Carmelo Anthony holding basketball camp at St. John's

Carmelo- 24.7 PPG  3.1 APG  6.3 RPG  .456 FG%

Durant- 26.3 PPG   2.8 APG   6.6 RPG  .468 FG%



Durant is the better player not questioning that. But to bash Melo for everything means you have a personal bias. You may not like him as a player which is fine but you gotta give him his due. He is one of the best in the game today.

Carmelo- 24.7 PPG  3.1 APG  6.3 RPG  .456 FG%

Durant- 26.3 PPG   2.8 APG   6.6 RPG  .468 FG%



Durant is the better player not questioning that. But to bash Melo for everything means you have a personal bias. You may not like him as a player which is fine but you gotta give him his due. He is one of the best in the game today.

Stats are basically a wash so if you say Durant is better you have to look beyond the stats. Have watched both players and have seen Melo hold the ball for long periods of time causing the team to end up with a bad shot sort of like St J's last season when we would run down the shot clock. Also there is the attitude a player has which affects the attitude of his teammates. Durant seems to hustle all the time and is a team player while at times it seems Melo doesn't play hard ie hustling back on d which affects the team. Just my opinion and I can understand different opinion but I must admit I liked the Melo who played for Syr and Denver better. He did come on at the end of last year and I think some of that was inspired as a response to the criticism he was hearing about his game so hopefully he continues to improve his game in those areas.

Celtics11 --- great post.  Once Melo started demanding a trade he got all sour and it seemed like effort was not always given (in Denver). Fast forward to NY, and at times the same thing is happening.  It's a slippery slope, IMO, when you ever dont play your hardest, and by doing that when he was upset in Denver made him do it again in NY for D'Antoni.  Hard habit to break once you allow it to be a possibility for you.

Resigning just because your boss didn't want you to do soemthing would be silly and be bad if you ever wanted another job.

yet this is exactly what you claim he did.

Finally, when have you disproved me wrong on anything?  Do you still think a supporting cast of Camby, K-Mart, Andre Miller, and Nene is comparable to one of Ricky Davis, Wally World, and Raef Lafrentz?  let me know.....

Ok, fine, Denver's supporting cast sucked, but Bostons sucked slightly more. Melo won 50 games with a sucky team, Pierce won 33 games with a really sucky team.

Have watched both players and have seen Melo hold the ball for long periods of time causing the team to end up with a bad shot sort of like St J's last season when we would run down the shot clock.

Melo does tend to hold the ball too long, but it's also easy to pass it when you have Westbrook and Harden to pass the ball to at any given time. You also say Durant's a great teammate and a better hustler and harder worker, but if I wanted to nitpick I could say Durant could pick up a weight every now and then and maybe Lebron wouldn't totally manhandle him throughout the finals, bringing him down on the block basically everytime KD tried to guard him.

I have no clue when we this became about Durant, or why, but the fact that we are comparing Melo an Durant speaks to Anthony's talents and status in the NBA. Since we are talking about Durant too, I'll say this. Durant may be the better player, but to get to the finals, the Knicks need to get through the Heat. Durant can't match up with Lebron because even though he can score on LeBron probably 50 percent of the time, he can't stop Lebron any of the time. At least Melo can somewhat match Lebrons power and quickness, Durant can't come close in either aspect, for what that's worth.

Carmelo sucks so bad that hes starting for Olympic team

Quote from: Marco Baldi on July 09, 2012, 09:27:53 PM

Amare dogged it under both coaches

 Wrong dude. He played great under D'antoni when he first got here.  They were chanting MVP at the garden on a regular basis.  He got hurt at the end of the year and his little brother was killed in an accident.

 What's Melo's excuse for dogging it under D'antoni?

On offense, sure, he was great, on defense, you know, the half of the court where you spend 50 percent of the time, the half of the game equally important as the one where you put the ball in the hoop, yeah, on that side he stood with his hand on his dick and didn't guard a soul. I feel awful about his brother, such a tragedy, but let's please not attribute his lack of effort on defense or his general basketball softness to that please.

Wake me up when Melo wins a playoff series here. Better yet, when he leads a team to a game 6.

