Is Lin a better all around player than Melo ?

[Boris Badenov]

I dont think Lin is the 28th best rebounding point guard.  Maybe you are counting his 28 total games played to get that ranking, but that doesnt illustrate what he's doing now.  I think it's more appropriate to look at where his rebounding numbers would rank for the games he's been starting.  I highly doubt that analysis would show him to be close to the 28th best at his position.  I'd say there are maybe 5 or 6 starting point guards that rebound better than him.

As of today, Lin is 27th in rebounds per 48 minutes among PGs.

http://bit.ly/xiXPqk

[bostonpatriot]

He was also shooting almost 70% in long 2s.

[Moranis]

Lin turns the ball over more because he runs the offense.  Point guards and players with high assist numbers are usually high in turnovers.  I'd say Carmelo is at least as turnover prone as Lin, considering how few of Melos turnovers are due to him attempting a pass.  

Lin has a 1.78 assist to turnover ration (tied for 43rd among PG's with at least 30 games played - yes I know Lin has only played 27, but I included him).  Anthony has a 1.38 assist to turnover ratio (25th among SF's with at least 30 games played)

As far as rebounding...melo is 5 inches taller and plays closer to the basket...of course he SHOULD have higher rebound numbers.  However, I'd say that Lin is at least as good a rebounder for his position, as Melo is at his.  

Melo is 8th among SF's, Lin is 28th among PG's. 

I agree that Melo is a more prolific scorer, but while Lins FG%, and 3pt% are as far above Melos as they are now, I think it's tough to say definitively who is the better scorer.  Lin has shown the ability to score 20-30 points a game while also racking up double digit assists.  Melo has never done that.

Lin is definitely more efficient at this point, but Melo has been required to shoot a lot more, which generally reduces ones efficiency. 

The Nuggets made the playoffs with Melo as their best player, but thats not necessarily because of him.  It isnt like he was making those teams better the way Lin was the Knicks in Melos absence.  Melo just happened to be the best player on some pretty stacked, well balanced, and well coached teams.

Really, Denver's teams were stacked?  That is a new one on me.  I seem to recall Denver making the conference finals pretty much solely because of Melo and Billups (who was aging and couldn't go full bore every game).  The rest of that team was comprised of role players. 

Having a lower assist/turnover ratio is basically what I was saying about Lin.  My point, was that his turnovers are inflated by his play making. Having a lower assist to turnover ratio is what is really important, and shows Melo to be more turnover prone in my eyes.

I dont think Lin is the 28th best rebounding point guard.  Maybe you are counting his 28 total games played to get that ranking, but that doesnt illustrate what he's doing now.  I think it's more appropriate to look at where his rebounding numbers would rank for the games he's been starting.  I highly doubt that analysis would show him to be close to the 28th best at his position.  I'd say there are maybe 5 or 6 starting point guards that rebound better than him.

When Lin was playing without Melo or Amare (and before JR smith), I'd say that he had to shoot more than Melo ever has to make some offense on that team....it didnt appear to reduce his efficiency. If anything, having the ball in his hands appeared to raise his efficiency.

Yes, I do this Melo played on stacked teams.  Chauncey was playing at an all star level then, but they also had a premier center in Nene, allen Iverson playing some of the best ball of his career, along with kenyon Martin, jr smith, marcus camby, andre miller...ALONG with great role players.  Any of those teams would have been very dangerous with or without melo.

Since February 4th, Lin is at 3.63 rebounds a game which is 10th best among PG's (and just barely ahead of Irving and Paul) of course in March he at just 2.5 rebounds a game (below his total season average).  His overall rebounder per 48 minutes actually ranked him 15th among PG's with at least as many games played as him (this being his efficiency really doesn't matter the early games when he didn't play very many minutes).  

As for the ASS/TO ratio, of course a PG has a better one.  They should.  My point was merely that Lin was downright awful for a PG in that stat, while Melo was slightly below average for a SF in that stat.  Even Baron Davis is at 2.36 i.e. much greater than Lin and they play on the same team.  Only Chalmers and Westbrook have worse ASS/TO ratios than Lin of any starting PG and Westbrook is more like a SG and Chalmers rarely has the ball in his hand like a normal PG.  Jeremy Lin is terrible taking care of the ball for his position.  Melo is slightly below average for his position.

Jeremy Lin is a mediocre PG.  He took advantage of a situation and made the most of it, but he is no where near the player that Carmelo Anthony is.  It isn't close.

[OnyxCashew]

are you kidding me?  melo is one of the sweetest scorers in the league.  can't stop him when he gets it going.  a lot of pgs look good playing for mike d.  melo and lin both look worse than they are when they try to play together.

[ballin]

They're both overrated. I wouldn't take either of them, unless I was getting Lin on his current rookie salary.

[Finkelskyhook]

Lin's not a better player than the snitchster...But a lot more conducive to winning.

[greenpride32]

If you're strictly talking about 1 one 1 offensive talent, Melo is in the top 5 so there is no comparison with Lin there.

But there's no denying a Carmelo led NYK team was on the outside looking in for a playoff spot; Melo goes out and Lin comes in and vaults the Knicks to the 7th seed; Melo comes back and they're out of the playoffs again.

Melo is a horrible teammate as someone already mentioned.  He called for the ball against the Bulls last night; didn't get it, and threw a fit afterwards.  He reportedly was against the signing of JR Smith and now that creates some more locker room turmoil.  During the ASG he was asked about the emergence of Lin and he refused to address it and kept changing the subject.  Didn't say any of your typical "it's great to see him grow as a player; he's going to help this team" etc.  It was like he was offended that someone would interview Melo and the questions weren't all centered around Melo.  He couldn't divert any attention to the team or to Lin; it was all about him.

Regarding Lin's stats dropping off, it was pretty obvious that was going to happen when Melo, Stat, and Baron all returned.  He's still average over 20 PER.  Really no different than expecting Pierce's scoring average to down when KG and Allen came onboard.