What signing Carmelo Anthony says about the Blazers

The Blazers are signing Carmelo Anthony to a non-guaranteed deal. Melo has been linked to the Blazers in the rumor mill for years, but it never happened ... until now ... when Melo has been out of the league for a full year and the Blazers are 4-8.

So is this a desperation move for Portland? Absolutely. You can tell because you can just ask yourself if the Blazers would have signed Melo if they’d had some injury problems but were 8-4. Absolutely not! There’s a reason Melo has been unsigned for a year: teams are fearful his tenure and exit will be something like his last two tenures and exits.

But there’s one additional factor, which is that the Blazers’ options given injuries to Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins and the offseason losses of Al-Farouq Aminu, Meyers Leonard, and Moe Harkless — the options left standing are so bad that Melo might actually be an upgrade, even if it’s 2017 or 2018 Melo. When the other options off the bench are Mario Hezonja and a 34-year-old Anthony Tolliver, the prospect of Melo starts to look a little more attractive.

To be sure, there’s no way this can be a salve unless Melo has spent his year off transforming his ability to defend and shoot threes. The Blazers are an atrocious defensive team and rely a lot on isolation basketball. Melo has earned a reputation in recent years as an atrocious defender who relies too much on isolation. He’ll fit right in. But perhaps the things he traditionally does well — score, throw defenses off-kilter — will add an element of quality that Hezonja and Tolliver just don’t have at this point.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. This is perhaps not the desperation move most general managers would have put on their record since it also highlights what a bind GM Neil Olshey put his team in this summer. But the Blazers went for it, for better or probably worse. It’d be nice to see Melo go out on his own terms instead of how things fell apart in Houston, even if Portland is going nowhere this season. Here’s to hopes of a pleasant surprise!

Heat 108, Cavaliers 97
Mavericks 103, Knicks 106
Bulls 115, Bucks 124
Clippers 127, Pelicans 132
Hawks 112, Suns 128
Nets 93, Nuggets 101

Here are the national TV games for the weekend. Click here for the full schedule.

Friday
Jazz at Grizzlies, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN
Celtics at Warriors, 10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

Saturday
Nets at Bulls, 6 p.m. ET, NBA TV

Mike Prada says the Knicks are committing crimes against basketball. Brian Windhorst has a tick-tock of sort on how the Knicks got into this mess. HOWEVER, the Knicks just swept Kristaps Porzingis. Also, the Knicks are only one game behind the Nets in the standings. Brooklyn is in bad shape. Caris LeVert is out a month.

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How the mood shifted about Stephen A. Smith.

Tom Haberstroh on early-season trends.

Be excellent to each other, friends.