When you put Melo in the right situation, he brought our nation three Olympic gold medals in basketball. The only man in history to do this. True patriot. His teammates loved him and many are his close friends. This is even true on his NBA teams. To be frank, I think it's likely that Carmelo's unhinged detractors are more cancerous in their respective workplaces than he has ever been in his. Carmelo is clearly not a #1 or #2 option on a championship-level team. He never had the all-around game to lead teams successfully and with age his athleticism is in steep decline, but the way some people here vilify him is disgraceful. Morey, please let Melo know most people here are ready to welcome him warmly.
I could make an equally long list regarding James Harden... with more salacious highlights from Kardassians to Lil Mo to McHale to game 6 and on and on and on.... and we gave him the superubermax extension... We just gave CP3 4/160M with his injury history... and we will be paying until he's 37... My intent with that is not to rag on James Harden for past indiscretions or say CP3's contract isnt warranted... but rather point out that most everybody has baggage or red flags these days... and Morey has said something to the effect of 'high risk moves' to surpass GSW... If the org is willing to throw major bucks for Harden and CP3... why wouldn't you take the low cost investment of Melo - with the hopes of high returns?
You are looking at this all wrong And you know who ALSO sucked in NYC? A guy named Phil Jackson with 5 rings to his name. LOL Even HE couldn't get the Knicks off the ground. Couldn't get them to buy into his 'triangle' offense. Even WITH Porzingis AND Melo. FIRED Remember 'Linsanity'? That was MDA's system in all its' glory. Melo was injured and while he was out, the rest of the team bought into MDA's offense and a star was born. NYK went 8-1 during that stretch. Jeremy Lin put up 38 pts vs Kobe and the Lakers. Melo comes back from injury, dominates the ball, slows down the offense, and just like that, back to mediocrity. And as I recall, when MDA was in LA, there was a black hole named Dwight Howard. They also had Nash and Gasol and a guy named Kobe. An All-Star team, no? NO It's a BALL DOMINANT team. You know Kobe is going to get his shots. PERIOD. End of story. But wait, Dwight wants his too. Hopefully you know enough about the game to see the problem here. D'Antoni was dealt a bad hand in both places. FF to Houston a couple of years ago. D'Antoni explains his system and how if it can make JL a star, it can make James Harden a SUPERSTAR, AND MVP runner-up and MVP the next season. James gets the vision and runs the system to perfection. GREAT RESULTS. A complete 180 from the year before. Rockets add Chris Paul (CP knows about MDA's system and WANTS to run it) RESULT? We take go all the way to WC finals, take GSW to 7 games and would have won if hamstrings had cooperated. ALSO, the Rockets offense was one of the most dominant in NBA history. Phil Jackson is regarded as one of the greatest coaches of all time. He had guys named Jordan, Pippen, Kobe and Shaq that helped him get rings. What did he do in their absence (NYC)? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Got FIRED Is HE a terrible coach then? It's the personnel MDA was given that sucked. By the same standards, you could say Popovich sucks as a coach. Didn't even make the playoffs last year. What a loser. He should be fired. NOPE. Plain and simple, given the right players and attitudes, MDA's system put up historic numbers. So, where you ONCE may have thought MDA was washed up and his system was a 'fluke' in PHX, you can say no more. You look like a fool otherwise. Like him or not, the numbers don't lie.
This is a way different/better team than the 10'-11' and 11'-12' Knicks. Plus he didnt have Harden/CP combo to compliment his players/offensive scheme. Now he does. I think Harden/CP gonna make Melo relevant again in MDA's new offense.
"he may not be providing the basketball support we expected this season"? ....um, so was he widely considered a failed experiment in OKC? that really doesn't bode well for us.
