Stephen A. Smith is no stranger to controversial takes, but saying Carmelo Anthony would have won a title if the Detroit Pistons had drafted him is not one of them.
SAS certainly isn’t the first person to make this claim, as it’s been talked about for 22 years, but the hypothetical has been unearthed again recently as people reflect on Melo’s career before his induction into the Hall of Fame.
Smith made these points on the Gil’s Arena podcast and broke down all of the reasons Carmelo would have thrived in Detroit, and they all make sense.
They had the perfect veteran team to absorb him, he would have added guaranteed buckets and shone in the big moments, all things that might have helped Detroit secure another title or two. He could have then bridged the gap to the next generation, and we may have been spared years of mediocrity after the Goin to Work team fizzled out.
All valid points and ones every Pistons fan over a certain age has probably thought about a million times. Every team misses in the draft, but given there were so many stars in 2003, it will always stand out as particularly painful that the Pistons didn't get one of them.
But I’ll play Stephen A. Smith’s normal role as Devil’s Advocate and ask whether Melo would have really worked out in Detroit.
Carmelo Anthony and the Detroit Pistons: Would it have worked?
Of course he would have, but let’s explore some hypotheticals anyway.
That Pistons team was greater than the sum of its parts, each player perfectly complementing the other. They were an unselfish team that shared the ball and relied on relentless team defense to smother teams into submission.
Carmelo was one of the great isolation scorers of all time, but he was a ball stopper (I’m grasping for straws here admittedly) and not a great defender. On paper, he didn’t really fit the ethos.
Would the Pistons have traded Tayshaun Prince or Rip Hamilton to make room for Carmelo? Would they have been in a position to trade for Rasheed Wallace? I’m pretty sure Melo wasn’t chasing down Reggie Miller for that block or defending Shaq or Kobe. Removing a key part from that engine might have changed things in ways we can’t predict.
The Pistons were trying to win titles and had veteran coaches not known for prioritizing rookies, so would Melo have been happy coming off the bench? Playing a lesser role? Sacrificing for the greater good? Maybe for the first season or two.
Ok, this argument is stupid, the Pistons definitely should have taken Carmelo Anthony, but I find myself in the rare position of agreeing with Stephen A. Smith, which is practically foreign territory.
It’s a hypothetical we’ll likely never hear the end of, as Carmelo Anthony is in the ranks of all-time great players to never win a title and people will always wonder what might have happened if he had been chosen by Detroit.