NBA.com: All-Decade Team: Best NBA players of the 2010s

Hooray, a non-politics thread! (That I assume will quickly turn back into a politics thread.)

Yeah, Melo had one genuinely great season in the decade for the 54-win team, but that’s a reputation vote at least as much as it is a mark of frontcourt depth over that span.

lol, they put Kobe on the team

Here you go Owen: http://bkref.com/tiny/2U7T7

I did a player comparison finder, cumulative seasons, for any player that played at least 1 game.

Thanks Vincoug.

Lowry maybe? He’s been consistent and solid and has a chip.

The list is a little light on big men but so is the NBA these days I guess….

Kobe over Kyrie is simply ridiculous. Melo doesn’t make sense either, and it’s hard to leave Draymond Green out.

Also, JR Smith a big oversight….

Fun topic.

One interesting one that seems right at first until you look a little closer is Kawhi on the first team. A lot of recency bias points in making it I think. 3 all-star nods, 2 all-nba 1st teams and 1 2nd team is pretty light for a guy on this list. Only 22nd in win shares over that period (thanks vincoug). Since CP3 is really the obvious guy left off if we’re ignoring the positional restrictions I’d put him over Kawhi. With the positional restrictions there isn’t anyone else that has an overwhelming case, but arguably the guy I’d pick is someone left off the list completely somehow, Dwight Howard. I get it, everyone hates him now, but during this decade he has 3 all-nba 1st teams, a 2nd and a 3rd, 5 all-star, 2 DPOY.

So if Giannis doesn’t come and the LA guys are already off the table, who from that class would we most want? Oladipo? Beal? Gobert, to create the 21st century twin towers?

This is why it was stupid to roll over the cap space with the armada of mediocre 1+1 contracts, and why the cap space should have been used to take on bad contracts and acquire assets in the process. There are just not very many marquee, max-worthy players hitting the market in the next few years.

We’ll be treading water in this fashion for the forseeable future until somebody just says “fuck it” and mega-maxes 30-year old Bradley Beal.

It’s Giannis or bust. We just need a way to make ourselves as attractive as possible.

Mitch and the Freak on the same floor would be pretty awesome.

I mean, it’s never happening. But that’s the slender hope that will sustain us for the next two years.

No Draymond is outrageous. Do they even pay attention to the games at nba.com? I’d take him over Melo, Griffin, Wade, Kobe, Aldridge, George, and probably Westbrook although with his triple double seasons you have to include him.

The only way it makes sense to target a non-Giannis free agent in 2021 is if Ntilikina or Knox take a massive leap in the next two years or Barrett is as good as some people believe he can be.

Personally, I don’t think either scenario is likely and think we’re repeating the Phil Jackson years. We’re currently in the “sign Robin Lopez, Aaron Afflalo, and Derrick Williams to try and win 30 games and then good players will want to sign here” stage. In another year or two we’ll be in the “trade and sign broken down players who used to be good” stage and I’m really excited to see Westbrook in a Knicks uniform.

if Giannis doesn’t come and the LA guys are already off the table, who from that class would we most want? Oladipo? Beal? Gobert, to create the 21st century twin towers?

First, I believe that there’s a 0% (or less) chance that the Greek Freak comes to the team that drafted his brother but gave him only 6 minutes on the floor before cutting bait.
Second, my answer is – nobody. The Knicks have to start making draft picks work. Without that there’s nothing.

seems as though they forgot about ‘Dre

I know Melo gets alot of grief on this site but looking back at his stats this past decade Melo was pretty freaking good in his couple of months here in 2011 and in his first 3 full seasons with the Knicks. Those were the best seasons of his career and in the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons he was a legit superstar for his play on the court not just for his overinflated reputation.

Unfortunately it was all downhill after that.

It’s crazy to me that Dirk didn’t make the list. Unlike Kobe he played the whole decade and actually played well for most of it. How quickly we forget our legends (he literally just retired this year). He also won a championship this decade as the only clear-cut offensive star on his team.*

*Let’s shelve the Chandler offense debate and just give Dirk his props for now.

