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Carmelo Anthony on being ranked the NBA's 15th-best player: 'Don't play yaself'

Ben Rohrbach

This offseason provided insight into what Carmelo Anthony does when he’s not playing basketball for the New York Knicks or Team USA. Earlier, we learned he walks to the corner store in a bathrobe, complete with “Melo” stitched on the breast pocket, and now we know he reads SLAM Magazine.

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In response to the magazine’s Instagram post announcing his NBA player ranking at No. 15, Anthony wrote, simply, “don’t play yaself.” The screenshot, courtesy of The Wall Street Journal’s Chris Herring:

Carmelo Anthony is not pleased with his No. 15 player ranking. (Instagram)
Carmelo Anthony is not pleased with his No. 15 player ranking. (Instagram)

For reference sake, SLAM has since listed Klay Thompson and Blake Griffin at Nos. 13 and 14, respectively. By my estimation, the remaining 12 players ahead of Anthony are, in no determined order: LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, Kawhi Leonard, Anthony Davis, Paul George, James Harden, DeMarcus Cousins, Damian Lillard and Kyrie Irving.

Let the debate begin, I guess.

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Anthony played 72 games last season for a 32-win Knicks team, averaging 21.8 points, 7.7 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game, while generating a 53.0 true shooting percentage and 20.3 player efficiency rating. He ranked in the NBA’s top 15 in one of those five statistical categories — scoring, where he ranked 13th, behind 10 of the aforementioned 14 as well as DeMar DeRozan and Isaiah Thomas.

In terms of PER, Melo ranked 33rd among those who played at least 1,000 minutes last season, right between DeAndre Jordan (20.6) and Dwyane Wade (20.3). That’s a pretty good statistical jumping off point, since Curry, Durant, Westbrook, James, Paul and Leonard produced the six best PERs in 2015-16.

Carmelo Anthony can't brush off his No. 15 player ranking. (Getty Images)
Carmelo Anthony can’t brush off his No. 15 player ranking. (Getty Images)

MVP votes last season went to 10 different players, and Anthony wasn’t one of them. In order, they were Curry, Leonard, James, Westbrook, Durant, Paul, Draymond Green, Lillard, Harden and Kyle Lowry. Likewise, Melo was not among the 15 players who made All-NBA rosters. He received all of two Third Team votes from the 129 ballots cast, fewer than 31 other players, including LaMarcus Aldridge, Andre Drummond, Paul Millsap, Al Horford, Karl-Anthony Towns, Hassan Whiteside, Pau Gasol, Jimmy Butler, Dirk Nowitzki, John Wall, Kemba Walker, Tim Duncan, Gordon Hayward and Dwight Howard.

After finishing third in the MVP voting four years ago, Anthony finished 15th in 2013-14 and has not received a vote since, partially because he played only half a season with knee problems in 2014-15. He has not made an All-NBA roster since 2013, when he was voted to the league’s Second Team.

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That year is also the last time Melo’s team made the playoffs. He is 32 years old now, and no other player ranked ahead of him is older, including James, who is 215 days younger than Anthony. All of that is to say SLAM’s list is pretty darn accurate, if not too kind to Melo. I, for one, would take at least a handful more players ahead of him. That 19 players are listed ahead of Towns is a bigger issue.

And that’s the fun thing about rankings. They’re completely subjective. I could probably write 3,000 words on why Anthony isn’t even the best player on his own team. (I see you, Kristaps Porzingis.) Which is why we also should have no issue with Anthony responding to his No. 15 ranking with, “Don’t play yaself.” You want Anthony to think he’s better than that. I mean, he did just win his third gold medal. And everyone on this list not ranked No. 1 probably has an issue with the rankings, too.

Just don’t tell Anthony Sports Illustrated listed him at No. 24 when they went through the same exercise last month, adding Aldridge, Green, Lowry, Millsap, Butler, Wall, Horford, Jordan, Marc Gasol and Towns to 13 of the 14 guys SLAM ranked ahead of Melo (Irving was the exception, at No. 25).

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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!