Throughout his entire NBA career, Carmelo Anthony has proven that he is one of the greatest scorers of all-time. Despite maybe not finding as much success as he probably hoped for on the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets, Anthony is back on the court, getting buckets again for the Portland Trail Blazers. He has shown on the Blazers that he still deserves to be in the league. In fact, if Anthony can find a team to sign him for next season, he could reach a significant NBA milestone.

Carmelo Anthony was a superstar scorer for the Nuggets and Knicks

After finding a lot of success in college at Syracuse, Anthony went to the Denver Nuggets with the third overall pick in the 2003 NBA draft. He ended up becoming a star for the Nuggets too. After scoring 21 points per game in his rookie season, Anthony ultimately averaged 24.8 points per game during his seven-and-a-half seasons in Denver, scoring as many as 28.9 points per game in 2006-07.

The Nuggets had a lot of success with Anthony too. They went to the playoffs in every season that he played for them, and reached the Western Conference Finals in 2008-09.

However, in 2010-11 the Nuggets traded Anthony to the New York Knicks, where he continued to be a superstar. Anthony led the Knicks to the playoffs for the first time in seven seasons in 2010-11, and they ultimately made three straight trips there. In 2012-13, Anthony led the NBA in points per game with 28.7, and the Knicks went to the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

After that season, though, the Knicks missed the playoffs in Anthony’s final four seasons on the team.

He is back to being a star after disappointing stints with the Thunder and Rockets

The Knicks ultimately traded Anthony to the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2017. He then scored 16.2 points per game there in 2017-18, but the Thunder traded him to the Atlanta Hawks in 2018, who ultimately waived him. Anthony shot a career-low 40.4% from the field while on the Thunder.

Anthony then signed with the Houston Rockets, but only played in 10 games with the Rockets in 2018-19. He was then dismissed from the team in November 2018 and then traded to the Chicago Bulls in January 2019, according to Sports Illustrated. The Bulls ultimately waived Anthony soon after that.

After he didn’t play for most of the 2018-19 season, Anthony signed with the Portland Trail Blazers in November 2019. He ultimately proved in 2019-20 that he still belongs in the league. Anthony averaged around 15 points per game in the regular season, and became an important piece to the Trail Blazers’ success.

Carmelo Anthony can become a top 10 scorer next season

Anthony has proven that he is one of the greatest scorers to ever play in the NBA, as he is averaging around 23 points per game for his career. He ultimately ended the 2019-20 season with about 26,500 career points. That puts him not too far behind Elvin Hayes for 10th all-time in NBA history.

Hayes scored 27,313 points in his Hall of Fame career. Anthony needs close to 800 more points to catch him.

Anthony does not have a contract for the 2020-21 season yet. If he plays next season, though, then he can definitely crack the top 10. In under 60 games in 2019-20, Anthony scored around 900 total points while on the Trail Blazers. Prior to the 2018-19 season with the Rockets, Anthony had scored 966 points or more in every season in his career.

If he can just score at the same pace that he has this season for the Trail Blazers, and if he can find a team that wants to sign him, Anthony will be a top-10 all-time NBA scorer next season.

It will be interesting to see what happens to Anthony after this season. For the sake of his legacy, though, let’s hope that someone signs him.

Stats courtesy of Basketball Reference