In his debut with the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday, Carmelo Anthony confused his teammates, the Golden State Warriors, and just about everybody at the Staples Center and watching at home when he made the curious choice to pump-fake on a free throw attempt. On his second shot of that trip to the line with the Lakers up by nine and 1:24 remaining in the third quarter, Anthony began his free throw motion, only to stop midway, causing nearly every player on the court to commit a lane violation. The refs deemed that a Lakers player stepped in first, negating Melo’s opportunity to take a mulligan. It was his only trip to the line for the game.
Anthony — who scored nine points on 3-of-9 shooting — did not do postgame media. The Lakers were off on Wednesday. However, following practice on Thursday, Melo finally had the opportunity to explain the blooper. “That was funny as hell,” he admitted. “It wasn’t really a pump fake. See I didn’t really see the whole thing. I went up and the ball hit my forehead, so if I’d have continued, I would’ve been an airball. So I was like, ‘I’m not taking the airball.’ So I’d rather take the violation than the airball. It’s the little things that people don’t see within the game.”
When the Lakers did actually release the ball, they had all sorts of issues. Los Angeles shot 9-of-19 from the charity stripe in their 121-114 loss, compared to a 25-of-30 performance from the Warriors. Anthony Davis was stellar on both ends, except for his 2-of-7 mark from the line. Melo jokes aside, this is a legitimate problem for the Lakers, who finished 28th in free throw percentage each of the past two seasons. Both Davis and Russell Westbrook have seen their accuracy from the line dramatically decline in recent seasons. 
LOS ANGELES — This isn’t golf. You don’t get a practice swing. In the NBA, you are not allowed to pump-fake a free throw, that’s considered a violation. Carmelo Anthony did it anyway late in the third quarter Wednesday. Melo hit us with the pump fake from the FT line 🤣 #Shaqtin pic.twitter.com/k2MI4T6xzy — Shaqtin' a Fool (@shaqtin) October 20, 2021 Even ‘Melo was cracking up. Anthony
finished with nine points on 3-of-9 shooting on the night, but hit 2-of-4 from three and got a massive ovation when he checked in the game. It wasn’t enough. Lakers not named LeBron James and Anthony Davis struggled on the night and Los Angeles
fell to the Warriors, 121-114. The Milwaukee Bucks spent the last days of the NBA season dodging having to play the Brooklyn Nets in the first round. The Boston Celtics faced
that challenge head-on and swept Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and the Nets out of the playoffs. Boston came out of that series with the confidence that took them to
the NBA Finals. The sweep was good for Brooklyn too, heading into this season. At least if you ask Kyrie Irving, who appeared on Nets Kingdom to talk about it. Brooklyn Nets Kyrie Irving Speaks on Getting Swept by Boston Celtics Via @Luis02950141 pic.twitter.com/86ELrfgyoQ — NetsKingdom 👑🗽 (@NetsKingdomAJ) September 19, 2022 “We got 4-0’d my G, we got 4-0’d. It was meant to happen like that. Motivation bro. We needed that humbling experience, especially going against the Celtics. It was already built to be that matchup. We’re gonna see them again, we’re gonna have to. They’re gonna be where they’re gonna be. But those youngins over there in Boston, bro, I got to see them grow up. So to see them do what they did last year on the Finals stage, making it that far, I’m glad they had to go through us.” Was it really that humbling? While the sweep was a surprise, the Celtics were pretty heavy favorites to win the series. Did Brooklyn need to be humbled, to get a wake-up call? The Nets enter this season as potential contenders but with so many questions: Can Kevin Durant stay healthy and continue to play at an MVP level? Will Kyrie Irving be focused and committed for an entire season? Will Ben Simmons accept a role, work off ball more, and fit in with Durant and Irving? Is Joe Harris healthy and have his shooting form back? Can Nic Claxton take a step forward and be the defensive center the Nets need? Can Royce O’Neal be the defender on the wing they need? The list goes on and on from there. The Nets are potentially a contender, but there is no other NBA team with so many fundamental questions this season. So maybe getting swept was a good, humbling experience for the Nets. Maybe it helps them this season. But at best it is one part of a much larger tapestry. A long-discussed return to allowing 18-year-olds straight out of high school to make the leap to the NBA appears on the way sooner rather than later, part of the “serious conversation” the NBA and NBPA are having toward a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic. There is a mutual opt-out date of Dec. 15 when either the NBA (meaning the owners) or the players union could opt out of the current CBA, effective July 1. The goal of both sides has been to have a new agreement before Dec. 15 that would roll into place after the current CBA. Sources around the league expect no work stoppage — both sides are profiting from the current system and nobody wants a work stoppage that messes with that flow (and would be a PR disaster in a time of inflation and economic concerns nationally). But there will be tweaks to the CBA. Here are the highlights via Charania. • At the top of the list is doing away with one-and-done, Charania reports.
