Houston, We Have A Melo

Carmelo Anthony has finally made his elusive decision. One that would determine the fate of the upcoming 2018-19 NBA season and he did it at a perfect time. Carmelo Anthony has made his official move to the Houston Rockets.

The news broke out a few days ago as reports speculated that Melo would be indeed heading to Houston and it was only on Monday that Melo signed his one year deal that worth $2,3 million. Yes, Carmelo will play for the Rockets for only one year and it’s only until next season he will be an unrestricted free agent…again.

IMAGE CREDIT: NY DAILY NEWS

But what does this mean for Melo and the Rockets? A one year deal for a 10 time All Star? Well to put it to simple terms, the Rockets are putting this to trial. To see if the addition of Melo will truly strengthen the Rockets and make them a true contender in the already heavily stacked Western Conference.

And who can blame the Rockets for dishing out a one year contract, they want to see if Melo can be someone you can count especially when you want to eliminate the Golden State Warriors and make your way to the NBA Finals, possibly the championship. And believe it or not we believe Carmelo Anthony will rise to the occasion.

Melo is no scrub but he isn’t the same superstar many rave about since his prime days in the Denver Nuggets as well as his early days with the New York Knicks. Oklahoma City was just a wishful spell with him combining with Paul George and then MVP Russell Westbrook but it was just a mediocre team that couldn’t even make to the second round of the Playoffs.

IMAGE CREDIT: SPORTING NEWS

So what’s benefitting about Rockets? For starters, Melo will be playing with his best friend Chris Paul whom many predict will bring out the best of Carmelo WE HAVEN’T SEEN YET and he teams up with another recipient of the MVP award, James Harden along with the mastermind of the three point play, Mike D’Antoni and he gets a chance to play with a team that ACTUALLY make it to the Western Conference Finals and knock out the reigning champions in the Golden State Warriors.

Anybody can actually figure out that Melo joining the Rockets could be the best decision he’s made in his whole career.

IMAGE CREDIT: USA TODAY

However questions still remain as to whether Melo will come off the bench and if him and D’Antoni will actually get along and bury the hatchet they had back in New York. We just hope that Rockets will be a fruitful team for Carmelo as we are rooting to see him make it to the Conference Finals.

Carmelo has already signed the contract and is ready to don the legendary Rockets uniform. All that is left is for him to actually play and represent the city of Houston. Chris Paul must be ecstatic to play alongside his best buddy.

The NBA Offseason is halfway from being over as the start of the season commences on October the 18th. There are moves still to be made and The Baseline had got you covered.

The Melo Decision

The NBA Offseason/Free Agency has come with its’ stirs and twists. From the infamous and outrageous Paul George’s decision to stay in Oklahoma City to LeBron James bringing “LA-Bron” to life and to the DeMar-Kawhi trade that was made last week. And quite frankly, the drama isn’t quite over just yet.

A few weeks ago, it was reported that Oklahoma City Thunder decided to part ways with Carmelo Anthony and had therefore traded him to the Atlanta Hawks for Dennis Shroder and it left many questioning where will Melo fit in the depleted Hawks. Yet Hawks are in the process of waivering/releasing him from his contract with the Hawks.

Do you know what this means?

This means Carmelo Anthony will become an unrestricted free agent, leaving him with a choice to join ANY TEAM he so desires.

So this left myself and many others asking ourselves where MELO SHOULD TAKE HIS TALENTS…and there are only a few teams that we want to see Melo prosper in…

HOUSTON ROCKETS

IMAGE CREDIT: SPORTING NEWS

It’s been reported that James Harden has been in talks with Melo for the past few days and we all know when basketball players link up it could only mean two things; they just having a normal friendly chat off the court OR a player is convincing the other to join forces with him. And we all know the answer to that. But we think that this may be the top choice as he will be linking up with one of his best friends, Chris Paul and the Rockets may just be able to revive Carmelo’s career which took a declining turn as of recent. Yet the only obstacle of this choice, is that Melo will be in the same team as head coach Mike D’Antoni and that may cause some tension due to their rocky past in New York. But we believe that Melo will be the bigger person, apologize and just play good basketball with the Rockets.

