Lol @ Jimmy Freaking Butler as a top ten player. Everyone talks about his elite D, but I see him getting burned by great SG/SF's all the time...
My top ten:
Durant
Lebron
Curry
Westbrook
Irving
Marc Gasol
Chris Paul
Kwai Leonard
James Harden
Anthony Davis
That's ten just on the top of my head. Here is more.
Joel Embiid is better.
I'd rather have Towns too
IMO Paul George since he's taken a scrub team to the ECF twice. Look at the players on his team's career now.
Blake Griffin is better.
How about Demarcus Cousins.
I can keep going....
Embiid is not better.
Towns is not better.
George is debatable, but id say he's not not better
Griffin isn't better
Cousins is better.
Marc Gasol is not even a threat of making the top 20
Butler is a former multi-time all defensive Teamer whos averaging 25 PPG, and who has put uo strong rebound and assist numbers for a couple of years now.
And he's gotten better every year.
As a player id probably prefer Melo just because I think he fits the team better and is more of a difference maker come playoff time - but objectively is say Butler is the better of the two and is probably the 4th best SF after Lebron, KD and Kawhi.
I know I felt the same way Crimson it's strange. If I was making a list of top players Jimmy Butler would absolutely be higher than Melo by a significant margin. For some reason Jimmy feels like more of what we already have and Melo feels like he could put us in a different class.
Like I'm by no means the biggest Crowder fan but his output is fine for the IT show. Just feel like any offense Butler adds would draw from Isaiah's production. Melo would find shots (Putbacks, post ups, rip throughs ETC) that aren't currently being taken. Butler takes a lot of the same shots as IT.
Maybe it's just semantics but I couldn't separate Butler from Crowder in the same way I could with Melo, especially considering acquiring Melo would probably still mean keeping Crowder, where Crowder's inclusion in a deal for Butler was apparently a hangup last time we talked about it with the Bulls.
The way I look at it is that Jimmy Butler is a very good offensive player, and a very good defensive player, and is above average at pretty much all other aspects of the game. I think hed add a significant number of wins to any regular season team for those reasons...but his offensive game is still quite two dimensional - he's generally going to get his points from midrange, or by attacking the basket. If you take those parts of his game away some how, he becomes much less effective. I mean he can still score in other ways, but not in a dominant fashion. In the playoffs you play 4-7 games against the same team You can turn your entire focus on game planning for that one team, and very good scorers tend to be easier to shut down once a team spends a week or two focusing on how to do it.
Carmelo Anthony is a poor defender, but he is an elite offensive player. His offensive game quite literally is flawless. There is no means of scoring that Carmelo is not a master of. You can't game plan against him, period. You can't try to stop him from getting the low he likes, because there is no look he DOESN'T like. You can force him to take a fadeaway three from 5 feet outside the 3pt line, with a hand in his face, and to Carmelo that is a regular jump shot. Guys like that - you can't defend then. You just have to force them to take the hardest shot possible and pray they aren't feeling it. It was the same with Paul Pierce and the same with Kobe - when those guys were hot they were undefendable.
Melo can finish a game with 20 free throws just as easily as he can finish a game with 8 three pointers, he's an offensive monster.
And when you get to the playoffs, and teams are game planning on against you for 2 weeks or 3 weeks, the Ra or if the really good offensive players struggle. Guys like Demar DeRozan, Derek Rose (in his prime) - these guys struggle because they tend to score in one or two ways, and once you learn how to take that away they fold. Even Ray had some serious scoring drouts during his time here because at that point in his career he was mainly may atl three point shooter, and if his outside shot wasn't falling you know he's going to struggle.
But when Melos jumper isn't falling you just set him up in the paint and post him up, or you let him get to the basket. He'll find a way.
Now you out Melo on a team that already has a 29PPG scorer, and who's stopping him? Teams are getting everything to stop Thomas. They're throwing small forward at him to make it harder, throwing traps at him, throwing double teams at him. They can't stop him.
With Melo out there you have TWO guys on the court who ultimately cannot be defended...and the amount of attention those guys get worth make things so much easier for each other.
But the key fact that so many people are ignoring is that Isaiah is the best 4th quarter scorer in the league, and Carmelo is one of the most clutch scorers in of this generation. Two guys with ice in they're veins, who have never seen a shot that they're scared to take I dont care of you're the Cavs, the Warriors, the Spurs, or who you are. No team in the world wants to face Isaiah and Carmelo in a 7 game series, I assure you I'd that.
And when you're in the playoffs, and you're 3-3, down by 12 with 8 minutes left in the fourth...and Carnelo goes off for 20 points in 8 minutes, and you win the game...
At that point nobody cares how bad Carmelos defence is - you'll all be worshipping him.
I know because thats how I often felt with Pierce. He was so turnover prone and need often try to hard and make bad plays, and i would get infuriated. Then need score 13 points in 3 minutes and we'd win the game - and none of that stuff mattered anymore.
Plus I don't care what anybody says, ive watched Carmelo play and he plays HARD. He's not like LeBron, who half the time looks like he's C I asting. Melo plays his butt off and plays with 100% effort every night on the offensive end, and you can see he genuinely hates losing with a passion. He plays with emotion and he has that "killer instinct" that so many of today's players lack.
Does he have flaws in his game? If course he does. But he is elite at what he does, and he'll never back down, and he has the heart of a winner.
Butler is tough, he's physical, and he's such a great all round pause. But he's defendable. He's stoppable. Melo isn't.
Anotger factor that is an advantage for Carmelo is age. What, age?!?!? Yes.
Butler is young. He's 27. He's on a long term contract. He's mind is going to be on building his legacy, making all star teams, winning scoring titles, being recognised for his individual greatness. He doesn't need to win a ring now. I mean he's a great competitor and you know he wants success badly, but he's always got next year.
For Melo, he's 32. He's got no ring, and he's got 3 years left of star level production before he starts fading. If he is going to win a championship, its got to be now. So you can be very sure that he is Hungry. Real hungry. He's said hes hesitant to wave his no trade clause because of having to move his family - which means if he agrees to waive that clause, you KNOW he's got one thing, and one thing only, on his mind - a championship.
Would Pierce, Ray and KG habe won the title in 08 if they joined together when they were younger? Probably not, and they've even admitted to that themselves. They admitted they were now about individuals accolades when younger. But in 08 they were around their 30a and they were hungry, and they wanted to win no matter what personal sacrifices it took.
People see agree as a negative, but if you want to win a title it could be the biggest positive of them all.
Topic: The 2017 Brooklyn pick alone is an overpay for Jimmy Butler (Read 25479 times)