Knicks Morning News (2018.08.02)

  • [NYDN] Unified in tragedy: Families of fallen firefighters grow together 40 years after Waldbaum’s blaze
    (Thursday, August 02, 2018 3:00:00 AM)

    It was a tragedy that tore their families apart — but they found a new family with each other.

    Four decades after six firefighters died in Brooklyn’s infamous Waldbaum’s fire, the children of the fallen first responders will be honoring their relatives’ memory at a special Mass on Thursday — in…

  • [NYDN] How ICE harms the justice system: The feds’ aggressive tactics in our courthouses are emboldening violent criminals
    (Thursday, August 02, 2018 2:00:00 AM)

    Responding to criticism of migrant family separations at the southern border, Acting Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan recently defended his agency, saying, “We’ve got to have the rule of law in this country.”

    But in our experience, ICE has stood for the opposite. In Brooklyn,…

  • [NYDN] Why this Uber fix is overdue: We need to attack congestion and pay drivers more
    (Thursday, August 02, 2018 2:00:00 AM)

    The City Council has been debating how to regulate the app-dispatched car services like Uber and Lyft, with votes on five bills scheduled for next week.

    Three years ago, pushback by the companies squelched any hope of informed policy action. The key question then and now: Can the app-dispatch services…

  • [NYDN] Cuomo’s worst side: The governor attacks a reporter to deflect from legitimate questions about possible pay-to-play
    (Thursday, August 02, 2018 1:00:00 AM)

    In dodging a legitimate question from a legitimate reporter from a legitimate news outlet, the Queens-raised government chief executive trashed the media company’s corporate owner, disingenuously claiming that the probing journalist was acting as an agent of a private interest.

    Donald Trump does…

  • [NYDN] Readers sound off on The News, smoking and Inwood
    (Thursday, August 02, 2018 12:00:00 AM)

    I’m sticking with the Newsers

    Manhattan: I, too, am aghast as the Daily News again chops its most valuable asset: its people. But there are still good people there: Ginger Adams Otis and Larry McShane, among others, bringing us the doggone truth. Shall we desert them? I think not. I credit The…

  • [NYDN] Court strikes down Trump push to cut ‘sanctuary city’ funds
    (Wednesday, August 01, 2018 11:45:00 PM)

    SAN FRANCISCO — A divided U.S. appeals court on Wednesday struck down a key part of President Donald Trump’s contentious effort to crack down on cities and states that limit cooperation with immigration officials, saying an executive order threatening to cut funding for “sanctuary cities” was unconstitutional.

  • [NYDN] Abortion-rights activists brace for new wave of restrictions
    (Wednesday, August 01, 2018 11:20:00 PM)

    NEW YORK — Abortion-rights advocates are intensifying efforts to make it easier for women to get abortions amid a new wave of state-level bans and restrictions expected to occur under a reconfigured U.S. Supreme Court.

    The efforts include boosting financial aid for women needing to travel long…

  • [NYDN] Advocates say immigrant child died after leaving ICE custody
    (Wednesday, August 01, 2018 10:40:00 PM)

    HOUSTON — A report that a child died shortly after being released from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Texas inflamed the debate Wednesday over the detention of immigrant families, though there were few details about what actually happened.

    The American Immigration Lawyers…

  • [NYDN] City Sanitation truck strikes, critically injures cyclist on narrow Brooklyn street, keeps going
    (Wednesday, August 01, 2018 10:30:00 PM)

    A city Sanitation truck driver struck and badly hurt a cyclist as she pedaled along a bike lane on a narrow Brooklyn street, then kept driving Wednesday night, police said.

    The truck was headed north on Evergreen Ave. in Bushwick, near Menahan St. at about 8:40 p.m., when it struck the cyclist,…

  • [NYDN] Amazon takes down California gun group website for posting 3D printer plans for homemade handgun
    (Wednesday, August 01, 2018 10:00:00 PM)

    A group of California gun nuts hoping to disseminate 3D printer plans for a homemade handgun via the internet suffered a misfire Wednesday when Amazon took down their website.

