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No in my opinion

Only 1 deep playoff run

Multiple losing seasons and not making the playoffs

He scores and that's really the only thing he's great at

He doesn't make his teammates better


He's not hof worthy unless you count his Syracuse career but if
you count that then you should also include players like Grant
Hill too.

*Carmelo

His career is not over.

He has the credentials to make the Hall of Fame.

1. A candidate isn't judged solely on their NBA career. It's the basketball Hall of Fame. He lead Syracuse to a NCAA championship.

2. Mitch Richmond has put up less numbers than Carmelo Anthony and didn't accomplish much other than being on the bench for a NBA championship in 01-02, which is his last season. Mitch Richmond is in the Hall of Fame.

I'm not a huge Melo fan either, but in my opinion he should get in.

Ballboys goin ham lately

Yes, and its not even close to debatable, considering it includes international and college.

He averages about 1,900 points a year.

If he can do that for 4 more years, he will be at least #8 (assuming LeBron is the only active player that stays ahead of him) all time in scoring by the time he's 34.

If he then plays another 3 on top of that which I think he can, and just averages 1,000 points, so like 15ppg, he will most likely pass Wilt for #5.

Every top 38 scorer outside of AI, Shaq and the active players are in the HoF.

He will be in easy if he gets top 10.

Also, multiple losing seasons missing the playoffs?
You mean, last year and this year? Out of 11? I mean before this year, LeBron and him were technically tied in that stat and Kobe's missed the playoffs a few times too.

Of course. Just check and see who else is the Basketball HOF and then you won't have to ask the question again.

The HOF has gotten really watered down in the recent years. So yes, he is worthy.

BASKETBALL hall of fame, not NBA fall of fame. As others have said, this isn't up for debate, he's going in based solely on his NCAA career and his raw NBA stats regardless of whether he ever wins a conference title, let alone a championship.

NBABoom wrote:No in my opinion

Only 1 deep playoff run

Multiple losing seasons and not making the playoffs

He scores and that's really the only thing he's great at

He doesn't make his teammates better


He's not hof worthy unless you count his Syracuse career but if
you count that then you should also include players like Grant
Hill too.

It's the basketball HOF, not the NBA HOF, and based on the player's body of work. Carmelo's not done yet. I have a hunch Grant gets in anyway.

Why wouldn't he be?

Regardless of team achievements, the guy scored nearly 20,000 points and had 7 All-Star selections in the NBA before his 30th birthday, and will probably have 28-30,000 points and 8-10 All-Star selections by the time he's done. That's elite in anyone's language. The only 20,000 point scorer who is Hall of Fame-eligible to have not made it into the HOF yet is Tom Chambers.

Even without a championship, Anthony hasn't had "multiple losing seasons" as the OP claims, either. His teams made the NBA playoffs every year for the first ten seasons of his career. 2013-14 was the first time a Carmelo Anthony team had a sub-.500 record (37-45) and missed the playoffs. The guy also has two Olympic Gold medals, and an NCAA Championship too. He's also one of the all-time great high school basketballers as well.

If guys like Bernard King, Adrian Dantley, Alex English, Chris Mullin and Mitch Richmond (volume scorers who had the same amount or less team success than Melo has had) can make it into the Basketball Hall of Fame, I don't see any reason whatsoever why Carmelo Anthony couldn't.

Damon_3388 wrote:Why wouldn't he be?

Regardless of team achievements, the guy scored nearly 20,000 points and had 7 All-Star selections in the NBA before his 30th birthday, and will probably have 28-30,000 points and 8-10 All-Star selections by the time he's done.

Even without a championship, he hasn't had "multiple losing seasons" as the OP claims, either. His teams made the playoffs every year for the first ten seasons of his career, too. 2013-14 was the first time a Carmelo Anthony team had a sub-.500 record (37-45) and missed the NBA playoffs.

The only 20,000 point scorer who is HOF-eligible to have not made it into the HOF yet is Tom Chambers. If guys like Bernard King, Adrian Dantley, Alex English, Chris Mullin and Mitch Richmond (volume scorers who had the same amount or less team success than Melo has had) can make it into the Basketball Hall of Fame, I don't see any reason whatsoever why Carmelo couldn't.