This would kick in as early as the 2024 NBA Draft, although the details are still being hammered out. • Stiffer luxury tax penalties in some cases are on the table. Some owners were put off by the Warriors spending more than $350 million in player salaries and luxury tax penalties on their way to the title last season. Both the Warriors and Clippers are on pace to break that $350 million barrier this season, and with that, some owners want to make the tax even more punitive (a hard cap is out of the question, it would lead to a players’ strike). However, as Warriors owner Joe Lacob pointed out during the Warriors playoff run, the core of their team is players they drafted, developed and retained, not high-priced free agents. He questioned whether teams should pay the same tax penalties for keeping their own players as opposed to teams built through trades and free agency. There could be owners who see the Warriors model — or what the Grizzlies are doing, for example — and think they should see some tax relief. This is a complex topic that isn’t just a concern of the owners, the players are always happy when an owner is willing to spend. • The sides are talking about setting up a mental health designation for a player to miss a game (or games), similar to a player being listed as out due to a sore knee or sprained ankle. The NBA would be the first major professional sports league to take this step. After Ben Simmons sat out much last season in part due to not being mentally ready to play (he also had back issues), the owners likely will seek some kind of checks and balances on the system. But with DeMar DeRozan and Kevin Love at the forefront, the NBA has been the most progressive league in addressing mental health concerns and this would be a step in that direction. • There also is talk of finding ways to help players create generational wealth after their playing days end. While NBA players today — on the whole — are smarter with their money than previous generations of players (part of that is they are making more), NBPA executive director Tamika Tremaglio wants a system that could create more equity for the players and give them more financial opportunities.
The NBA and NBPA representatives are expected to meet this week and continue talks toward a new CBA. Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck wasn’t mincing his words. In a recent interview with Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe, Grousbeck described Boston’s team as “overrated” going into the 2022-23 season:
Grousbeck is strategically tamping down expectations for his “quality team,” which boasts impressive roster continuity, studded with elite talent on both ends of the court. Offensively, the Celtics finished last season top-10 in Effective FG% and True Shooting %. They continue to revolve around one of the league’s ascendant stars in Jayson Tatum, plus the luxury of a secondary 22+ point scorer in Jaylen Brown. On the other end of the court, they finished last year with the best Defensive Rating in the league. They’ll bring back the reigning Defensive Player of the Year in Marcus Smart, the player with the third-best-odds to win 2022-23’s DPoY award in Robert Williams, and the versatility and vocal leadership of veteran Al Horford. They also bolstered their depth by adding reliable playmaker Malcolm Brogdon as a sixth-man. Their lone offseason setback was new arrival Danilo Gallinari tearing his left ACL while playing for Italy’s national team. It’s easy to see why current betting odds on PointsBet have the Celtics as the NBA Championship favorites at +550, ahead of the Warriors (+650), Bucks (+650), Clippers (+700) and Nets (+800). But that isn’t preventing Grousbeck from opening his checkbook for further roster improvements. He said team president Brad Stevens has a “green light” to improve the team however he can, even if Boston goes deep into the luxury tax.
As for why Grousbeck is noisily downplaying his team’s odds to win it all in 2022-23? He gave it away later in the interview. “Now there are huge expectations and we’re favored to win,” he said. “And we crumbled last fall with less pressure. So, I am apprehensive.” The betting markets, however, are not. The Golden State Warriors have 13 guaranteed contracts on the books with less than one week before training camp opens (the Warriors’ media day is Friday, Sept. 23, starting a few days before the rest of the league because they will face the Wizards in preseason games in Japan). They are holding a 14th roster spot for Andre Iguodala, who at age 38 has yet to formally say he will return. That said, the Warriors fully expect him to be there, reports Marc Stein in his weekly Sunday Substack letter.
Name an 18-year veteran who is excited about the idea of another training camp. They want to return for the games, for the things that matter, for camaraderie, but not so much the training camp part of the experience. Iguodala will play a limited role for the Warriors, much like last season when he played in 31 games averaging 4 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists. He was on the floor in seven Warriors playoff games. This will be a transition year for the Warriors in the sense they will lean more into their youth — Jordan Poole, Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody, and maybe James Wiseman — to help get them through the regular season while keeping the minutes down for Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and the other vets. The Warriors, like other contenders, will approach the regular season with the twin goals of making it into the top six (more likely top four) in the West, but keeping their older legs as fresh as possible for the second season that is the long NBA playoffs. Iguodala’s legs are older, which is why the idea of him missing part of training camp but showing up in time for the start of the season is not out of the question (Warriors GM Bob Myers has hinted at the possibility). The Warriors know what they have with Iguodala, and he knows how to fit in with them. He is plug-and-play. The only question is when he might plug in with the Warriors. Check out his podcast for the answer. Is faking a free throw a violation?The free throw shooter shall not purposely fake a free throw attempt. PENALTY: This is a violation by the shooter on all free throw attempts and a double violation should not be called if an opponent violates any free throw rules.
Was Carmelo a ball hog?Carmelo Anthony is the last great American ball hog.
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Why did Carmelo pump fake a free throw?
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