Amazingly, Aldridge is the only quasi-center on the list, maybe Giannis. Forget the lack of pf’s. At their peaks, Chandler, Hibbert and Gobert are absolute game changers on defense. Depending on how you categorize them, Al Horford and the Gasol brothers belong in the discussion for PF/C.

Dominique had also little help…

Kobe Out Dirk In seems fair to me.

Hibbert’s and Chandler’s D absolute game changer?
hmm …..

After watching the European semifinal between Spain and Greece Under18 i couldn’t avoid noticing 2 spagnards who seem like the next BIG Euro Thing.
Keep in mind these 2 names and try to remember them if someone draft em sooner or later.
Aldama
Garuba

Ntilikina is a bust, full stop

“This article is meant for Democrats and undecideds, so if you’re solidly Republican or uninterested in American politics, you should skip this one.”

Had to respond to this….. This phrasing is shit. There are more points of view than Democrat or Republican or uninterested. Your lack of imagination and knowledge of this is duly noted. Might as well change the motto of the site to: Statistical Analysis. Humor. Knicks. Democratic talking points.

Had to respond to this….. This phrasing is shit. There are more points of view than Democrat or Republican or uninterested.

Preach, dude. What about the Whigs, Federalists, Know Nothings, etc.? Mike obviously doesn’t care about their opinions. Real shame.

Had to respond to this….. This phrasing is shit. There are more points of view than Democrat or Republican or uninterested. Your lack of imagination and knowledge of this is duly noted. Might as well change the motto of the site to: Statistical Analysis. Humor. Knicks. Democratic talking points.

Does anyone else find it rich that the guy who says that he needs to self-medicate before he leaves the house so he doesn’t hurt anyone is the very same person trying to teach the board about ethical and responsible political behavior?

You’d make an excellent guest on InfoWars.

Ntilikina’s problem is more than he can’t shoot-he can’t score from anywhere.

So far he looks like a taller, more aggressive, better play making version of the same guy that doesn’t shoot and can’t hit the shot when he does. It’s rather frustrating watching highlights. On one level he looks likes there’s a ton of potential there, but on another it’s the same BS we are used to.

too bad all that potential couldn’t nab us a late 1st round pick at the draft…isn’t it in october when we have to pick up his 2020 – 2021 option year?

he’s definitely not worth 5 million this year, and can’t imagine he’ll be worth 6 million the season after…

Oh shit, now 2FOR18 is coming for Mike K. himself? This is gonna get juicy.

Boring double plus good group think pablum I can get from Samantha Bee.
It’s below this site.

Props to Strat and bobneptune for going against the grain

what this site really needs is the inclusion of very valuable polls…that will help to clarify things really well…

yeah, it’s late in the day and i’m getting loopy…make this work day end…

I’d take Klay Thompson over Draymond for the best of the decade.
That’s an absolute game changer.
Shoots&D for Bball seminars.

@49

There are so many places on the internet to argue with people about politics.

True. But there’s no conversations between people of different political persuasions on the internet.

True. But there’s no conversations between people of different political persuasions on the internet.

or in DC…

I deleted both my Facebook and Twitter, but I won’t delete my Knickerblogger.

cock sucking

while you’re down there, love

Democracy and Theatre were invented in Greece around the same time.
Pretty similar and very delusional.
Just like Tyson Chandler’s D.
Looks tough and aggressive but in reality it’s just yelling and acting while there’s a sign in the paint saying “the party is here”.

Agree with @49. But Mike made a point to dehumanize and mischaracterize his political opponents into cartoon characterizations of his imagination on a sports site.

No one needs to misrepresent you when your every post makes you seem more politically outlandish than the last. Mike was making an appeal to a specific type of voter with his last article. Your aggrievement because the resulting thread did not cater to your political outlook signals an entitlement typical of your usual MAGA Chud voter who is angry that the political discourse is catering less and less to people like them with every year. Grow up.

And if people don’t want to engage with basketball in the middle of an NBA offseason where Frank Ntilikina FIFA videos and Kobe Bryant All NBA Team debates are the most compelling basketball topics for discussion that should be okay as well. I am sure we’ll get back to arguing about another sub .500 Knicks season real soon when the preseason gets underway.