    Amazon Web Services removed the entire website called CodeisFreeSpeech.com after receiving a notice of unwanted content…

  • [NYDN] Person fatally struck by Manhattan subway train
    (Wednesday, August 01, 2018 9:15:00 PM)

    A person was struck and killed by an R train in Greenwich Village Wednesday night, police said.

    The victim was hit by a southbound train at the 8th St.-NYU station just before 11 p.m., officials said. Further details about the victim were not immediately available early Thursday.

    All southbound…

  • [NYDN] Pastor praises Trump as ‘pro-black’ at prison reform event
    (Wednesday, August 01, 2018 9:15:00 PM)

    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump was lauded by inner-city pastors, including one who said he may go down as the “most pro-black president” in recent history, during a White House roundtable on Wednesday that was focused on efforts to reform the prison system.

    Trump told the group, which included…

  • [NYDN] Daily Horoscope — August 2, 2018
    (Wednesday, August 01, 2018 9:00:00 PM)

    Via Tarot Astrologers

    General Horoscope for August 2, 2018

    Our intuition brings us useful information just in the nick of time today. The proactive Aries Moon forms harmonious trines with the lively Leo Sun and Mercury, inspiring us to live in the present moment. However, the Moon runs into a conflictive…

  • [NYDN] Ex-tennis star James Blake says city never told him of second department trial of cop who tackled him
    (Wednesday, August 01, 2018 8:40:00 PM)

    Retired tennis star James Blake slammed the NYPD and Mayor de Blasio Wednesday, saying he never received any advance warning that the cop who tackled him faced another departmental trial this week.

    James Frascatore, who tackled Blake in front of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Midtown almost three years…

  • [NYDN] Vice President Pence welcomes home the remains of 55 servicemen who died during the Korean War
    (Wednesday, August 01, 2018 8:30:00 PM)

    They’re finally home.

    Vice President Pence oversaw the return on Wednesday of what are believed to be the remains of 55 servicemen who died during the Korean War.

    The boxes finally touched down in Honolulu at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam about 8 p.m. with the VP overseeing the ceremony.

    “My father…

  • [NYDN] Worker at child immigration facility molested teen: police
    (Wednesday, August 01, 2018 7:30:00 PM)

    PHOENIX — A worker at a nonprofit organization that houses immigrant children separated from their parents at the border has been booked on suspicion of molesting a 14-year-old girl at its one of its facilities in Phoenix, police said Wednesday.

    Southwest Key, which operates the facility, declined…

  • [NYDN] Mehta: Jets brain trust believes Sam Darnold, already operating on advanced plane, will show enough in August to be Week 1 starter
    (Wednesday, August 01, 2018 7:30:00 PM)

    He has an indefinable quality that can’t be logged on a stat sheet or measured with numbers, something that makes him so tantalizing to so many people in this multi-billion-dollar organization.

    He has an “It Factor” that few possess and fewer can fully explain. He also is destined to make a lot…

  • [NYDN] Giants training camp: Big Blue installs plays, works on special teams
    (Wednesday, August 01, 2018 7:25:00 PM)

    Landon Collins intercepted an Eli Manning pass tipped by Alec Ogletree, intended for Evan Engram, and took it to the house during the Giants’ sixth training camp practice on Wednesday as the NFL calendar turned to August.

    Depth receiver Kalif Raymond also made two impressive catches, continuing…

  • [NYDN] Ontario philanthropists, 24-year-old daughter killed in Maine plane crash
    (Wednesday, August 01, 2018 6:15:00 PM)

    A husband and wife and their 24-year-old daughter were all killed when their plane crashed in Greenville, Maine, Monday.

    Joe and Anita Robertson, both 58, and daughter Laura were confirmed dead after their plane from Pembroke, Ontario, went down on their way to Prince Edward Island, according to…

  • [NYDN] Two-year-old mauled to death by pit bulls inside Philadelphia home
    (Wednesday, August 01, 2018 6:00:00 PM)

    A 2-year-old boy was mauled to death by two pit bulls in a Philadelphia home Wednesday afternoon, police said.

