What do you all think of Melo in green?

[Clench123]

No interest at all. He and Rondo are a weak fit.

And how do you figure that or come to that conclusion?

I think it's natural to downplay Melo's talent because obviously he's not in green.  I'm willing to bet my left nut that that tune would change if we're able to get him

[D.o.s.]

Also, I think it is becoming more and more evident to get the most from him, you need to limit his time @ SF and play him @ PF next to a legit defensive C, preferably a guy who is a strong rebounder and good finisher around the rim (i.e. Dwight Howard).

I'd agree with that.

[LarBrd33]

If the Knicks were ever dumb enough to give him away for very little, or we could sign him as a free agent for ~$15 million a year, I say sure.

Melo gets a lot of hate, but I think most of what you could say about him could have been said about Paul Pierce once upon a time.  Surround him with the right guys and he could be the lead scorer for a very good team.

I don't like Melo.  Paul Pierce is my favorite modern player.   That said, Melo is better than Pierce ever was.

How?

Melo is more hyped and shoots more, but that's about it.

Yeah, I would take Pierce in his prime over Melo.

I love Pierce.   If I'm going with my heart, I go with Pierce.  If I'm going with my brain, I go with Melo.

This stuff about Melo being a cancer... how ya figure?

Denver was a 17 win team prior to drafting Melo.  They haven't missed the playoffs since.   Carmelo Anthony has NEVER missed the playoffs.  10 straight years of leading teams to the playoffs... often with minimal help.

Pierce only made the playoffs 4 times during the first 9 years of his career... and that was with another all-star on the team.   We're trying to rewrite history here.  Pierce had seasons where he shot 40% for a bottomfeeder Celtic team. We wanted to trade him plenty of times... and came very close to doing so.

Winning a championship seems to change history... we seem to forget that half of this fanbase wanted the dump the "knucklehead" after this incident:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbwm2tolAHo

The reason why that incident wasn't a bigger deal is because Boston (and Pierce) were never as relevant as Carmelo Anthony and New York is today.  The national media didn't care.  The Celtics were small potatoes.  A marginal 45 win fringe playoff team in the Leastern conference.  Melo has more of a limelight on him... more pressure to perform... more people willing to label him a "cancer" when his team has rare struggles.


I'll give you that their career stats are similar:

Pierce career stats:  21.7 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 1.4 steals, 44%/37%/80%

Melo career stats:  25 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal  46%/33%/81%

But Melo in his prime can drop 29 points, 7 rebounds with 45%/38%/83% ... And he's younger than Pierce was when KG and Ray joined with him.

The idea of Melo being a cancer is silly... the Knicks won 53 games last season behind Melo.  Denver had won 50+ wins three years in a row with Melo at the forefront.  Paul Pierce never sniffed a 50 win season until the team landed a proper superstar for him to climb on top of.

[Clench123]

If we can get him and a legit Center who's talented, with Rondo still leading the way, and Stevens still our coach, I guarantee we'd be back on top of the NBA food chain in no time.  He's about as big of a superstar we're ever gonna come close to getting in two or three year window.  I'll be salivating at the thought of bringing him to Boston if I'm Danny.  And as smart as Danny is, I'm very sure he's keeping his eyes on that remote chance as we speak.

By the way, how old is Melo?

[BballTim]

No interest at all. He and Rondo are a weak fit.

  No weaker than Pierce and Rondo.

[Fafnir]

Yay for per game stats I guess? Yay for chucking?

Pierce has been the more efficient player, better defender, and more creative playmaker. Carmelo shoots more.

Other than making the playoffs every year in the west Melo hasn't done anything to make him clearly better. Even that's sketchy as team success is a poor measurement of individual players.

Remember that 17 win to playoff season was spurred by a lot of things beyond Anthony. Andre Miller joined the team, Nene came into being a good player, Camby had a better year, and they added Jon Barry to give that team some shooting. Just look at that 17 win team, they were playing absolute scrubs. After they drafted Melo they dropped those guys from the rotation as they were now trying to win.

[LarBrd33]

No interest at all. He and Rondo are a weak fit.

  No weaker than Pierce and Rondo.

Plus superstars attract other superstars.  If we went with my insane hypothetical above (Green, Bass, Lee, Wallace, Humph and boatloads of 1st rounders for Melo and Amare)... landing Kevin Love next season would be a definite possibility.   If the TImberwolves continued to stink and they smelled the possibility of Love bolting in the summer... well then Amare's 21 mil expiring contract, Jared Sullinger and multiple 1st rounders would sound like a nice consolation prize.

Rondo + Melo + Love... the new Big 3.


It will NEVER Happen.  We're trading Rondo for Pez dispensers and tanking for Wiggins.

[Mr October]

If the Knicks were ever dumb enough to give him away for very little, or we could sign him as a free agent for ~$15 million a year, I say sure.

Melo gets a lot of hate, but I think most of what you could say about him could have been said about Paul Pierce once upon a time.  Surround him with the right guys and he could be the lead scorer for a very good team.

I don't like Melo.  Paul Pierce is my favorite modern player.   That said, Melo is better than Pierce ever was.

How?

Melo is more hyped and shoots more, but that's about it.

Yeah, I would take Pierce in his prime over Melo.

I love Pierce.   If I'm going with my heart, I go with Pierce.  If I'm going with my brain, I go with Melo.

This stuff about Melo being a cancer... how ya figure?

Denver was a 17 win team prior to drafting Melo.  They haven't missed the playoffs since.   Carmelo Anthony has NEVER missed the playoffs.  10 straight years of leading teams to the playoffs... often with minimal help.

Pierce only made the playoffs 4 times during the first 9 years of his career... and that was with another all-star on the team.   We're trying to rewrite history here.  Pierce had seasons where he shot 40% for a bottomfeeder Celtic team. We wanted to trade him plenty of times... and came very close to doing so.

