Carmelo Anthony has done sufficient to guarantee his contract with the Portland Trail Blazers.
On Thursday, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported the Trail Blazers amended the Syracuse product's contract to make it fully guaranteed for the rest of the 2019-20 season. They signed him to a non-guaranteed deal on Nov. 14.
Portland's decision to sign Anthony was one of the surprises of the early season. He played just 10 games in 2018-19 for the Houston Rockets and struggled on his way to 13.4 points a night behind 40.5 percent shooting from the field and 32.8 percent shooting from three-point range.
He also was far from a prime performer on the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2017-18 when he shot just 40.4 percent from the field for a team that lost in the first round of the playoffs.
While the 35-year-old will likely never replicate the production of his prime when he was a 10-time All-Star and six-time All-NBA selection who led the league in scoring in 2012-13 on the New York Knicks, he is averaging 16.9 points and 5.9 rebounds per game behind 44.8 percent shooting from the field and 38.7 percent shooting from three-point range for Portland.
He has taken advantage of the spacing created by playing alongside Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum and is hitting his three-pointers at his highest clip since 2013-14.
Anthony also already earned Western Conference Player of the Week award.
The Trail Blazers will likely need him to keep playing at a high level if they are going to reach the playoffs in the daunting Western Conference, and he will be doing so on a fully guaranteed deal now.
"Melo's been terrific for us," Stotts said. "He's enjoying the experience. He's been a breath of fresh air for us that we needed."
Stotts said he has been impressed with Anthony's conditioning after being out of action for a year.
