Would the Rockets be this good right now if we had Carmelo over Anderson?

Um... no? The difference between Olympic Melo and NBA Melo is how willing he is to play team basketball instead of forced ISO's. He's played with good PG's and good coaches and has not changed his game. Again, people don't change easily.

 

You are crazy to even try and compare Anderson to Melo. Again, it is all about the system players play in and players you play with. Harden and Paul would make him look like an All Star again. There is no system in Oklahoma, it is Westbrook and whatever he wants to give up

 

Yea play team basketball with the like of CP3 and Harden bro-tein shake.

 

not really. so cp3 is struggling offensively, is that bc its just so difficult playing with harden....

 

I don't know, Melo is basically the same player now he has been for several years. At some point does he get any credit/blame for his performance?

 

His role would be similar to that of Anderson.

 

On the right team he gets credit. On the wrong team, he's very likely to get the blame. I can see OKC fans, and the media placing all the blame on Melo this year if OKC under-performs. However its not really his fault he's not a natural fit on that team.

However... even at his age, if you put him on a team with quality role players, and some shooters, he could still be your centerpiece offensive player which is pretty impressive at this point in his career. Your team might not be a contender, but you could still be a playoff team with Melo as your best player IMO.

 

I heavily disagree with this...Melo is not efficient enough or dominant enough offensively anymore to take a team to the playoffs as their centerpiece

Melo as your best player is getting u around 30-35 wins at best

 

yup, absolutely no way melo at this stage can be your best player and be a playoff team. he just doesn't have the skillset and impact on the game for that. potential compliment yeah possibly, a team's feature player nope. the last couple of years in the lowly east should tell people that already

 

Absolutely... which is why we have Harden and CP3. He’s never played with guys like that, but whatever.

 

Melo wouldn’t be our best player... but 3rd most likely.

All you haters act like Melo would be the number one option.... not a very compelling argument by your side...

 

you might want to refer to what myself and Reeko were responding to. has nothing to do with you

of course if people are not on board with Melo just 100% fitting in on a team as if its clear cut, theyre labeled as haters lol.

 

What are u talking about? The dude I quoted said that Melo could be the best player on a playoff team which isn’t the case any more.

 

Well you were wrong earlier in your assessment so I assumed too much. My apologies.

 

My apologies. A lot of posters were incorrectly assuming that Melo would be a primary option and wouldn’t fit well with elite playmakers.

 

actually not really. nothing ive said about melo is incorrect. its people like you who want to 100% assume something will happen that are delusional. But keep believing others are wrong. makes no difference when you can only talk about something thats wishful thinking

 

Big D Ryno over Fat Melo all day, errday...

 

It was, I’m sorry. I know others are wrong, it’s pretty simple. There’s a reason why Morey, CP3, And Harden wanted Melo.

lol look at how defensive you are....

 

The Atlanta Hawks last year were a playoff team. Even the Portland Trail Blazers last year in the dominant West were a playoff team. However there is a big difference between the Hawks and the Warriors, Cavs, Spurs, or even Rockets.

If you look at his production, he's still a very productive scorer. He certainly cannot carry the load anymore and be efficient enough to carry a team to the conference finals, but its possible in a certain type of scenario with the right role players around him to have a team that is competitive enough to sneak in the playoffs.

What you aren't hearing me say though is that this is what a team should EVER want to do. Being just good enough to make the playoffs, but not good enough to go deep is just bad for an NBA franchise, and that's why Melo at this stage is being forced to team up with other star players rather than having a team like the Knicks continue to keep him around as their star offensive player. Even the Knicks were smart enough to figure that one out.

However its a fact that the guy can still score with the best of them even now at his age. Even on the Thunder sharing the ball with Westbrook and PG, he's still averaging 20 a game. All I'm saying is give the guy some credit for still being that good of a scorer this late in his career. I'm not the Rockets should trade CP3 and Harden for him, and build a team around him alone or anything stupid like that.

 

I think Melo is at least equal or better than Ryno in this system if he can play the system

Unsure about the defensive and effort side of things. Ryan is actually fighting for rebounds and hustling on defense this year, can Melo do the same, maybe?