Winning a championship seems to change history... we seem to forget that half of this fanbase wanted the dump the "knucklehead" after this incident:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbwm2tolAHo

The reason why that incident wasn't a bigger deal is because Boston (and Pierce) were never as relevant as Carmelo Anthony and New York is today.  The national media didn't care.  The Celtics were small potatoes.  A marginal 45 win fringe playoff team in the Leastern conference.  Melo has more of a limelight on him... more pressure to perform... more people willing to label him a "cancer" when his team has rare struggles.


I'll give you that their career stats are similar:

Pierce career stats:  21.7 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 1.4 steals, 44%/37%/80%

Melo career stats:  25 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal  46%/33%/81%

But Melo in his prime can drop 29 points, 7 rebounds with 45%/38%/83% ... And he's younger than Pierce was when KG and Ray joined with him.

The idea of Melo being a cancer is silly... the Knicks won 53 games last season behind Melo.  Denver had won 50+ wins three years in a row with Melo at the forefront.  Paul Pierce never sniffed a 50 win season until the team landed a proper superstar for him to climb on top of.

Melo had better teamates in Denver than Pierce had pre 2007. I would take guys like Andre Miller, Nene, Kmart over Walker, old Kenny Anderson or Ricky Davis.

It wasn't Pierce's fault that those Celtic teams were poorly built.

[BballTim]

I said in another thread that you could potentially do something like:

Boston trades:
Jeff Green - 3 years
Bass - 2 years
Lee - 3 years
Wallace - 3 years
Humphries - 1  year
our 2014 pick
Atlanta's 2014 pick
More 1st rounders?

Knicks trade:
Carmelo Anthony - 2 years
Amare Stoudamire's corpse. - 2 years 


Why for Boston:  Get an all-star.  Gets rid of all the 3 year deals.  Then maybe they can trade Olynyk, the Pierce trade exception and another pick for Asik.  Try their luck with Rondo, Bradley, Melo, Sully and Asik.  Also... that would mean that all their big contracts (Rondo, Melo, Amare, Asik) would come off the books in the summer of 2015.  They could try floating Amare's expiring at next year's deadline... or they could target Kevin Love in 2015 free agency.  It's basically an all-in move that I find highly unlikely Ainge will do.  He'd rather just bottom out and land a star through the lotto.

  The odds on Danny preferring to bottom out for a draft pick instead of bringing in another star player are IMO pretty slim. I don't think much of anything he's done since he came to Boston points to that.

[Fafnir]

I'm still shocked that people think Antoine Walker was an "all-star" and a good player. He scored a lot, but man look at what he was doing those seasons.

Career best ORTG for 'Toine was 101, and that's from a guy who's supposed to be an offensive player.

'Toine was holding Pierce back.

[Mr October]

Even though I am pro Pierce over Melo, i believe the difference is super close.

I also dont't think Melo is a cancer. Kind of like how i didn't think Allen Iverson was a cancer in his prime. They are scorers. And the do/did it well.

[LarBrd33]

Yay for per game stats I guess? Yay for chucking?

Pierce has been the more efficient player, better defender, and more creative playmaker. Carmelo shoots more.

Other than making the playoffs every year in the west Melo hasn't done anything to make him clearly better. Even that's sketchy as team success is a poor measurement of individual players.

Remember that 17 win to playoff season was spurred by a lot of things beyond Anthony. Andre Miller joined the team, Nene came into being a good player, Camby had a better year, and they added Jon Barry to give that team some shooting. Just look at that 17 win team, they were playing absolute scrubs. After they drafted Melo they dropped those guys from the rotation as they were now trying to win.

On second thought, you might be right.  Pierce in his total prime might have been better than Melo in his prime.  I was probably getting carried away.

That said, I don't buy the idea of Melo being a "cancer".  You dont' make the playoffs every year of your career, lead teams to 50+ wins multiple times and fairly get called a "cancer".  He's a darn fine player.   His reputation shouldn't be as low as it is.   Pierce needed to be combined with a proper superstar big man and an all-star SG in order to do any damage in this league.  You combine Melo with the equivalent talent, I have no doubt his team would be a championship contender.

[Mr October]

I'm still shocked that people think Antoine Walker was an "all-star" and a good player. He scored a lot, but man look at what he was doing those seasons.

Career best ORTG for 'Toine was 101, and that's from a guy who's supposed to be a scorer.

'Toine was holding Pierce back.

Walker was an allstar primarily because the bigs in the East were terrible during his era in Boston. Someone had to help fill out the 12 man allstar roster.

[Fafnir]

Even though I am pro Pierce over Melo, i believe the difference is super close.

I also dont't think Melo is a cancer. Kind of like how i didn't think Allen Iverson was a cancer in his prime. They are scorers. And the do/did it well.

I don't think he's a cancer as much as his preferred style of play isn't the easiest way to win basketball games.

Isolation play, ball stopping, and lazy defense from your best player makes it really hard to win. He's gotta break those habits via a strong system around him, James Dolan isn't the kind of guy to allow a strong system to be built though.

[Fafnir]

I'm still shocked that people think Antoine Walker was an "all-star" and a good player. He scored a lot, but man look at what he was doing those seasons.

Career best ORTG for 'Toine was 101, and that's from a guy who's supposed to be a scorer.

'Toine was holding Pierce back.

Walker was an allstar primarily because the bigs in the East were terrible during his era in Boston. Someone had to help fill out the 12 man allstar roster.

And his PPG was really high from a PF.

Every time I look at his numbers I'm shocked by how bad they are. Antoine's game was always ugly to me but man of man it never seemed that bad.