Recently, there have been quite a few great scorers in the NBA. Embiid scored 70+, Towns scored 60+, and the 35-year-old Durant scored 40+. In this era of offense, we can see that today's players are not pure scorers, they need to do a lot of things on the court, defense, rebounding, organizing offense, etc.
Carmelo Anthony knows a thing or two about scoring, as one of the NBA's all-time leading scorers and singles champions. The 39-year-old Carmelo Anthony is also the purest 19 scorers in NBA history.
Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Maddy, Iverson, Kobe Bryant, Stephen Curry, Kyrie Irving, Larry Bird, George Gervin, Bernard King, Jamal Crawford, J.R. Smith, Monta Ellis, Brandon Roy, Joe Johnson, Spencer Haywood, Jerry West, James Harden and Devin Booker.
Carmelo Anthony included himself, and we can see that NBA all-time scoring champions LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone and Michael Jordan, among others, did not make this list. Of those 19, there are almost no overrated players. But it's shocking that the likes of J.R. Smith, Jamal Crawford, Brandon Roy, Joe Johnson and Monta Ellis can be selected. After all, none of these players are superstar-caliber players.
In particular, J.R. Smith and Jamal Crawford are both top-level sixth men. The offensive ability of the two is definitely superstar-level, but it's a pity that JR Smith's mentality is not mature enough. Jamal Crawford prefers to play as a substitute and play as a star.
Carmelo Anthony also added that players like LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo are not pure scorers. Carmelo Anthony said that averaging 30 points per game does not mean that they are pure scorers.
"Pure scoring, like those who know how to score in any situation, these are not the same as the top scorers, the top 10 scorers or the ones who average 30 points per game. No, we're talking about pure scoring. There are only 10 people in NBA history who are pure. If I put you in that corner, you'll get a bucket, and if I put you outside, you'll get a bucket. ”
In Carmelo Anthony's view, a pure scorer is one who has a lot of individual offensive skills, and players know what to do when facing different players and defenses. So like Embiid, who is averaging 36+ points per game so far this season, he is not a pure scorer. Carmelo Anthony also recently said that Wade was the best point guard in the league in his prime.
"I don't think people understand what a great player Wade is, he's probably the guy who is the best at creating shots. When he was still in his prime, he was arguably the best two-way guard in the league. ”
Carmelo Anthony's remarks have caused criticism from many fans and media. Because at Wade's peak, the best scoring guard in the league was Kobe Bryant, and Wade was only voted the scoring champion once in the 2008-09 season. And Kobe Bryant was the greatest scoring guard in the entire 00s of the 21st century. Even Wade sighed that he was not as good as Kobe.