Carmelo is coming off a season in which he averaged basically 22/8/4 with a TS% of 53. Not sure why people don't think that would be a useful player for this team.
He'd immediately address one of our greatest needs (scoring). For those that believe we need a star in place to lure quality free agents, Melo qualifies.
I know there is "no KG to be had", but keep in mind that back in 2007 we were coming off a 24 win season. Adding 32 year old Ray Allen to a 24 win team really upset me. There was no guarantee we were going to be able to trade for KG. We didn't land KG until a month later. Other teams could have traded for him... and actually, by taking the #5 pick off the table, it seemed like we were officially out of the running.
On the flip side, this is a 48 win team that tied for 3rd in the East. If you added Melo to a 48 win team, what happens?
Two years ago, I compared Melo to Paul Pierce. Here's my comments from back then:
Look, I'm not a huge Melo fan, but I see him for what he is. He's a 30 year old all-star talent in his prime who averaged 27.4 points, 8.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.2 steals on an efficient 45%/40%/85% shooting last season. This idea that he's inefficient is nonsense. He's a fairly efficient go-to scorer that you can absolutely build an offense around. He's also known as one of the most clutch end-of-game performers in the entire league (frequently ranked towards the top in 82games sortable clutch stats). The idea that he's a perennial loser is also equally nonsensical. While Melo was a Freshman at Syracuse leading them to the NCAA Championship, the Nuggets were on their way to a 17 win season. After drafting Melo, the Nuggets proceeded to make the playoffs 7 years in a row with between 43-54 wins each season (culminating with the Nuggets making the Western Conference finals in 2009). Melo's arrival in New York saw them go from a 29 win team to three straight playoff appearances. Think about this when you look at our own "star" player Rajon Rondo and his failure to thus-far lead a team even to a .500 record as the team's best player (we were a whopping 6-24 last season with Rondo at the helm). Yes, Melo ultimately felt like the supporting cast in Denver wasn't enough for him to compete... which should be a story all too familiar to Celtic fans *cough* KG *cough*. Yes, Melo finally missed the playoffs for the first time in his entire career last season for the woefully mis-managed Knicks and the media is abuzz with speculation he'll want out. Personally, I never understood how my fellow Celtic fans could bash Carmelo Anthony without realizing the vast similarities to our hero Paul Pierce. Want to talk about inefficient? In 2004, Pierce shot 40%/29%/82%. That's inefficient. Want to talk about a "perennial loser"? In the 9 pre-KG years Pierce played for Boston, they made the playoffs a total of 4 times... not once cracking 50 wins. And say what you want about 'Toine, but let's note that Pierce's failure happened WITH another all-star caliber player alongside him. In the two seasons prior to the arrival of KG the savior, we won 33 and 24 games. Pierce was frequently labelled a malcontent. Several fans wanted to see him traded. The worst moment of his career likely took place in his final playoff appearance as the "best player" in Boston... where he had a flagrant offensive foul in the final seconds of a playoff game we were WINNING, had himself ejected, and responded by ripping off his jersey and swinging around his head like a classless loser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbwm2tolAHo ... Now look, I freakin love Paul Pierce. I adore him. He's my favorite player of the modern era. I named my cat after him. But let's be real here... how is Melo worse than pre-KG Paul Pierce?
Melo's career numbers: 30 years old, 25.2 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.1 steals, 46%/35%/81%, 10 playoff appearances, 7x All-star, 1 WCF Appearance.
Pierce (pre-KG) numbers: 30 years old 23.3 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.6 steals 44%/36%/79%, 4 playoff appearances, 5x All-star, 1 ECF Appearance.
And yeah, Melo has had two injury-plagued seasons since then and likely has lot a step, but he's still someone who can make an immediate impact. If you add Melo to a 48 win team... and then have max cap space this Summer to go after someone like Al Horford, Derozan or even a Dwight Howard, this team (which tied for 3rd in the East) could be pretty dangerous. We'd retain lots of additional trade assets like Marcus Smart, #16, #23, #31, #35, several other 2nd rounders, the future Brooklyn picks... and Bradley/Crowder if we want to really get fancy.
You could pretty reasonably have a team of Thomas, Melo, Horford + whatever we trade that mondo trade package for... then next season with the cap rising to 108 million and this team presumably winning 55+ wins (even without making a follow-up trade), we'd have max cap space to target a pretty significant 2017 draft class.
Topic: The last time we had a Top 5 pick in a 2 Player draft (Read 6806 times)