LOS ANGELES LAKERS

IMAGE CREDIT: 12UP

Whether you like it or not, the Lakers are just one superstar away from being “close to being a Superteam”. And from a basketball fan’s perspective, this is something we all love to see, why? Because the Lakers are the greatest franchise in all of basketball history and it would be great to see them reclaim their glory last left by Kobe Bryant. More reason for Melo to head to South Central LA and team up with his other best friend LeBron James. And let’s consider these facts; Melo has a house in LA, the Lakers must still have tons of cap space to aquire Melo and heading to the Lakers may gurantee Melo a Conference Finals apperance (not that we counting the Rockets out but the odds are in the Lakers’ favour to make next year’s Conference Finals). So Melo going to LA may just bring a new and complete era of Showtime Lakers starring him, LeBron, Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram.

There are other teams that could be possibly chasing for Melo’s signature on their dotted lines but frankly speaking, the Lakers and Rockets are the strongest teams to offer Carmelo Anthony a new and victorious atmosphere that no other team in the NBA can offer…unless if Golden State Warriors grab a steal.

Stay tuned to The Baseline for more on the NBA Offseason and on Melo’s Decision.

Making The Right Calls

The NBA has been full of its ups and downs, from the sudden departure (but later return) of Derrick Rose to the valuable dominance of James Harden. Its expected for NBA players and coaches alike have been on the news front of the Association yet this season we’re seeing something different. A group of remarkable yet questionable people are taking the spotlight of the NBA. These people are THE REFEREES.

The referees have been shadows of the game and they’re the most forgettable people in the league and yet without them, there is no officiating or any rules in the Association. But when you look at them this season, you’ll ask yourself if the referees are doing too much of the officiating or if they taking their decision taking personally rather than professionally.

Not to take anything away from the hardworking individuals but the refs have this way of ruining a game especially at a fans point of view. Take the Carmelo Anthony ejection incident, all Melo did was pull a move that had him sort of elbow Jusef Nurkic but come on! A flagrant 1 would have been appropriate but not a flagrant 2 when Melo didn’t intentionally elbow Nurkic.

And the LeBron James ejection, which saw the very first career ejection of the King, was a simple or rather shaky disagreement between LeBron and the ref. When you look at it in a critical view you can say the ref should have called a technical foul but what did he do? He sent The King back to the locker room in what many saw as an oversensitive decision. We may not know what LeBron had truly said to the ref but it was not a great thing to see LeBron tossed out the game due to a missed call.

However one incident I can back a referee’s decision is the Shaun Livingston. See Shaun was posting up, may have gotten fouled but didn’t get the call. It’s okay to protest the ref’s decision and get back to the game but its not okay to storm to the ref, headbutt him and expect him to change his call. And that’s exactly what Shaun did to the ref and for a professional player like Shaun Livingston it’s not okay to approach the referee like that. So yes, the ref was right to eject Shaun.

We should all understand that referees take a massive toll at making calls in the game and they often take a lot of criticism from fans, critics and even the whole Association. But they don’t deserve to be treated with disrespect from players but they need to open their eyes more and start making proper calls that aren’t based on the players or the teams. However, the tension between the refs and players isn’t old and it certainly won’t stop but let’s hope Adam Silver (the man in charge of the NBA) will take this matter seriously and find a solution for refs and players.

IMAGE CREDITS:

Header – https://cdn.nba.net/nba-drupal-prod/2017-11/nba-refs-huddle_0.jpg

Image 1 – https://usatftw.files.wordpress.com/2017-_oklahoma_city_thunder_at_minnesota_timber.jpg?crop=0px%2C0px%2C3272px%2C1962px&resize=1000%2C600

Image 2 –  https://cdn.nba.net/nba-drupal-prod/2017-11/lebron-james-ejection-cavs-heat.jpg

Image 3 – https://clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/24740557_10215042004220978_1182953498_n.jpg

Warriors vs Thunder: PREVIEW

Tomorrow morning at 03:00 CAT, the Golden State Warriors will be taking a trip down to the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City to face one of their so-called “rivals” the Oklahoma City Thunder in what is to be one of the biggest showdowns in this regular season. Little is known what will go down but what we should do is look at the aspects that will make this game one of the best games this season.

