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Carmelo Anthony wasted no time getting into action for the Portland Trail Blazers, making his team debut in the starting lineup Tuesday in a loss to the New Orleans Pelicans.
Melo, who officially signed his contract with the Blazers earlier Tuesday, finished with 10 points on 4-of-14 shooting with four rebounds and five turnovers in 24 minutes against New Orleans. Having not played in the NBA since Nov. 11, 2018, Anthony cleared showed some rust in his return.
The encouraging thing is it appears the Blazers have no intentions of taking him out of the starting lineup, so if Melo can find his shot he may be able to return some fantasy basketball value at some point. Anthony finished with 15.5 DraftKings fantasy points at $3,900, so technically he hit 5x his salary in value despite the poor outing, mostly thanks to two 3-pointers.
We’ll continue to track Anthony’s stats as the season progresses. I still believe Melo can become a decent fantasy contributor, but Portland is now 5-10 and the Blazers season is wearing thin.