Had to respond to this…..

Couldn’t you have responded on that actual thread? Why bring it in here?.

Melo was like Nique, just without any of the cool dunks.

I still believe in Ntilikina !
And that’s Not politics !
Its Intuition.
My previous intuition was faith in Phil Jackson’s plan !!!

Melo was like Nique, just without any of the cool dunks.

Or epic playoff moments. That duel between Dominique and Bird in Game 7 of the 1988 Eastern Conference Semifinals was one of the greatest showdowns in NBA postseason history. I’m hardpressed to think of or find a Melo playoff performance on that level of greatness.

As for the 3 teams. Klay and Draymond are great and I would put them ahead of Melo and Aldrich, but much of my downgrading of Melo is based on assumptions about his attitude, which I really don’t know. I just never felt he made his team mates better. And there was that whole Jeremy Lin thing. And it’s so interesting that both of them are whining in the same off-season.

But isn’t Mike like, free to write whatever he wants wherever he wants? Why would he need to own up to anything when he’s merely asserting his right of free speech?

Didn’t you know? MAGA Chuds only stump for free speech when it’s freedom to say what they want to hear and say. When someone else expresses an alternative view they don’t want to hear or say then their feelings take precedence over that person’s freedom of speech – see Colin Kaepernick for example.

I still look at the Prigs/Kidd lines from that series and cry a little bit on the inside.

When the 2/3 of your so called Big3 are nowhere near big you don’t have a chance…

thanks for making a fool of yourself yet again.

Thanks for the compliment.

I know Melo’s heroball addiction. I’m well aware of his allergy to D and his Diva symptoms but man ….he deserved better as also the Knicks during the first half of the decade….

Did he really? I think he lost the right to complain about the lack of surrounding talent on the roster after forcing that midseason trade where the Knicks gutted their team out, sending Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Felton, Mozgov, the 2014 1st round draft pick. I understand he was going to have to sacrifice millions upon millions of dollars if he waited to go FA in offseason instead, but those are the types of sacrifices you do make to give yourself better talent to work with.

The Knicks were better than the Pacers that year. Kevin Garnett tore Carmelo Anthony’s shoulder in Game 5 of the previous series and Tyson Chandler got sick all of a sudden (he had lost like 15 pounds or something wild like that). History is going to tell us Roy Hibbert’s blocked shot changed the trajectory of that series, but that’s bullshit. The Knicks had bad luck with health at the worst possible time, and then Dolan’s Razor shredded through whatever chance we had to be a good team after that. Imagine if the 2013-2014 Knicks’ starting five was Felton, Shumpert, Melo, Copeland, and Chandler? It’s crazy how one trade, the Bargnani deal, threw off the entire decade for Knicks fans.

I wish we’d put a better team together notwithstanding the constraints we had because of the Melo trade overpay, but Melo himself didn’t do anything to deserve a better team-he actively did things that made it harder to put together a good team around him.

Look at the series box scores on b-ref and that series loss is on Woodson and to a lesser extent guys like JR, Felton and Shumpert, who were absolute bricklayers. (Melo wasn’t all that good himself, but he was banged up and it’s not like anyone else was making a shot)

Melo is not Ghandhi to make sacrifices.

And the Knicks are not miracle workers. It works both ways.

….he deserved better as also the Knicks during the first half of the decade….

The Knicks gutted their roster AND mortgaged their future to acquire Melo six months before he could have joined as a free agent. They could have signed Chandler and used those trade assets to get another star player back in return. If four players and two picks were enough for Melo while everyone still (erroneously) thought that he was a legit superstar, they were certainly enough to get someone else.

Melo robbed Peter to pay Paul. There’s no way around it.

I don’t really blame Melo one iota for what the Knicks gave up for him.

The Knicks had to agree to the trade, so yeah, Melo is not alone in sharing blame. But he shares it, without question.