    Police were called to the 3300 block of Agate Street about an animal attack where they found the toddler and five or six dogs inside the home.

    The officers shot three of the dogs, killing…

  • [NYDN] Teen theft suspect slips NYPD custody, is recaptured moments later by cop on modified duty
    (Wednesday, August 01, 2018 5:45:00 PM)

    Freedom was fleeting for this fleet-footed thief.

    A light-fingered teenager briefly slipped away from her arresting officers near Manhattan central booking Monday afternoon — only to wind up back in custody moments later when a cop on a smoke break nearby grabbed her, police sources said.

    Kylaysia…

  • [NYDN] Quincy Enunwa headlines list of Jets players who missed practice
    (Wednesday, August 01, 2018 5:20:00 PM)

    Wide receiver Quincy Enunwa headlined a list of players who missed Jets practice on Wednesday. Enunwa, who missed last season due to a neck injury that required surgery, was eased along in his comeback this spring. Todd Bowles said that Enunwa’s injury isn’t related to his neck, but wouldn’t give…

  • [NYDN] Daily News Field of Dreams essay contest winners enjoy once-in-a-lifetime experience at Yankee Stadium
    (Wednesday, August 01, 2018 5:00:00 PM)

    Dreams became reality for a group of wide-eyed young Yankees fans Wednesday when pitcher David Robertson sprang from the dugout carrying a bucketful of bubble gum.

    The kids — winners of the Daily News’ 2018 Field of Dreams essay contest — crowded around the All-Star reliever and dug into the sacred…

  • [NYDN] Bodega where Bronx teen Lesandro ‘Junior‘ Guzman-Feliz was killed will reopen under new owners: report
    (Wednesday, August 01, 2018 4:20:00 PM)

    The Bronx bodega where Lesandro (Junior) Guzman-Feliz desperately sought shelter before a group of gangbangers stabbed him to death in June has been sold and will reopen under new owners, according to a report.

    Speaking to PIX-11, NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan said that the Cruz and…

  • [NYDN] Long Island prosecutor mistakenly told judge that confessed killer Danueal Drayton had no criminal past: transcript
    (Wednesday, August 01, 2018 4:20:00 PM)

    It was a crucial courtroom exchange that could have saved the life of Queens nurse Samantha Stewart.

    On July 1, Stewart’s confessed killer Danueal Drayton stood before a Nassau County judge for his arraignment on charges he violently choked an ex-girlfriend in a Long Island park.

    According to a…

  • [SNY Knicks] Fizdale’s goal as new head coach: ‘I want to take the Knicks to the championship’
    (Wednesday, August 01, 2018 11:35:56 PM)

    Knicks head coach David Fizdale wakes up every morning with the same goal in mind.

  • [SNY Knicks] Mitchell Robinson’s trainer thinks he’ll be starting by the All-Star break
    (Wednesday, August 01, 2018 10:25:28 AM)

    Mitchell Robinson’s trainer, Marcell Scott, thinks his showcased abilities in Las Vegas eliminated any chance of Robinson having to grow his skills in the G-League this season.

  • 46 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2018.08.02)”

    Ok, Roberson is a good example showing that someone could give rodman major minutes today.
    However, using g state is kind of cheating; you could give Lance Thomas 30 minutes a night and they’d still win a title.

    If Rodman played today instead of in the 90s, people today would be saying “this Dennis Rodman guy is the future of the NBA”.

    In today’s environment MOST freakishly athletic hard working players with minimal skills will not be able to play. Lets at least agree on this.

    Above young player is likely to get drafted late in 2nd if at all, and would need to be in a perfect fit for any new school coach to keep him out there and play him extended minutes. Most coaches would sit him early, citing that he does not fit what they’re trying to do; by 3rd season, this young player will be out of the league and we will never know what could have been…

    With all the information we have now and looking in the rear view mirror, its silly to say that Rodman does not deserve 30 minutes of playing time on a good team…but its equally silly to say that this same exact Rodman would be a 5 time world champ and a HOF in today’s NBA, – unless he learned how to dribble and shoot.