NNo one is saying he sucks. That's idiotic. What I'm saying is that he isn't the right fit here and they gave up way too much. 

Stats don't matter.  The proof is in the results.  As a knick, he has zero results. 

  He doesn't even look like he works out.

I'll take Durant over him every day of the week to start a team from scratch.  You'd be crazy not to.

Pierce is going to the HOF.

Im not caught up on all the this thread yet(the long posts I have trouble with). But theres not 1 player in the NBA I take over Durrant right now

Im not caught up on all the this thread yet(the long posts I have trouble with). But theres not 1 player in the NBA I take over Durrant right now

 I would take LeBron before Durant.  Based on his physical presence alone.  I wouldn't call you crazy for taking Durant though.

NNo one is saying he sucks. That's idiotic. What I'm saying is that he isn't the right fit here and they gave up way too much. 

That's a good summary Boo, and a valid point.   

I also wouldn't argue that Pierce is a Hall of Famer, or that Durant is better than Melo.  Both are true.

I just think this idea that Melo can't play with Lin, or Melo can't play with Amare, is being overblown.   
At what point this year were all 3 of those guys healthy and playing together?    It never happened.   Throw in the fact that there was no training camp, and that they switched coaches in the middle of the year, and you can kind've see why the offense wasn't cohesive.   

I actually don't hate the direction the Knicks are going in.   If Amare is healthy I can see them being pretty good. 

They may have given up too much for Melo, but the players they gave up weren't all that great and have been replaced nicely.

Gallo was very good but he plays Melo's position, he's the only guy I was really upset about losing. We replaced Chandler with JR, Felton with Lin and Mosgov with Chandler and Camby. So what did we really lose?Whenever you have a chance to trade a bunch of average players for a superstar you do it IMO.

I'm telling you guys, you are going to be proven wrong about Melo and this Knicks team next season. Next year there will be no coaching changes, no mid season trades, a full training camp, and good PG play and a better supporting cast. First time Melo's gotten all that as a Knick.

They may have given up too much for Melo, but the players they gave up weren't all that great and have been replaced nicely.

Gallo was very good but he plays Melo's position, he's the only guy I was really upset about losing. We replaced Chandler with JR, Felton with Lin and Mosgov with Chandler and Camby. So what did we really lose?Whenever you have a chance to trade a bunch of average players for a superstar you do it IMO.

I'm telling you guys, you are going to be proven wrong about Melo and this Knicks team next season. Next year there will be no coaching changes, no mid season trades, a full training camp, and good PG play and a better supporting cast. First time Melo's gotten all that as a Knick.

 Good Post. I'd rather have Chandler and Felton over Smith and Lin though.. I hope you are correct. What do you think is their ceiling next year?

New york-brooklyn will be the 4-5 series next year.   Bank on it.

They may have given up too much for Melo, but the players they gave up weren't all that great and have been replaced nicely.

Gallo was very good but he plays Melo's position, he's the only guy I was really upset about losing. We replaced Chandler with JR, Felton with Lin and Mosgov with Chandler and Camby. So what did we really lose?Whenever you have a chance to trade a bunch of average players for a superstar you do it IMO.

I'm telling you guys, you are going to be proven wrong about Melo and this Knicks team next season. Next year there will be no coaching changes, no mid season trades, a full training camp, and good PG play and a better supporting cast. First time Melo's gotten all that as a Knick.

Great post right here.

Guys like JR Smith were forced to play too many minutes due to injuries down the stretch. I love JR coming off the bench for 20 minutes a game, not starting and bringing the ball up the court. Losing Fields is a blessing, hes athletic and Im sure a good lockeroom guy, but shooting guards that cant shoot need to be playing in Canada

New york-brooklyn will be the 4-5 series next year.   Bank on it.

I agree kid, so does my 12 year old nephew. This would be great for NBA imo.

They may have given up too much for Melo, but the players they gave up weren't all that great and have been replaced nicely.

Gallo was very good but he plays Melo's position, he's the only guy I was really upset about losing. We replaced Chandler with JR, Felton with Lin and Mosgov with Chandler and Camby. So what did we really lose?Whenever you have a chance to trade a bunch of average players for a superstar you do it IMO.

