weoutnyc:
Lol im not ratiing him on the moves he has, I would rate him on being able to perform in a variety of different positions on the court. Melo is one of the most diverse offensive players in the game.

Oh, absolutely.

If you think melo is around the 7th best player in the league and I think he’s around the 14th best player, it’s really not a big deal and not worth arguing about about, but you’re in questionable territory around here if you’re going to rate a player’s offensive effectiveness by how many moves he has and how clutch he is.

2FOR18: If you define hating as not thinking melo’s a top 10 player, then here is the reason: LeBron, Wade, Paul, Durant, Love, Howard, Dirk, Deron, Rose, Gasol, Westbrook, Kobe, Nash

Explain to me in what way Westbrook, Nash, Gasol, Deron Williams, or even Kevin Durant are better players than Melo??

Because they arent. None of them can score like Melo (with the exception of Durant and Dirk, but Durant has far less moves). If you want to bring up defense, The only players you mentioned that play good defense are Lebron, Wade, Rose, and Gasol.

Now obviously the PGs on that list should be better passers than Melo, but again that isnt even true because Westbrook is not a good passer.

Rebounding?? Obvisouly the Bigs should be better than Melo. However I guess you are overlooking the fact that Melo has always been one of the best rebounding Small Forwards in the league.

Clutch?? MMMM maybeeee Dirk and Kobe can compete, but cmon now this is a well documented thing for Melo.

So I can only come to the conclusion that you have bought into the media hype that Melo isnt very good, or you just are oblivious to what Melo has done in his years in the league so far, also you must not notice that Melo is actually trying on defense, AND really isnt a bad defender or ever has been a bad defender (again just random media hype). Or have you only seen him play this season?? While he has been injured most of the time?

weoutnyc:
Amazing how many Melo haters are on here. I definitely did not expect that.

But someone please tell me why you all think Melo is not a top 10 player in this league??

If you define hating as not thinking melo’s a top 10 player, then here is the reason: LeBron, Wade, Paul, Durant, Love, Howard, Dirk, Deron, Rose, Gasol, Westbrook, Kobe, Nash

What I like about basketball is that the CBA makes it so that having higher salaries can actually make it harder for you to win since if your players flub, they become albatrosses, and the soft cap makes it near impossible to just go out and buy a new player.

I like “home grown” players to a degree in that they are the most challenging to evaluate, so how you manage them, whether you keep them or not, can be the deciding factor in whether you build a contender or not. I feel like the two most important challenges to building a contender are 1) drafting well and 2) knowing when to give up on a young player.

The Bulls are an interesting example in that they were terrible at #1 but really smart about #2. They must have had a dozen high draft picks from 99-2008. They could have overpaid to keep guys like Crawford, Curry, Chandler, Ben Gordon and Artest. They could have been smart enough not to draft Marcus Fizer (#4), Jay Williams (#2) and Chris Mihm (#7). They could have kept Elton Brand back in 2001 and had an average team, but they were probably correct to let him go as, similar to the guys they could have overpaid, it would have left them too good to get high draft picks, but not good enough to contend. They waited until they had a critical mass of good players and picks (mostly coming from trading the above players) before they made their first major re-signing: Luol Deng.

But someone please tell me why you all think Melo is not a top 10 player in this league??

Z-man:
jonabbey, I only agree to a point. Gritty is more important to me than homegrown. As a Mets fan, I actually found the ’96 Yanks very rootable because they were a gritty team without overpaid stars, and then I rooted for the ex-homegrown Mets (Straw, Gooden, Cone, etc.) on those teams.Once they loaded up with the Giambis, Sheffs, Rockets and A-Rods of the workd, they became a lot less likeable and I went back to hating them.I know a lifelong Yankees fan on this board that would totally agree with me.

I would root hard for the Knicks no matter what, and would enjoy a championship run no matter what, but have always enjoyed the underdog role.Maybe that’s why I’m a Mets and Jets fan, even though I grew up in the Bronx in the mid-60?s (when all the NY teams stunk.)

On the other hand, I never thought after ’69-’70 that it would be this bad!

OK, maybe I did kind of mean “gritty” or something, as I enjoyed that team because they didn’t just bludgeon other teams with star free agents. Plus, it was the first one since ’81, which made it extra sweet for me.
And speaking of melo :)………….
Remember how much Tino got booed initially after replacing my main man of all time Don Mattingly? Then Tino played great, hit one of the biggest HRs in Yankee history, was a big part of several championships and became a beloved “true Yankee”.

That’s all melo has to do.

Win the crowd Carmelo….

Carmelo:

“I will win the crowd. I will give them something they’ve never seen before.”