The Regular Season MVP vs The Finals MVP

It’s been a year since the infamous departure of Kevin Durant from OKC to the Warriors and in last season’s showdowns against the Thunder KD has set alight to the Thunder in all matches especially the game that was played at the Chesapeake Arena were Russell Westbrook roared at KD that he’s “coming”. One can assume the Westbrook was warning KD that he is coming at him with full force. And now, the two former teammates are MVPs in their respective manner which means they will be playing each other at the best competitive levels and little do we know if these two superstars are going to be at each other’s throats. Although nobody likes to see a clash between two former teammates and supposedly good friends, we wouldn’t mind seeing another altercation between the two MVPs. This matchup will be a battle of deep threes and ridiculous dunks between these two. Let’s just hope that these two won’t have fists flying at each other.

Melo & PG: The Equalizers

With the addition of these two phenomenal forwards who can better than most guards in the OKC team, it looked as if OKC would be flying high and would surely be a match for Golden State. But with their recent performances we can’t be sure if we can even label the Thunder as a rival to the Warriors. But hey, maybe in tomorrow’s game Melo and PG may just able to keep the Thunder in the game…only if they play at least 38 minutes of the game because there’s no other player or duo that can shoot like Melo and be able to play both ends of the court like PG. So it’s fair to say that Golden State might have it tough against the Thunder however ONLY IF CARMELO ANTHONY AND PAUL GEORGE GET THE SHOTS THEY WANT AND SIT LESS MINUTES! Either way, these two men will surely bring their A-game in this intense match to keep the Thunder relevant to the Golden State Warriors.

Cupcake Saga: Episode II

In the game that was played at the Chesapeake Energy Arena earlier this year, some of us thought a tribute to Kevin Durant was going to presented. Instead something else happened…it was a rain of cupcakes and cupcake chants echoing all over the arena. Fans had made cupcake posters, mannequins and even shirts that promote the whole “KD is a Cupcake” saga. Mind you, the term “cupcake” is term that is equivalent to be a weakling that was brought up by a former player of OKC. I shouldn’t remind you that Westbrook uploaded a picture of cupcakes the same day KD made his decision to go to the Golden State Warriors. And oddly enough, the Warriors had the last laugh as Draymond Green and Stephen Curry trolled OKC fans by wearing a cupcake t-shirt and KD would later sport a cap with a cupcake on it. We don’t know if the OKC faithful will bring back the cupcakes to the game tomorrow but let’s hope they do because it will be fun to watch cupcake trolling in an entertaining game…hopefully.

Unlike last year, we don’t know what to completely expect in this matchup but we can be sure that emotions will fly high, there might be altercations and even torn jerseys (these Nike kits are really light and fragile hey). What we do know is that this game has to and perhaps will live up to its hype.

CATCH THIS GAME LIVE ON NBA LEAGUE PASS AND OTHER STREAMING SERVICES @ 03:00. SOWETO TV (DSTV CHANNEL 251) WILL BE PLAYING THE REPEAT LATER ON.

IMAGE CREDITS:

Header – http://cdnau.ibtimes.com/sites/au.ibtimes.com/files/styles/v2_article_large/public/2017/01/19/golden-state-warriors-vs-oklahoma-city-thunder-russell-westbrook-kevin-durant.jpg

Image 1 – http://img.bleacherreport.net/img/images/images/photos/003/658/842/hi-res-9f00bdb6f2747e2bdca25da811714a5d_crop_north.jpg?h=533&w=800&q=70&crop_x=center&crop_y=totop

Image 2 – https://clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/5a122a3edb64a.image_.v1-e1511192768948-400×240.jpg

Image 3 – https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C4eCxiSUEAAc6Ld.jpg