    Ok, Roberson is a good example showing that someone could give rodman major minutes today.
    However, using g state is kind of cheating; you could give Lance Thomas 30 minutes a night and they’d still win a title.

    Hmmm, that’s an interesting question. If the 2018-19 Warriors had to give Lance Thomas 30 mpg every game in the playoffs, would they still be title favorites? That’s a lot of minutes. Iggy only averaged 27 mpg last playoffs.

    With all the information we have now and looking in the rear view mirror, its silly to say that Rodman does not deserve 30 minutes of playing time on a good team…but its equally silly to say that this same exact Rodman would be a 5 time world champ and a HOF in today’s NBA, – unless he learned how to dribble and shoot.

    You’re still failing to see how extreme Rodman’s value was on the boards. It’s not that he was a good rebounder, or even a great one — it’s that he added something like 4 points to his team’s MOV. Alone.

    Bell, Capela, Gobert, Drummond, Chandler circa 2014 — the list of bigs who are both “unskilled” and hugely productive isn’t that small…

    The Rodman argument is kind of settled, the next question is would peak Melo be considered top 10 in today’s NBA.
    I say no.

    Like, would anyone anywhere consider him top 10? Probably.

    I never considered him top 10, or top 20. He really was never that good.

    Peak Melo would have a great shot to be top 10 in the league today for a few reasons:

    1) He would undoubtedly be a power forward who shot 3s and took guys off the dribble.

    2) In today’s NBA, the guy who gets the rebound can bring it up the floor. For that reason alone Melo would be a double digit rebounder.

    3) Less wear and tear on his body considering he wouldn’t have to face David West and Kevin Garnett in the playoffs.

    4) He would have the ball in pick and roll sets, and would be involved in more pick and pops.

    It’s different when you’re raised in the AI-Kobe era of NBA ball instead of the Durant/LeBron era. I think a prime Melo in 2018’s NBA would be a healthy Jabari Parker/Tobias Harris hybrid of a player. It always came down to how Melo saw the game, and this era is less about “give me the ball and get out the way” and more about “give me the ball, set a screen, and make yourself useful.”

    I know people who were calling melo a top 10 player as recently as last summer

    2) In today’s NBA, the guy who gets the rebound can bring it up the floor. For that reason alone Melo would be a double digit rebounder.

    dude

    WTF is peak melo? Is that olympichoodiemelo, or someone else? Sometimes he sounds like a Marvel character.

    I mean, look at 2012-13. Ahead of him in just WS/48 are: LeBron, Durant, CP3, Chandler, Harden, Tony Parker (?), Marc Gasol, Blake Griffin, Westbrook, Wade, Duncan, Brook Lopez, making him #13. I would argue that overall stats show that DeAndre Jordan, Deron Williams, Ibaka, Curry, Kobe, and Bosh were better players. Also, Kawhi, Anthony Davis, and Mike Conley had similar scores to Melo, and I would take any over him at the time.

    So I would fit him somewhere around 18-22.

    The Rodman argument is kind of settled, the next question is would peak Melo be considered top 10 in today’s NBA.
    I say no.

    The answer is clearly yes. Look at Melo’s 12-13 year, his only top 5 MVP finish. Now look at DeRozan’s 17-18 year and where he finished in MVP voting. Some things have changed but general perception, including media perception, has barely changed.

    @12 I was half kidding there, but if Melo could rebound and push the ball up the floor instead of passing to Ray Felton I’m sure he’d get 11 boards a night.

    hehe:

    “In a recent interview with The Undefeated, Anthony said he knows “how to play this game of basketball” and when he’s “ready to take that role, then I’ll take that role.”

    “Only I know when it’s best for me to take that role,” Anthony added. “I’m not going to do that in a situation where I still know my capabilities and what I can do.””

    https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/8/2/17642536/carmelo-anthony-houston-rockets-james-harden-mike-dantoni

    I may get the season pass just to watch this play out:

    Regarding being the 3rd option:
    “Anthony was asked that very question after the Thunder’s season ended. If you’re a Rockets fan, maybe don’t read the following quote, or pretend like he meant it only as applied to OKC and not to the Rockets, where he will surely reverse course on everything he’s ever done and said and become the model selfless, team-first guy Houston hopes.