No news here: when you yourself are the cause of the gutting, you can’t complain about not having the pieces. But do we really believe that Melo in 2011 had thought about roster construction and asset management the way that this board has, with a few dozen sharp minds turning over NBA strategy daily? I doubt that very much.

Melo is not a dumb guy, but he’s also (by virtue of being a celebrity athlete) surrounded by yes-men and fellow peers who are surrounded by yes-men. Coaches and trainers are the closest we get to the king’s fool, and even they have to massage egos and mince words to maintain control. Do we really think there were people in his inner circle saying, “Hey Melo, you’re real good and all, but maybe you should let the Knicks keep their future draft picks in case you aren’t good enough to alone carry the team to the Conference Finals?” That conversation between Melo and a fellow Real Hooper™ would be a nonstarter. Melo would not be the first anti-hero to fall to his own hubris.

Knicks decided to go WIN NOW mode put Melo next to Stat, brought a third BIG in TChandler and had their chance but….the experiment failed….
Some blame Melo, I blame The others, All blame Dolan,FO and Lady Luck.
The truth is that it was FUN but it could have been Much More Fun than that …and that’s Not on Melo imo

Blame it on the Mediterranean sun !

Blame it on the Mediterranean sun !

just the word: mediterranean sounds nice…

I wanna be there…

@90 I think you’re oversimplifying things. It was a CBA negotiation year and Melo and his guys were concerned that the new CBA (or a lockout) would present too much uncertainty to wait to be a FA. In any case, it was the Knicks giving in to Ujiri’s demands that was the problem. What was melo supposed to do, tell Ujiri, “Hey, don’t include too many pieces or else…”

Let’s also remember that if we didn’t trade for Melo, we probably would have traded for Deron. That probably wouldn’t have worked out well either.

@97 its better than politics ! Isn’t it ?

Melo never complained about his lack of quality teammates when he was here. I always admired that about him. I mean, I was annoyed that he pushed for the Knicks to gut the team for him by not ruling out signing an extension with the Nets, but at least he was never a hypocrite about it. He never complained about not having better teammates.

As to Melo’s scenario at the time, he was clearly scared shitless about the CBA, but really, he was a moron to even be in the position where he had to be worried about the CBA. When every other guy in his draft class was taking a shorter extension so that they became free agents a year before the CBA ended, Melo put money above all else, which he did for his entire career, so he was a free agent a year later than them. It was a weird way to do things, but hey, it was his career. He put money ahead of everything and it hurt his legacy, but he still has, like, 17 Olympic Gold Medals, a NCAA Championship and will be a first ballot Basketball Hall of Famer. He did fine in the end.

They should have jobs, even if it’s on the bench.

Why? Melo is a trainwreck of a player on both ends of the ball. You know who should have a job? A young player who can actually compete. The NBA should be a meritocracy, not an old boys club for guys 5+ years past their prime.

I will never feel bad about a guy who made like 250+ millions playing basketball and is not playing solely because he has never shown franchises around the league he would be fine with a lesser role, which is his own fault.

Took 7 hours, but… yup.

Are you sure you would rather discuss Melo merits and demerits?

I second that. Let’s just keep the politics on the politics thread, to the extent possible.

Honestly, I could talk about how much I dislike Carmelo a lot more. It’s a topic I really don’t get tired off.

Okay, then here’s something simultaneously sad and optimistic: what would the 2011-12 team have looked like if Melo had waited to sign as a free agent? What was our cap situation supposed to be going into that summer? Would it have just been the Stat/Gallo/Felton team plus Melo? Room for more? Would some of the young guys have to be moved just to create space?

As long as the conservative media has a stronghold in this country,

LMAO.

That was the funniest line of all time.

Fox and right wing talk radio don’t have high ratings because they are good. They are actually a big pile of dog sh!t. They have good ratings because a few people were smart enough to realize that if they provided right wing spin the way CNN, NY Times, Wash Post, ABC, NBC, CBS, etc.. provide left wing spin, they could dominate the market. Everyone to the right of center (from the moderates all the way down to the extremist dregs) gravitated to the one and only place that gave them the spin that was closest to their own world view. The left has so many more options the market share of each suffers due to the much greater competition.

