Golden State Warriors: Damian Lillard tells Dubs ‘good luck’ if they get Carmelo
The Golden State Warriors would be in trouble if the Portland Trailblazers landed Carmelo Anthony in a trade, according to Damian Lillard.
The Portland Trailblazers continue to talk. Last year, they spent a lot of time trying to throw shade at Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and the Golden State Warriors. They did that when they weren’t, you know, fighting for the eighth spot in the playoffs with their .500 record or getting swept by the Dubs in the opening round of the playoffs.
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Last year was the summer of “there’s only one ball.” The new-look Warriors followed that up by dominating everyone that tried to stand in their way, making going 16-1 in the playoffs look easy. Now, after asserting themselves as one of the most amazing teams of all-time, this summer every team will be better than them.
Damian Lillard has opened his mouth again. He talked to Joe Freeman’s The Oregonian about the potential of Carmelo Anthony joining the Portland Trailblazers (via Drew Schiller, CSN Bay Area):
"“He’s Carmelo Anthony,” Lillard responded. “You add another guy that can go out there and score 50 … over the last decade, he’s been one of the best players in the league. Playing against him, you know he’s a cerebral player. He’s smart…“I can only imagine what it would be like having him iso’ing on one side, and C.J. in a corner, and me on the opposite wing and Nurk (Jusuf Nurkic) … I can only imagine how hard it would be to guard us when it’s already hard to guard us.“We can compete with anybody in the West, but I think when you get to those teams like Golden State, if we happen to run into them in a playoff situation now — we getting in the paint, and if they want to help off someone like Melo … good luck.”"
There you have it, folks. Lillard is telling the NBA champs “good luck” if his team were to acquire a 33-year-old defensive liability. That makes sense.
Now, that’s not completely fair to Anthony. He’s still a very good scorer. He’s also a strong rebounder that can play a small four, if he wanted to.
Still, he’s not the difference maker that will carry them over the Warriors. Will they be difficult to defend? Of course. They have two top notch scoring guards in Lillard and McCollum and an impressive big man in Jusuf Nurkic. Adding Anthony gives them another weapon.
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But Golden State will be fine because that Portland team will not be able to defend very well. They would not pose a huge threat, especially compared to other possible landing spots for the All-Star forward. The Warriors would win that series.
Lillard’s comments might get taken out of context just a bit, but he and McCollum have not been shy about talking about how they think they’d fare with Anthony.