    “As far as being effective as that type of player, I don’t think I can be effective as that type of player,” Anthony said. “It wasn’t no strategy to me being here, me being a part of the actual system and what type of player.””

    Running that through the Universal Translator from Star Trek, I get, “Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiitttttttt”

    What was peak Melo is an interesting question. He had a pretty weird career, with a peak when he was like 21-22 and then another when he got good at shooting 3s with the Knicks when he was like 29 and a long stretch in the middle where he was pointz Melo.

    I think at Melo’s best year, which production wise is probably 2013-14, he was a top 20 player, an all-star level player. He rebounded better that year and all his major advanced stats pretty much were career highs while playing 38 mpg with super high usage.

    It’s a shame we lost useless players like Novak and Kidd who couldn’t create their own shots and surprisingly sucked that year, but it’s still probably his best season ever and the closest he’s been to that conversation.

    He still played crap defense.

    Watching the demise of Melo is true schadenfreude.

    Peak Melo would have a great shot to be top 10 in the league today… I think a prime Melo in 2018’s NBA would be a healthy Jabari Parker/Tobias Harris hybrid of a player.

    So Jabari Parker and Tobias Harris are top 10 players in 2018? Okay.

    3) Less wear and tear on his body considering he wouldn’t have to face David West and Kevin Garnett in the playoffs.

    Haha, yeah, those 200 minutes he played against a strong guy that one time are why Carmelo Anthony was a chucking black-hole that didn’t play defense. Got it.

    (Good to know Ruruland lives on here in 2018)

    The problem with peak Melo is that Melo’s career is inextricably linked to his unwillingness to alter his game to become more productive. If he been more unselfish and played every year of his peak like that year he was dad melo (2015, right?) by focusing more on passing and rebounding, then he would have had an outside chance to become a top ten player (it’s just too hard unless you’re James Harden to be top ten without contributing something on defense). The problem is that’s just never who he was. Jab-stepping hero ball and contested long twos are just too much of who he is to separate that out.

    If we’re talking a hypothetical Melo being raised up in three point era, I guess he could have ended up a better team player, but if I had to bet on it I think he would just chuck up contested three pointers instead of long two.

    Stratomatic "Porzingis, Ntilikina, Knox & Robinson are going to lead us to the promised landsays:

    There’s a reason Melo never listened to coaches or learned to maximize the skills he developed by working so hard on his game. He could have been a much better player.

    There’s a reason Melo never listened to coaches or learned to maximize the skills he developed by working so hard on his game. He could have been a much better player.

    I’m so confused.

    r/Rockets has this to say about Carmelo:

    -he wasn’t that bad last year (wrong)
    -if he was bad, it was because Russ is an inaccurate passer (probably irrelevant)
    -if it wasn’t from Russ, it was because Donovan had no idea what he was doing (sure, but Carmelo ain’t gonna change for nobody)
    -Chris Paul can make Carmelo change because he’s Chris Paul (because he’s a much better leader than the then-reigning MVP, who plays as hard as anyone I’ve ever seen)
    -he’s only a minimum slot (i.e. he’s the best player available on the market at that price, lol)
    -D’antoni/Melo feud is water under the bridge (maybe, but we’ll see how that pans out)
    -they can cut him if he’s bad (true, but will they? and how long will they pass the buck before admitting that he’s washed up?)

    Yeah, you can’t really just treat Melo as a “guy on a minimum contract” and play him 800 minutes or something. I mean I guess you CAN do that, but they’re probably not going to do that. He’s gonna get 2,500 minutes there and they’re going to be 2,500 sucky minutes.

    “Only I know when it’s best for me to take that role,” Anthony added. “I’m not going to do that in a situation where I still know my capabilities and what I can do.”

    I’d love to see ruruland’s response to this. Melo is garbage and will stop chucking only when he decides to.

    What a fucking cancer.