Of course, that leaves people like me in a bind. I just want all the facts without intentional or unintentional spin. I don’t want to be in a self imposed state of delusion because I only listen to one side.

Personally, I hate most of them. They are mostly a bunch self absorbed divisive propaganda producing s-bags. They force me to go searching for the truth using primary sources when available because no one is actually even trying to tell the truth anymore. They are just trying to influence the sheep for their own personal political and financial gain.

I have said it many times before but Melo just had an unbelievably narrow skill set. He couldn’t defend. He didn’t score in transition. He didn’t shoot the three ball that well or enough when he was going good. By the end of his career he almost never generated any easy dunks off drives or cuts. His passing was ok. He definitely showed talent there but his production kind of faded in and out.

He was basically just a guy who could soak up a huge amount of volume operating from 18 feet out on the right wing and at the foul line and converting at moderate efficiency with relatively few turnovers. That was it.

It’s amazing to me that he had the career he did given how utterly predictable he was for the last 5 years of his useful NBA life. I think that explains more than anything his appeal. Everyone in the world knew what he was going to do and couldn’t really stop it.

I do think Melo is a pretty instructive case of the value of winning an NCAA title. So many things go differently for him I think without that in terms of public perception. It set up such a positive cascade for a player who really was at best just a fringe all-star.

I don’t mind the political debate, when it’s debate.
But it’s just embarrassing to read people find creative ways to call each other stupid.

Trump is a boor, in some ways a fool, and some ways not, and to blame white nationalism on him misses the point. He is a horrid soul for leveraging the hate that already exists, but this is our history from day one. I have listened to it from lawmakers in the halls of Congress for years, coded.
Treating Trump as if he is an aberration or the cause is a mistake.
I worry about the debt bubble. There are no fiscal conservatives.
US debt is 106% of GDP, and growing by more than a trillion a year under GOP leadership. We have cut taxes through two wars and the longest period of sustained economic growth in history. We are the center of the world’s economy, until we aren’t anymore. Classic bubble.

Democrats again will be forced to make tough choices on taxes and spending, with Republicans spit-balling every single move as if they are credible on spending and taxation.
And now the Fed is cutting rates to sustain GDP growth numbers. What will the Fed do when the economy finally goes into recession and the rate cuts aren’t there? The GOP will scream that a down economy is the worst time to raise taxes, which isn’t wrong, but tax increases do make sense when an economy is hot.
But then, my GOP friends say, what of “entitlements,” which really aren’t since you pay for them. I don’t have a good answer. But I have a belief that healthcare, education and infrastructure are investments. All of which benefit the economy. And to counter American Balkanization, I’m for compulsory national service of some kind. Service redefines Americanism away from consumerism and the mythology of exceptionalism and grounds it in the things that bind us as one. It means humanizing people from all corners of the country.
I’m sure this will trigger ode’s to the downtrodden rich, but that’s fine.

Melo.
Good Lord.
What might have been if he stayed at Syracuse for a couple more years…lol

I always thought melo could have averaged more assists…

at times it seemed he did try to focus a little more on getting his teammates involved, but, usually if he got the ball – he wasn’t giving it up…

really wish we had just kept gallo…

mozgov was fun to watch for a while, but, like melo, the proliferation of the 3pt shot made his game obsolete…

Amen to Frank O. but replace compulsive service with greater incentives to young, talented people to serve the federal government.

Now let’s split the threads please. Please please please. If I have to hear about how NYT and Fox News are two sides of the same coin, I will be forced to write max-character screeds about Brandon Clarke to pull the conversation back to the dregs of May.

personally, I find damn near every other subject more interesting than politics…

I’m doubtful too many more folks here have near the focus I do in regards to avoiding too much “real life”…

I understand though, this is a community, and, other folks will have other interests…

yeah, I’m a knicks fan, but, i’m here for the folks whom regularly contribute…it’s the people, not the subject matter – that matters 🙂

fortunately it doesn’t trouble me too much to come across someone elses political thoughts…I totally have the option of just skimming past that shit and focusing on stuff that interests me…

although I’ve frighteningly come to learn I just might have an inclination towards seeing an even larger and more intrusive form of government – i gotta say, when it comes to our posters sharing their thoughts:

#doowutchyalike

then again, I don’t pay to keep the lights on here – so, doesn’t really matter what I think…

Here’s another off-topic topic: Robinson Cano’s injury is addition by subtraction for the suddenly competent Mets

As the departed RURULAND would say, hey its complicated.

