People in general have a strong hate for Carmelo due to his ball stopping ways but with all the cap space we will have next year, trading for a guy that stars want to play with is a great idea.
With where the Knicks are in their rebuild, and the fact that they don't have any picks next year I could see them trading Melo.
He is a ball stopper...but I think his pros outweigh his cons.
His career assist percentage (15.9%) and average (3 APG) would indicate otherwise. Solid numbers for a scoring oriented SF.
Carmelo is much like Kobe - both have very good court vision and are skilled passers, but they are forced to hog the ball because nobody else on their teams are capable of creating consistently or even really hitting open shots consistently. That team is garbage and has been for some time now.
What's Melo supposed to do - hit Calderon and Bargnani on those explosive back-door cuts? lol
Funnily enough, I think Melo would be a perfect player for Boston. Boston is full of unselfish role-player types - glue guys who may not be the most talented, but who games a possession at at time by outworking their opponents and doing all the little things. Guys who don't need the ball in their hands all the time in order to be most effective.
Melo NEEDS guys like that around him to do all the dirty work so he can just focus on carrying the offensive load, just as much as we NEED that go-to scorer who can carry our offense on a nightly basis.
AND he's a small forward, which we need.
I also don't get why people say he's not a Brad Steven's guys.
I mean sure, Melo isn't your typical hustle / team first / dive-on-the-floor -after-every-loose-ball type of guy. But neither is Sully, neither is Turner, neither is Thomas. Much as Steven's loves those kind of guys, it's not the only type of guy he tends to fall in love with.
Stevens also seems to love guys who play the game on a cerebral level, and guys who offer a great deal of versatility - Melo offers both.
But Carmelo is a VERY intelligent basketball player. That's why he's managed to remain one of the most elite offensive players of the past 20 years despite not having elite physical tools. He dominates opponents by out-thinking them, with excellent footwork, and by taking advatage of matchups.
He's extremely good at reading what the defense is going to do, and reacting - and he's so versatile offensively the he can counter almost anything the defense throws at him. If you sag off to defend against the drive then he's got an outstanding jumper and will kill you all night. If you play him tight he'll use his ball handling and footwork to get past you and drive hard to the basket. If you put a smaller guy on him to stop the drive he'll post up or shot over. If you put a bigger guy on him he'll drive past. If you double him, he's got the court vision and passing ability to make the pass. If you foul him, he'll make the free throws.
There's really NOTHING you can do to stop Melo - all you can do is throw your best defender at him and hope they can slow him down. If you ignore him and defend everybody else, then he's one of the few guys in the league who COULD score 70 and beat you single-handedly.
Trust me, if Ainge/Stevens felt had a chance to get Carmelo, they'd already have him. He's a one-a-generation talent.
You know how we all love Smart, and Danny / Brad probably love him even more than any of us do. But if Smart was the extra piece needed to bring Melo to Boston, he'd be packing his bags.
Topic: Knicks and Celtics trade idea: Carmelo to Celtics (Read 8445 times)