Miami Heat: Would Carmelo Anthony be willing to buy into the “Heat Culture”

Carmelo Anthony only played 10 games last season. While he can still score it and worthy of a roster spot somewhere, would he buy into the Miami Heat way?

The Miami Heat head into next season with a very good chance to compete for the East. While many have said that they don’t have enough at this point, the weakened Eastern Conference can definitely be had. Besides, there are still names out there to be had as well that could help this Heat team.

Although Chauncey Billups, current ESPN NBA personality and former NBA Champion isn’t one of these names, he did drop bombs earlier this week about one of these names. During an appearance on Sirius XM’s NBA radio, Billups spoke on why he thinks Carmelo Anthony isn’t in the league currently.

Billups spoke to Carmelo’s major fault, which is the need to get his own off, regardless of what it means for the team. Here is a video of the Billups quotes from the NBA on ESPN twitter account.

As he stated, it appears that Carmelo has always been more about himself and what he does as an individual player than what the results are for his team. What does this have to do with the Miami Heat though?

With a weakened Eastern Conference to navigate, Anthony’s scoring punch could be a welcomed sight to the team in South Beach. The question still remains though, would he buy into the Miami Heat way, the Miami Heat Culture?

Before we get into that specifically, here are the preliminary qualifying facts. He is a fit seeing as though in the last two years, the Miami Heat have lacked guys who could create their own shots or take and make big shots when needed. Dwyane Wade could still offer that ability, but when he was one of the only ones and the opposing defense knew that as well, it made it hard for him to be capable on an every night basis at this point in his career.

Melo has never been the best defender, but that can be accounted for as well. There are multiple ways of approaching this scenario, with the first focusing on the key principles that the Miami Heat live by. On top of maximum effort at all times, the Miami Heat pride themselves on playing great team defense, which could ultimately serve to cover up for Carmelo’s deficiencies on that end.

The second approach to take is a bit more pointed and specific. Miami Heat players and coaches would literally have to point him to spots until he realizes where he is supposed to be on that end, as even just having a 6’9″ body in the right spot defensively can be effective.

When thinking about what it would take money wise to sign Carmelo, that shouldn’t be an issue either. His last deal was with the Houston Rockets, where he signed for one year at $2.4 million dollars. Even the Miami Heat could find a way to get him that much money if they were ever interested, where the veteran minimum for a 10 plus year guy is around $2.5 million this upcoming season.

As for the main question, that is where it gets really sticky. Would Melo buy into the Heat Culture? The only correct answer here would be that we don’t really know.

You want to say yes because after only playing 10 games in the league last season, you would imagine he is humbled. However, you would lean no due to the fact that based on what Chauncey Billups had to say about him, could that guy ever be humbled?

These are all great questions. If the Miami Heat could somehow get to the bottom of the answers, and providing that they are the right ones, they should definitely look into the possibility.

Carmelo should be ready to go, fresh as possible from having a year off, and dare I say even have a chip on his shoulder. If he is willing to buy into the culture, Miami should give him a look.