With the talent pool loaded in the 2003 draft class, you’d think there was no missed opportunity. With the benefit of hindsight, that’s become debatable. That was the year the Detroit Pistons were coming into title contention and used their second-overall pick to select Darko Milicic behind LeBron James. The Denver Nuggets picked Carmelo Anthony fresh off Syracuse’s first NCAA title third overall. To date, people like to debate how history would’ve changed if the ’04 champions had picked up the future HoFer. 20 years later, Gilbert Arenas illustrates what that could’ve been.

He previously said on Gil’s Arena that Melo could be at par if not greater than Bron if he ended up with Pistons. He doubled down on it again on Vlad TV. “If you’re going to give him something, you have to take something away,” Arenas felt referring to Melo’s rookie season.

For the Nuggets, Anthony started all 82 games in his first NBA season and averaged 21 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1.2 steals per game. Larry Brown was the Pistons’ coach then, and he didn’t have a policy of playing rookies much. So Arenas feels that in order for Melo to be on a championship-caliber team and possibly win a title right away in 2004, he would’ve not recorded his individual rookie stats.

Again, there’s no telling how it would’ve gone. But Arenas believes that if Anthony ended up with the Pistons, “He wouldn’t have been the Carmelo, scoring guy that we know today.” 

Sure Melo would’ve had at least one title to put him level with the other big names in the 2003 draft class. “But he would not be that lead dog score.” On the other hand, Arenas says, “LeBron is LeBron,” and there are fewer what-ifs about him. If Melo didn’t get enough minutes, he wouldn’t lead the league in scoring and he probably wouldn’t have had the development to become the 2013 scoring champion. He’s only in the discussion with The King because the Pistons skipped him in 2003.

Interestingly, the Pistons had seemingly promised Melo that they would draft him with the 2nd overall pick. “They promised me, ‘We taking you, we taking you.’ I’m talking about all the way up to draft day. So in my mind, I’m going to Detroit,” Anthony revealed on the All The Smoke podcast in 2021. However, things weren’t meant to be.

The subject usually comes up during the Olympic season. With four Olympic appearances, three golds, a bronze, and countless scoring records in Team USA history, some wonder how does Melo’s storied career not have an NBA chip. A popular theory is that he never had a strong team around him.

Carmelo Anthony’s resume was saved by the Pistons’ decision

This was a discussion in last week’s Gil’s Arena too. Arenas is firm that championships wouldn’t make Anthony better than James. “He wouldn’t have the resume that he has now,” he said if the 10x All-Star went to Detroit.

There’s no doubt that the Pistons were a stacked roster that season. They had no openings for a wing player that season. There was no way a rookie would be played over Tayshaun Prince or Rasheed Wallace. Worse still, a few fans think he would’ve clashed with Larry Brown and that would’ve hampered his scoring titles. Luckily for the Pistons, they won the 2004 championship on the back of some legendary defensive performances. Defense is something that Melo was never known for in his career.

While we can say that the Pistons would have won more had they drafted Melo, it is also possible that they might not even have that memorable 2004 championship. Anthony retired at No. 9 on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. Would that have been possible had he not built those stats from his rookie season? Unlikely. So thank goodness the Pistons passed.

Stay tuned for more such updates and join us in the exciting pilot episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and SEC All-Freshman Team Selection, Silas Demary Jr.