You guys are crazy. Anthony, Howard and Harden, we'd instantly be in contention for the best team in the league. Defense, meshing, whatever problems we'd have, we'd still be possibly the best team in the league next season IMO. All 3 are legit superstars, if Miami can win it twice, there's absolutely no reason we wouldn't be able to win a couple as well. Isn't that the goal? To win the chip? There's no way in hell were going to to that playing it safe, resigning Parsons and adding a wing defender does nothing but a second or even first round exit again.
enough with this Millsap love. dude is just a tad bit better version of Carl Landry. He had his shot to show he can be a superstar and what did he do. His atrocious 3 pt shooting alone during the playoffs makes Josh smith look like ray allen
Billups helped a lot and was an upgrade over 33 year old Iverson, but Anthony finally had enough talent around him to contend that year with quality coaching (Nene was important too). He was especially deadly in the playoffs, putting up 27 pts, 6 rebs and 4 assists in the post season that year getting to the WCF When the Knicks won 54 games and got to the second round, Jeremy Lin wasn't there, Amare played 29 games in limited minutes due to injuries and Melo won the scoring title that year. Chandler was important, I agree. Howard is much better than Tyson was that year on both sides of the ball. Kobe is a high volume low efficiency scorer during his championship years with Gasol. If you have the right talent and coaching you can win a ring with that player. And looking at LeBron, Wade and Bosh if you have multiple players who teams can no longer double team, they get easier shots and their efficiency can increase. I understand wanting Lowry and Millsap and others wanting Love. I want those players as well and I'd defer to Morey to make the best choice hopefully. But Carmelo is a ten year veteran turning 30 years old, like Howard (who was a very good leader with similar things said about him) these guys are more mature than in the past. Guys like Artest, Rasheed Wallace, Rodman etc all have won rings with worse question marks. Compared to them Melo is Shane Battier imo.
While you could argue his fit, asset wise, Melo is worth far more than Asik, Lin, Jones/DMo and a late pick.
As a New Yorker and knicks fan, I say good riddance. Houston will not go far with melo. Three ISO players on the same team with one ball, good luck. Spurs will probably win the championship by finding hockey assists while Houston will spend most of their time taking turns. Getting rid of melo is a blessing to New York. He technically missed the playoffs twice, this year and the year Linsanity saved his ass as a bottom feeder.
Iso Melo, Iso Harden and I refuse to pick and roll Dwight together? Disaster waiting to happen. A perennial playoff team but a 2nd round team at best.
Don't like it... Don't like it at all! They gonna need to play with 3 balls on offense, and no ball at defense. They will have to tare apart the team and get rid of Parsons, leave us with no bench again. Mchale will play the starting 5 40 minutes a game and they will be left with nothing to the playoffs. The team has a good base, just need solid veterans on the bench and a strong 4, even Boozer will do if he get a paycut. They need to spend their time, money and efforts on strond reliable coaching staff.
Hello OkayAyeReloaded - Thank you for the counter arguement. You made some really good points. I am going to respectfully disagree on some of your points and I hope you can see where I am coming from. When Carmelo was in Denver, there is no way Carmelo has the success he does in the playoffs without Billups and Nene. When Carmelo was in New York, there is no way Carmelo has the success he does in the playoffs without Chandler. Both of these guys were needed to offset Carmelo's deficiency on the defensive side of the court. In regards to Kobe also being a high volume low efficiency shooter, Kobe was also one of the best scorers in the league, but he was more efficient, took tougher shots, while playing rock solid defense. On top of that, Kobe was a leader and had an insane work ethic. Some people argued Kobe was the best defensive 2-gaurd in the league and and while that may be up for debate, Kobe, without question was one of the top 5 defensive 2-gaurds in the league. He could also guard points and small forwards. Carmelo does not have the same work ethic, lacks leadership ability and is deficient on defense. These things are chemistry killers. What I see if the Rockets were to acquire the Carmelo is the Rockets winning more games during the regular season and being a more enjoyable team to watch, but a team that fails to meet expectations in the playoffs. There are things you can get away with in the regular season that you can not get away with in the playoffs. I think of Carmelo as better version of Shareef Abdur Rahim and on par with Dominique Wilkins and Tracy McGrady. These are both guys that never won anything meaningful in the playoffs. I am not a fan of any player that got a big contract because they were able to put up allot of points but did not play defense.
Kobe is and has been less efficient than Anthony. Kobe played defense for about 18 months during the Clinton administration, he has been worse than Anthony defensively for many many years. So Anthony needed Chandler and Billups to win but Kobe didn't need Shaq and Gasol.
You can always trade the asset that least fits. Moving Harden, Melo or Howard would net you the humans your looking for if this doesn't work out. You would get any GM's attention on some of the best humans out there.
I would feel...eh. Honestly can't work myself into getting excited about personnel moves with the coaching situation I see us a WCF exit at best.
I am no Kobe fan but I will give credit where it is due. While Kobe's defense has declined significantly over the last few years, he played solid defense before and during his championship years. You make a good point in that Kobe needed Shaq and Gasol to win. However, Kobe won 5 championships. That is a big deference. No way Carmelo win's a championship with Shaq and Gasol. There is no doubt that Carmelo is a good player, but I want my highest paid players to be players that also play defense and don't kill team chemistry. Carmelo will go down as another Dominique Wilkins or Tracy MdGrady. Both guys who led the league in points, but never won a championship. Go back and look at the teams that won championships and look closely at the guys that were on those teams. It is rare for teams that were strictly defensive or offensive teams to win championships. You need the whole package, and that starts with your best paid players. The only teams that came close to breaking this mode of being a strictly offensive or defensive team were the Knicks in the early 90's and the Sun's during the mid 90's, and while both teams got to the finals, neither one won a championship.
