“That town was made for him” – Stephen A. Smith says Carmelo Anthony was perfect fit for the Detroit Pistons originally appeared on Basketball Network.
Some people don’t think that Carmelo Anthony would have ended up in the Hall of Fame if he had ended up playing for the Detroit Pistons. According to them, Anthony wouldn’t have become an immediate star playing on that powerhouse Pistons team had Detroit taken him in the 2003 NBA Draft.
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However, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith disagrees with that school of thought. Smith thinks that Anthony was a perfect fit on that team, and Meo would have retired with at least one NBA championship ring if he had been drafted in Motor City.
“It’s a damn shame because if Joe Dumars drafted him instead of Darko Milicic, Carmelo Anthony has a title, if not two. There is no way he doesn’t have a title,” said Smith. “It was Joe Dumars’ team, and in fairness to him, understand that Joe Dumars had Tayshaun Prince. He had Rip Hamilton. He had Ben and Rasheed Wallace. And he’s like, ‘We have a crew.’ And his mentality was that he didn’t need it, but we needed another big.”
The Pistons did not need immediate help
Most mock drafts had Carmelo going to the Pistons at No.2, behind consensus No.1 overall pick LeBron James. However, in one of the most stunning picks in NBA history, Detroit selected seven-footer Darko Milicic out of Serbia with the second overall pick of one of the most talent-laden draft classes ever.
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Anthony ended up going to the Denver Nuggets with the next pick. He would go on to challenge James for Rookie of the Year honors and establish a Hall of Fame career, while Milicic ended up being one of the biggest busts in NBA draft history.
At that time, however, Milicic was an intriguing prospect with his size, skill, soft hands and versatility as a seven-footer. The Pistons, meanwhile, already had a loaded team, didn’t need immediate help, and could afford to draft a project. But Smith says Melo was a different animal, as he would’ve kept them afloat after their title, and Dumars missed out big time.
“But Carmelo Anthony was Carmelo Anthony, coming out of Syracuse, a national champion, All-American. And what he brought to the table was instant buckets. You know what he was going to bring. And if you know anything about Melo, even though he is Melo, that town was made for him. Think about that town, which was his environment. Imagine if you got Chauncey, Rip, and them cats with you and you can score like Melo, I don’t think they lose to San Antonio,” SAS pointed out.
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Chauncey says the winning environment would have made Melo even better
Aside from his good fit with the Pistons, 2004 NBA Finals MVP and current Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups once said that if Melo played with them in Detroit, he would have been a much greater basketball player because of the winning environment in Motown.
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“He would have been an absolute icon because winning takes you there. That ball-stopping mentality that Carmelo has? He wouldn’t have had that if he was a Piston. We wouldn’t let him play like that. He would have been a much better player than he is now — and he’s a great player now,” Billups said via ESPN.
But Dumars picked Darko, and history unfolded differently. Anthony spent his early years in Denver before moving to the Knicks. Melo also had stints in OKC, Houston, Portland and Los Angeles, yet he never got a chance to play in the NBA Finals. SAS believes he could have won two in Detroit, but that’s just one of the league’s many “what ifs” now.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Aug 17, 2025, where it first appeared.