Skyler on Sports: Lakers surge after slow start thanks to Carmelo Anthony
This week’s edition features my takes on why Carmelo Anthony is the front-runner for sixth man of the year, why Brady remains the NFL’s best player and why Saturday wasn’t the right time for USC to try out its two-quarterback system.
Carmelo Anthony makes his case for Sixth Man of the Year
After an 0-2 start with their shiny new big three of LeBron James, Russell Westbrook and Anthony Davis that had fans panicking, the Los Angeles Lakers are cooking as they’ve won four of their last five games. However, people may have to start acknowledging that the Lakers have a Big Four as future-hall-of-famer Carmelo Anthony is making a legitimate case for Sixth Man of the Year.
The NBA’s ninth all-time leading scorer has been criticized for a lack of efficiency and inability to adapt to the modern game. However, Melo has evolved into one of the most elite catch-and-shoot players in the NBA as he is shooting 50% from the field, 52.2% from three and averages 16.7 points a game this season — his highest total since he was an All Star with the New York Knicks in 2017.
On Friday, Melo dropped 24 points on 9-of-12 shooting as he once again went 6-of-8 from three, this time on the 18th anniversary of his NBA debut. Melo closed off his incredible resurgence this week with 23 points in 25 minutes while making 5 three-pointers on Sunday. What was most notable on Sunday is that Melo, once again, proved the haters wrong as the often-criticized defender was a menace with 4 blocks and 2 steals.
The block party tied Melo’s career-high in blocks. As it stands right now, 37-year-old Carmelo Anthony is clearly the most deserving player in the NBA for the Sixth Man of the Year award.
Tom Brady proves he’s still the NFL’s best quarterback
44-year-old quarterback Tom Brady already has more Lombardi Trophies than any NFL franchise with seven Super Bowl wins. However, he simply won’t stop as he’s now out-playing young quarterbacks that grew up watching him win Super Bowl’s in the early 2000s while remaining this year’s favorite to win it all.
Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers may have lost to the New Orleans Saints this weekend, but they’re still 6-2 after demolishing the Chicago Bears 38-3 last weekend in a blowout win. The Bucs blew out the Bears by so much that Brady sat most of the fourth quarter and still threw for four touchdowns.
Brady may have thrown an uncharacteristic costly interception against the Saints, but before that play he had 375 yards and four touchdowns. The 22-year veteran is still clearly the best player in the NFL as he leads the league with 2650 passing yards and 25 touchdowns.
The scariest part about this is that Brady may be having the best season of his career so it’s impossible to know when he’ll slow down. Brady is throwing the deep ball and spreading the ball to multiple receivers even though he has his best receiver since Randy Moss in 2007: Mike Evans.
Brady’s best season to date was when threw for 4,806 yards and 50 touchdowns as he led the New England Patriots to the NFL’s first 16-0 record in 2007. Brady is on pace to surpass both totals with the NFL’s new 17-game schedule.
This comes nearly 15 years after his best season. Even the haters should enjoy watching this unprecedented greatness from Brady as we may never see anything like it again.
USC deploys bold two-quarterback system
Fans have been enamored with freshman quarterback Jaxson Dart ever since he had the greatest debut by a quarterback in USC football history throwing for a record 391 yards. However, a knee injury prevented him from playing since his debut game Sept. 18, that was until the second quarter of the Arizona game Sunday after junior starting quarterback Kedon Slovis put up arguably the best first quarter of his three-season career.
Slovis had thrown for nearly 145 yards and a touchdown while completing 9-of-11 passes before Dart came in. Fans were thrilled and the seemingly lifeless Trojan crowd was injected with energy, but fans and pundits alike still question whether interim Head Coach Donte Williams should have let Slovis play in this instance.
Dart is evidently the team’s future, and it could even be wise to start him over Slovis going forward, but this two-quarterback system could be confusing for both players. It’s a bold decision by Williams, which makes sense as he’s trying to prove why his interim title should only be temporary.
With the devastating injury to junior receiver Drake London, arguably the nation’s best receiver, overshadowing the win against the lowly 0-8 Arizona Wildcats, making it only more apparent that the Trojans need to look toward the future. Dart will be an exciting quarterback for USC, but he deserves to have his own games as does Slovis — at least until Dart is announced as the starter.
At this point, the Trojans need a cultural reset involving a coach such as Eric Bieniemy, the Southern California native currently coordinating the struggling offense of the Kansas City Chiefs, not a two-quarterback system. With that said, Williams deserves credit for managing a tough situation and making a bold choice, but it may not be enough to remove the interim title unless the Trojans can perform against better teams.
Skyler Trepel is a graduate student providing updates on the general sports happenings with an emphasis on professional and collegiate football and basketball. His column “Skyler on Sports,” runs every other Tuesday.