    My Melo hater chops are well established, but I do think it would be interesting to see what kind of player he would’ve become if he came up in the 2015-2020 drafts. It’s quite possible that he was simply too stubborn to ever play a highly productive brand of basketball.

    As someone mentioned earlier, though, the whole idea of a player “who can get you 30 every night” or whatever just isn’t viewed the same way as it was in the 2000s. Even the financial incentives are slowly turning in the direction of efficiency.

    It wouldn’t shock me if Melo could be a consistent 58%+ TS guy, even on high volume, if he understood the concept of efficiency and incorporated it into his game. Where ruru and er and co. got it wrong was assuming he was ever willing to do anything close to that, as his play with the reigning MVP and Paul George demonstrated.

    Stratomatic "Porzingis, Ntilikina, Knox & Robinson are going to lead us to the promised landsays:

    I’m so confused.

    Part of me didn’t want to say it, but what the hell. I don’t think he’s particularly bright, but despite that he’s arrogant. That’s a pretty deadly combination when it comes to learning.

    Stratomatic "Porzingis, Ntilikina, Knox & Robinson are going to lead us to the promised landsays:

    r/Rockets has this to say about Carmelo:

    I give it until January. By then we’ll hear rumblings from fans about how the Rockets are better with player “x” on the court instead of Melo. Player “x” will of course be some young kid or other player that picked up just to have some depth.

    D’Antoni will understand that Melo should be benched.

    Morey will understand that Melo should be benched.

    Melo will start complaining about how they are using him, arguing to get back in the game every time the Rockets go on a big run with player “x” in the game so it’s not so obvious he’s the problem, he’ll start feigning injuries, complaining about calls, sulking, etc… We’ll see all the standard Melo stuff we’ve been seeing for years because it’s never his fault.

    The real question is will anyone finally just pull the plug and tell him he sucks and bench him.

    I do imagine what Melo would have been like had he been drafted by the Pistons.

    Probably would have started coming off the bench, needs to play defense under Larry Brown, goes to two straight Finals and the eastern conference finals six years in a row. Although from what I remember, those Pistons teams were pretty slow and ISO heavy, so maybe he doesn’t change all that much.

    @23/24

    For somebody who hates Melo you look like a skyscraper sized dick for having a username of the guy who traded the farm for him and essentially ruined this decade of Knicks basketball.

    And you probably forgot but Kevin Garnett tore Melo’s labrum in Game 5 of that series in 2013. The big reason Melo was resistant to playing the 4 was because he didn’t want to get hammered by guys like Gasol, Ibaka, Aldridge, Griffin, Randolph, Garnett, Boozer, Bosh, Nowitzki, David Lee, Kevin Love, and Paul Millsap. I’m sorry I didn’t spell it out for you initially but I figured brain power would lead you to the point I was trying to make.

    Also yes, a version of Jabari Parker that never tore an ACL (he had ACL surgery twice as a pro) and shoots like Tobias Harris would be a franchise piece in today’s NBA.

    Also yes, a version of Jabari Parker that never tore an ACL (he had ACL surgery twice as a pro) and shoots like Tobias Harris would be a franchise piece in today’s NBA.

    Funny thing is, those guys even if healthy could never carry prime Melo’s jock, which isn’t a compliment to prime Melo. Harris has a career 21% usage. Melo’s low during his prime was 30.2%. We’ll never know about Parker, but he doesn’t seem to think conditioning (or defense) is all that important. Pretty sad attitude for someone with bad knees.

    In his prime, Melo would have been a great 3rd best player on a contender, maybe even a decent 2nd best player (but probably not). He could not ever, ever have been the best player, since that would require a b-ball IQ that he never had and never will, and would suggest that every other player on the team was not all that good.

