Report: Melo would waive no-trade for C's; Stevens would like him, Ainge doesn't

[Granath]

Stop with this Olympics nonsense, international bball is not the NBA.

Kenneth Faried was the best player on the court in the FIBA world championships, and he's a backup on a bad team. Carmelo is not a top 40 NBA player at this point

Melo looked good on the Olympic team. Cousins did not.

What games were you watching?

Melo scored 12ppg and 5.3 rebounds on 39% shooting in 23 minutes/game. 'Melo had one good game against Australia (31 points) and otherwise sucked. He scored in single digits in the final 3 games (you know, the medal ones).

Cousins scored 9ppg and 6 boards on 61% shooting in 14 minutes/game. Cousins scored in double digits in two of the last 3 games and was +19 and +34 in those games.

They basically had the same +/- for the tournament despite Cousins playing 50% fewer minutes. In short, Cousins was (1) far more effective per minute and (2) far more effective when the biggest games rolled around.

[bogg]

Carmelo is not a top 40 NBA player at this point

He doesn't need to be, because it only takes expirings and some spare firsts to outbid a package of Rivers and Crawford, and Boston would only need him to be a second/third option who gets you some buckets during those stretches when Isaiah's off the floor. All these arguments about whether or not Carmelo's a real superstar ignore the fact that he'd just be replacing Boston's fifth starter.

[RAAAAAAAANDY]

Stop with this Olympics nonsense, international bball is not the NBA.

Kenneth Faried was the best player on the court in the FIBA world championships, and he's a backup on a bad team. Carmelo is not a top 40 NBA player at this point

Melo looked good on the Olympic team. Cousins did not.

Thanks for proving my point... Cuz Melo is butt and Cousins isn't

[Smartacus]

Stop with this Olympics nonsense, international bball is not the NBA.

Kenneth Faried was the best player on the court in the FIBA world championships, and he's a backup on a bad team. Carmelo is not a top 40 NBA player at this point

If we still had Doc and his iso heavy system than ya I'd say that the Olympic comparisons would be non sense but it's undeniable that -unlike anything he's had in New York- Team USA plays an open read and react style system similar to Brad Stevens and Melo performs well and is capable of making use of the increased spacing  that his talented teammates create and the relaxed attention that is focused on him.

Nobody is saying that Melo is going to be All NBA caliber here because he is capable of abusing Latvian scrubs that wouldn't make most D-1 NCAA teams. They're just noting that Melo is an entirely different style of player when he plays in a more open systems.

It's also worth noting that he won a championship in College playing in a system that emphasized ball movement.