The Detroit Pistons did it with a J Cole jersey earlier this year along with a “tryout” offer that, let’s be honest, just didn’t seem to be real. But this time, we at least got Cole on the court. The hip-hop superstar was actually running with the Orlando Magic in a team practice. Like, it was really him. Practicing. With the Magic. Cole Anthony, RJ Hampton. All of them.
Cole Anthony Rumors
All NBA Players
Position: G
Born: 05/15/00
Height: 6-3 / 1.91
Weight:190 lbs. / 86.2 kg.
Salary: $3,449,400
Born: 05/15/00
Height: 6-3 / 1.91
Weight:190 lbs. / 86.2 kg.
Salary: $3,449,400
Something that immediately stood out to the scouts was Anthony’s scoring ability. “Cole Anthony is a guy who’s scored his whole life, and I think in the NBA he’s going to be able to find a way to put the ball in the basket,” Scout A said.
A common refrain from the scouts is that Anthony is anything but bashful. Scout B mentioned some of Anthony’s late-game heroics in close games as a positive sign for his future. “He showed that he’s not afraid to take a big shot at the end — (he had) a couple of game-winners — and he competes,” Scout B said. Indeed, Anthony thrived late in games, making eight of his 13 shot attempts in “clutch” situations, with the score within five points during the final five minutes of games.
That said, when Anthony left college, Scout D thought the guard would be too short to attack the rim aggressively, but Scout D has changed his mind after he watched Anthony extensively as a rookie. “He was getting in the paint more than I thought he could,” Scout D said. “He could get in the paint and throw up a variety of shots. I thought the physicality would be too much for him coming in the door (of the league), but he managed to get in there and make some tough shots. So he does that well.”
In short: Anthony is a high-usage, but low-efficiency, player at this stage of his career. “I think he gets out of control a bit, and of course, he’s a score-first guy,” Scout D said, adding later that he suspects that Magic players must have found it frustrating to play alongside Anthony last season.
The scouts all said Anthony’s tendency to look for his own shot should slot him into a combo guard role on offense, but the scouts also agreed that Anthony is much too small to defend opposing shooting guards. “I think he can play off the ball,” Scout A said. “But I don’t think he’s a two-guard, per se. I know everybody talks about ‘positionless basketball,’ and that’s cool. What it basically means is you can play a bunch of good players together, but I don’t think consistently you would see him in the role of CJ McCollum. I think right now he’s got to be on the ball for him to be at his most effective. “He’s just going to run into problems (if he’s off the ball on defense). That’s really what happens to Portland a lot in the playoffs. They’re so small in the backcourt (that) they don’t really impact things defensively. So I think it would be a hard thing to ask him to guard two-guards for a whole year physically. And he’s got to stay healthy. That’s the other part of it, too.”
Cole Anthony dribbles the basketball with a grudge, forged in self-belief and feelings of disrespect. He’s carrying it into his second season with the Magic. “One-hundred percent,” Anthony, 21, said in an interview with the Daily News. “It’s still 14 dudes in that draft that was picked ahead of me. I take that personally.”