Dantley, English and King deserve to be in the HOF over Carmelo, I'd say. All were far better playoff performers and I'd say better regular season performers, too.

Melo will definitely get in, but he's got a fair amount more to do before being considered better than those 80s SFs you listed, IMO.

Moonbeam wrote:Dantley, English and King deserve to be in the HOF over Carmelo, I'd say. All were far better playoff performers and I'd say better regular season performers, too.

Yeah, nah.

Their respective individual playoff and regular season records are pretty much equal. Melo has averaged 25ppg in both the regular season and the playoffs across his career, and has made the playoffs more often than any of those players, too.

God no.

I've always thought there should be a NBA-only Hall of Fame.
Wouldn't happen though since the NBA supports the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Kind of weird to see certain people in the Naismith HoF. Like any coach with X number of wins even though he has a mediocre lifetime winning percentage. Or a guy like Ralph Sampson who had a very nice college run but could not qualify based on NBA achievements alone.

That said, if there were an NBA-only HoF I think Carmelo would have an argument to be in it and ultimately would make it in.

May not seem worthy but he is definitely getting in. Especially because he can rack up points.

The damn annoying thing is that, so far, the guy has had Glenn Robinsons career with a little bit more kick.

The annoying part is that Melo has much more utility then that and he never really made use of it. He has developed into a tweener on Defense and a black hole on offense.

He should still get into the HOF though.

CodyB_ wrote:The damn annoying thing is that, so far, the guy has had Glenn Robinsons career with a little bit more kick.

Except, you know, Melo's career has been far better, both individually and in terms of team success (no, I don't count Robinson piggy-backing his way to an NBA Championship with the Spurs by playing a total of 270 minutes across the regular season and playoffs in his final year as anything significant in the scheme of things).

Damon_3388 wrote:

Moonbeam wrote:Dantley, English and King deserve to be in the HOF over Carmelo, I'd say. All were far better playoff performers and I'd say better regular season performers, too.

Yeah, nah.

Their respective individual playoff and regular season records are pretty much equal. Melo has averaged 25ppg in both the regular season and the playoffs across his career, and has made the playoffs more often than any of those players, too.

Making the playoffs is a team accomplishment, and Dantley and King had some absolutely awful teams during many of their best years - much worse than Carmelo. All four of these guys are known first and foremost as lethal scorers with a deadly array of moves. None are noteworthy in other areas - Carmelo is the best rebounder, English is the best playmaker, but their forte is definitely their scoring. And what distinguishes them is their efficiency and playoff performance. I've come up with some simple metrics called Score+, PosScore+ and TeamScore+ which compare scoring to the output expected replacing their shot attempts with league average efficiency, league average efficiency at their position, and team average efficiency. Here's how they fare for their career so far:



Dantley and King have a clear edge here (Dantley is actually the GOAT in all 3 metrics for players with at least 5000 MP), and English was the lynchpin behind offenses that routinely led the league.

I've got a playoff version of this metric (as well as a metric O+ based on ORating) which takes into account the average TS and DRating allowed by defense, and it's updated from the 1985 season onward (I'm thinking of the best way to impute data when it is incomplete for stuff like minutes, field goal attempts, etc.), and here is where they stand from 1985 on:



Again, this cuts off the early years from Dantley, King, and English.

Dantley is missing 22 games in which he put up 32.9 points per 100 possessions on .610 TS and an ORating of 119, all of which are higher than his career averages, so he's likely to be better than what is listed. King suffers the most as his last 2 postseasons (the only ones included) were pretty poor and only comprise 8 games. It's missing his first 20 games, in which he posted 39.6 points per 100 possessions on .609 TS and an ORating of 122, so he'd skyrocket in these metrics. English is missing 24 games in which he put up 28.2 points per 100 possessions on .577 TS and an ORating of 119 (the TS and ORating are well above his career averages), so he'd also likely see a boost.

Simply put, I think all three were better offensive players than Carmelo (with Dantley and King being clearly more impactful scorers), and all three were far better playoff performers than Carmelo has been thus far. He's still got a lot of time to build up a better case, but I struggle to see any argument for him over any of them.