Houston Rockets forward P.J. Tucker says Carmelo Anthony will be a good fit on the team and is excited to see how Anthony will play with All-Star point guard Chris Paul.
Anthony signed a one-year, $2.4 million deal with the Rockets after getting bought out by the Atlanta Hawks. Paul advocated Houston to sign Anthony, who will compete for a starting spot in training camp, but could ultimately come off the bench based on whatever head coach Mike D’Antoni decides makes most sense for the Rockets.
Many around the league aren’t so sure Anthony will make the Rockets better. In his lone season with the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2017-18, Anthony averaged a career-low 16.2 points per game and shot only 40.4 percent from the field and 35.7 percent from beyond the arc.
Tucker, however, believes Anthony is a great addition to the team:
PJ Tucker on how Carmelo Anthony fits with the #Rockets: “Everybody always talks about Melo this, Melo that. Melo is a great basketball player. He’s an all time great scorer in this league. Coming to a team where we score a lot, he’ll fit right in on our team.”
— Alykhan Bijani (@Rockets_Insider) August 22, 2018
“It’s easy to play for Chris Paul, it’s not hard. I do not know anyone who said they could not play with Chris Paul. I think Melo will fall right in. He literally comes out of timeouts and tells you where to go. And it works every time.”
— Alykhan Bijani (@Rockets_Insider) August 22, 2018
The Rockets will get together in the Bahamas during the first week of September for about a week to bond and play basketball before training camp begins. The Rockets players went to the Bahamas last year prior to the start of the 2017-18 season and went on to have the best regular-season in franchise history.
Houston lost to the Golden State Warriors in seven games in the Western Conference Finals. The Rockets took a 3-2 series lead heading into Game 6, but Paul missed Games 6 and 7 with a hamstring injury and the team wasn’t able to close out the series without its floor general.
The NBA’s Most Valuable Player in 2018, James Harden, says it’s important to build chemistry before the season starts.
“It’s extremely important,” Harden said in an interview with Marc Berman of FOX 26 Sports. “I think last year, it was great for us because we kind of built our chemistry up before training camp and then obviously adding Chris and adding P.J. We got a year under our belt. Bringing other guys in. James [Ennis] and Melo, just got to get them acclimated before training camp starts. It’s something we need.”
