By Tom Haberstroh Special to ESPN Insider Carmelo Anthony has averaged 20 points per game every season since he arrived in the NBA. This past campaign, he became the third-youngest player ever to reach the 10,000-point plateau, behind only Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. And next summer, he could hit the open market as an unrestricted free agent. But despite all those gaudy point totals, the three-time All-Star may not even be worth the max deal a team would likely give him in 2011. http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insi...espn.go.com/nba/insider/news/story?id=5439653 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Can someone print the rest of this article...
Not elite in the terms of Kobe/Wade/LeBron, but still a maximum player. He just never commits to defense, and isn't great at making his teammates better.
You don't have to be an elite player to get the max these days. Look at Joe Johnson and Carmelo is better than Joe.
We do not have to be stupid and give out elite deals to people who don't deserve them just because others do. Look at San Antonio and their 4 championships for an example of how to do it the right way. DD
Look at Joe Johnson? Look at Rashard Lewis! Anywho, the author is just arguing the semantics of the language. He sees elite as the all-time greats whereas most others see elite as currently among the best players in the NBA.
They also lucked into Tim Duncan. It becomes a lot easier to "do it the right way" when you draft a top 5 PF to build around.
He is not a "playmaker" in that sense, but you along with most of the people on this board that never watch Melo have no clue about his defense, which he is actually good at.
Can Melo play with a low post player like Yao? Who would be the first scoring option? It seems in Denver, they surrounded Melo with defensive role players that can play play off the ball, while Chauncey runs the offense and Melo jack up his shots. Nene and K-Mart are pretty much used like glorified garbage men and Aaron Affalo plays defense and runs to the corner three on offense. The only player who really seeks his own shot is Junior Smith, when he comes off the bench and just chucks shots without conscience. But if any coach could make it work it would be Rick Adleman...
