the playoffs. Given the talent on the team, it seems likely the Thunder will turn things around enough to at least make the postseason. But thus far, OKC's big summer is not paying off.