Melo needed a good pg, he had one for like 4 years of his career. End of story. Everyone cant be lebron and have the ball in their hands at all times and be all time greaT.

yea in Denver he did

If I have to hear about how NYT and Fox News are two sides of the same coin

I just had an argument with my barber on the Israeli version of this. He gives a good cut but damn, I wish I could introduce him to the 2016 finals version of Draymond Green and tell Dray he’s LeBron.

Okay, then here’s something simultaneously sad and optimistic: what would the 2011-12 team have looked like if Melo had waited to sign as a free agent? What was our cap situation supposed to be going into that summer? Would it have just been the Stat/Gallo/Felton team plus Melo? Room for more? Would some of the young guys have to be moved just to create space?

Melo is a one-man show. I don’t think it matter who he had on the roster. The gravitational pull he has on the ball during a game destroys chemistry. The only way he has value is if he’s told that he’s a secondary shooter and gets benched when he behaves differently. That would never happen. That’s why he couldn’t play with Stoudemire or Harden or anyone else.

I don’t think he’s toast as a player. If healthy, he can play. But who wants that kind of player? Not me.

Yeah, on politics. I apologize about posting that in this thread. I’ve been in a dark place since the shootings this weekend.

Wow @ new NCAA agent rules. They can’t stop burning bridges with the NBA. Can’t wait for the draft eligibility rule change.

Melo is a one-man show. I don’t think it matter who he had on the roster. The gravitational pull he has on the ball during a game destroys chemistry. The only way he has value is if he’s told that he’s a secondary shooter and gets benched when he behaves differently.

I don’t think that’s true. We saw evidence both in Denver and on the Knicks that a winning team with a cohesive and entertaining style of play could exist with Melo not only on the roster, but as the unquestioned alpha of said roster. It didn’t happen often here, but the 54-win team didn’t treat him as a secondary shooter.

We saw evidence both in Denver and on the Knicks that a winning team with a cohesive and entertaining style of play could exist with Melo not only on the roster, but as the unquestioned alpha of said roster.

Yep. He never adjusted to the changing NBA but had Dolan ever sustained a good roster around him we would have had several years where the Knicks looked something like contenders.

@135…so, you wanna know what else to talk about – i could read shit like that all day…great story, i loved how you structured it…

the last “barber” shop i visited felt like the guy was ripping my hair out rather than cutting it…i just go to great clips now – it ain’t like a got a tremendous head of lettuce anymore anyways…

i do though remember my very first barber ship visit with my dad…old spot in oceanside out on the island…lot’s of older 50’s looking men inside…my dad had gone there as a kid…

i remember the barber had one of those “glove” massaging devices that he would use on your shoulders after the cut…i can remember seeing his straight razor in his hand when he cleaned up the back of my dad’s neck…

didn’t really start “enjoying” haircuts til i got in the military and had to get them just about every week…sitting in the chair was a good opportunity to just relax and do nothing for a few minutes…now i just hope for the occasional boob in my ear…

Giannis is obviously the big fish, and the one I assume Perry is building his current strategy around.

Man, I’ve said this like three times on various threads, but the play is for AD, not Giannis. They know they’re not likely to get Giannis. AD, however, publicly said he wanted to come here, so you know they had conversations with his agent. Since the price was too high, I’m guessing the end of it was simply the agent saying, let’s see how it goes with LeBron; if AD likes it and thinks there’s a future there, we’ll probably stay, but if AD is unhappy (as many of LeBron’s teammates have been), then we’ll talk.

That’s why the contracts are mostly 1-year deals. A ton of flexibility NEXT OFF-SEASON. It isn’t about Giannis.

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