I'm telling you guys, you are going to be proven wrong about Melo and this Knicks team next season. Next year there will be no coaching changes, no mid season trades, a full training camp, and good PG play and a better supporting cast. First time Melo's gotten all that as a Knick.

Completely with you on this. I still dont think they gave up all that much. Gallo & Chandler were the gems and as you said both play Melo's position. Felton was very good in NY but hasn't been good since.

If i'm wrong about Melo/Knicks i'll be the first to admit it. I've been down on them forever but truly believe they are in a great position and can make some noise. Time will tell

Quote from: boo3 on July 12, 2012, 08:59:45 PM

NNo one is saying he sucks. That's idiotic. What I'm saying is that he isn't the right fit here and they gave up way too much. 

That's a good summary Boo, and a valid point.   

I also wouldn't argue that Pierce is a Hall of Famer, or that Durant is better than Melo.  Both are true.

I just think this idea that Melo can't play with Lin, or Melo can't play with Amare, is being overblown.   
At what point this year were all 3 of those guys healthy and playing together?    It never happened.   Throw in the fact that there was no training camp, and that they switched coaches in the middle of the year, and you can kind've see why the offense wasn't cohesive.   

I actually don't hate the direction the Knicks are going in.   If Amare is healthy I can see them being pretty good.

It's never that a player can't play with other players it is whether he is willing to adjust his game to fit into what is best for the team. Melo can be the lead dog but must at least on the court get along with Lin and Amare so that they don't feel like they have to totally defer to Melo, and not be able to play their games at all.

Quote from: redstorm212 on July 12, 2012, 10:06:46 PM

They may have given up too much for Melo, but the players they gave up weren't all that great and have been replaced nicely.

Gallo was very good but he plays Melo's position, he's the only guy I was really upset about losing. We replaced Chandler with JR, Felton with Lin and Mosgov with Chandler and Camby. So what did we really lose?Whenever you have a chance to trade a bunch of average players for a superstar you do it IMO.

I'm telling you guys, you are going to be proven wrong about Melo and this Knicks team next season. Next year there will be no coaching changes, no mid season trades, a full training camp, and good PG play and a better supporting cast. First time Melo's gotten all that as a Knick.

 Good Post. I'd rather have Chandler and Felton over Smith and Lin though.. I hope you are correct. What do you think is their ceiling next year?

Why? Felton is one of the worst point guards in the NBA and Chandler is one of my favorite players but very injury prone. Even without considering JR, I take Lin over Chandler and Felton without blinking.

Quote from: Celtics11 on July 12, 2012, 12:23:59 PM

Problem is melo with Knicks is he is not shooting a good percentage. If he was I have no problem with him isolating and taking a lot of shots. I always want my best offensive players taking a lot of shots ie Dlo and Mo for us last yr. As for Nrmax88 my response to you is that your posts were so overly long (like a Red Sox-Yankee game) I didn't bother to read them (though I do watch Sox-Yank games this subject is just not that impt to me).

Not to beat this like a dead horse, because I think we've debated all that can be said about Melo.
But, how much of that (his bad shooting) do you think can be attributed to him being hurt?   I'm not trying to make excuses for the guy, but he had a bad wrist in the beginning of the year.    I think we all got a bad taste in our mouth when he couldn't make a shot in February, but he's a career .450/.330 fg%/3pt%.     And early in the season he was shooting like .390/.260.   He's a lot better than that.

I think he was having trouble shooting early in the season, don't think it had anything to do with playing with J Lin or for D'antoni.   But who knows.   And yea I know it sounds like I'm making excuses for the guy.

Yeah, bad back, bad knee, fingers, elbow, shoulder, what else could he have hurt this year. Not to mention playing with nobody on his team. Again, I don't have any clue why Kevin Durant ended up in this discussion, but it's a lot easier to be productive and involve your teammates when you have 2 other elite players on your team, in Westbrook and Harden. Melo's never played with anybody of that caliber, not even anywhere in the same area code of that caliber, actually. You guys think if Melo played on the Thunder with that exact roster instead of Durant that they wouldn't be running through the western conference also? Because I do.