JOEL ANTHONY
AGE: 33
NBA EXPERIENCE: 9 seasons
BECAME A PISTON: The Pistons traded Will Bynum to Boston on Oct. 17, 2014 for Joel Anthony.
CAREER MILESTONES: Anthony has had to earn his way at every step, starting with his emergence from Quebec, hardly a hotbed of college basketball prospects. His first stop was at a Florida junior college and from there Anthony landed at UNLV. He spent a redshirt season between his junior and senior years and went undrafted in 2007 as a 24-year-old. Anthony stuck with Miami in 2007-08 and became a part-time starter for the Heat in his second season. In 2011-12, Anthony started 51 games as Miami beat Oklahoma City in the NBA Finals. The Heat repeated as NBA champions in Anthony’s sixth season as his playing time shrank from 21 minutes a game to nine. In January 2014, the Heat traded Anthony in a move motivated by luxury-tax considerations. The Pistons, faced with an unexpected need for a backup center when free-agent acquisition Aaron Gray developed a heart condition prior to training camp 2014, acquired him from the Celtics.
CAREER ARC: Though always a limited offensive player, Anthony’s commitment to conditioning, the respect he’s earned over the course of his career and his ability as a rim protector ensures he’ll have a spot on somebody’s bench for as long as he chooses to play. In his two seasons with the Pistons, Anthony’s per-36 minutes blocked shot rates have been the highest of his career at 4.3 and 4.5, as has his rebound rate. Though probably destined to be a No. 3 center at this point of his career, Anthony has provided consistently productive minutes for the Pistons in both seasons when called upon. He had a bigger role in 2014-15 when the Pistons used Greg Monroe as both starting power forward and backup center than in 2015-16 when Aron Baynes played as Andre Drummond’s backup.
SEASON HIGHLIGHTS: Stan Van Gundy signed Gray as a free agent because he had him pegged as the rare player who would be reliably ready to play after long periods of inactivity. When Gray’s heart condition made him unavailable, the Pistons traded for Anthony for the same reasons. And time and again, Anthony has proven the Pistons right. He appeared in only 19 games and most of them came late when outcomes had been decided. The first time the Pistons really needed Anthony came in the season’s 28th game – his eighth – in what would be an epic four-overtime win at Chicago on Dec. 18. With Baynes out with back tightness, Anthony played nearly 14 minutes and the Pistons outscored the Bulls by seven in his playing time. In a comeback win at Boston in January, Anthony again kept the Pistons afloat with nine productive minutes when foul trouble necessitated his use. And in the season finale at Cleveland, when both teams rested their starters with a playoff series looming, Anthony blocked eight shots in 25 minutes of an overtime win.
2016-17 ROLE: If Anthony is back with the Pistons, it would be in the same capacity he filled in 2015-16 as the No. 3 center behind Drummond and Baynes. You won’t find a more respected player on the roster among both teammates and coaches than Anthony, valued for his professionalism. It was telling that when rookie Darrun Hilliard, little used to that point, helped the Pistons to a January win over Brooklyn he spoke of how seeing Anthony produce when called upon a few weeks earlier in the four-overtime win at Chicago taught him about the need to prepare for every game as if his performance would be essential to winning.
CONTRACT STATUS: Anthony signed a two-year contract with the Pistons in July 2015 with a team option for 2016-17.