    Before you click the link, try to figure out who this is about, Melo or Parker:

    [He] is on another level from his peers, skill wise … Very strong, bulky forward with elite level face up game for his age … An underrated athlete; plays a smooth, if not overpowering brand of ball, and is more likely to muscle through opponents than blow by them … Possesses very good hands … Shows the ability to grasp nuances of the game … Has a passion for basketball, and this comes out in his play … A la Paul Pierce, is especially good at step back jumper, and can do it in both directions … Creates a ton of separation with his step back … Can go to work in the post, especially against smaller and weaker defenders … Will likely be developed as a small forward in the NBA, where he will immediately become one of the largest and strongest at this position … Work ethic is phenomenal … Really wants to be a leader; wants to be great … Even in high school, practiced with the focus of a pro … Has been a winner every step of the way of his career; won four straight titles in high school … Can create for teammates thanks to his high basketball IQ and overall play making ability … Commands so much attention from opposing defenses that teammates will find themselves with more opportunities to receive the ball in a position to score with him on the floor … Can finish with both hands around the hoop … Solid, but not great ability to knock down the NBA 3-ball … Had some impressive dunks in his freshman season, which proved that he does possess the hops and explosiveness that he often does not get credit for … Also showed surprising body control and ball handling, weaving through defenders for finishes at the rim in the open floor …

    Link

    @39 I see one guy playing a role in 50 games and one guy dominating a playoff team’s offense in 81 games. We continue to diverge in the evaluation of high usage players, that will probably never change. I noticed that your favorite stats du jour BPM and VORP (not to mention WS48 and PER) significantly favor Melo in that year. But I did specifically say prime Melo. We’ll never know what Parker could have been if his knees held up, maybe he develops, maybe he doesn’t. Given his recent idiotic quote about defense, he’s got that part down! And 3-pt shooting is more in vogue now, so Parker has the edge there, but that year was Melo’s worst from 3 and he only had a .097 3-pt rate. There’s a huge gap in FTr, Melo was light years better in getting to the line.

    I’ve said it here many times before: Melo is a classic 80’s-style scoring small forward. Dominique Wilkins, James Worthy, Mark Aguirre, Adrian Dantley. He is very comparable to all of those players in my opinion. That’s a decent player to have, but not a franchise player.

    Melo’s problem was never the era of basketball he played in. His offensive skills are versatile enough that he’d be able to accommodate just about any style of play in his physical prime years. Melo’s problem is that he has a conception of himself that is inflated in comparison to his actual value as a player. It’s a classic case of illusory superiority run amok.

    I occasionally look at the subreddits related to basketball and this was pretty much OKC reaction to Melo. They took about half a season to realize he was a net negative and wasn’t going to get better. I think Houston fans are probably more delusional but will still eventually figure it out.

    Paul Pierce was more of a well-rounded player than Melo, more of a boxscore stuffer. Pippen was not a comparable player to Melo at all. Bernard King is a pretty good comp, and is similar to that Dominique/Worthy/Dantley group of players. You’re not winning a ring if one of those guys is your franchise player.

    I see one guy playing a role in 50 games and one guy dominating a playoff team’s offense in 81 games.

    So the difference between a role player and a dominant offensive player is 17 FGA/36 to 19.2. Are you serious?

    We continue to diverge in the evaluation of high usage players, that will probably never change.

    You obviously struggle with the definition of “high usage player” if you think that Jabari Parker’s 26.5 USG% isn’t high. Removing players <1000 MP that season, he ranked 31st in FGA/100, just after role player LeBron and before role player Kevin Durant. He also shot more FGA per possession than famed role players Kristaps Porzingis, Jimmy Butler, Giannis Antetokoumpo and Blake Griffin.

    I noticed that your favorite stats du jour BPM and VORP (not to mention WS48 and PER) significantly favor Melo in that year.

    They slightly favor Melo (VORP is not rate-adjusted and PER is a total joke), but their ORtgs are the same. Most of this value is from the league average shooting efficiency between lower in 2006 than 2017 (.536 vs. .552). Not a huge jump, but the combination of better-than-average TS% and slightly higher usage means Carmelo was a more valuable offensive player, on the whole. This is not LeBron vs. Joe Johnson, here.

    But I did specifically say prime Melo.

    Which is why I posted the best comparison we have, as there’s nothing fair about putting Carmelo’s age-28 (or whatever) season against a 21-year-old’s. Their games are remarkably similar, adjusting for age.

    Comments are closed.