[Stein] Melo will consider Rockets, Bulls and Mavs

Will, Melo is an elite upgrade to the offense. Melo will allow this team to cut down turnovers drastically, thereby leading to far fewer opponent run-outs and the Rocks running back a man short in transition defense. That is an upgrade to the defense.

And secondly, in half-court defensive sets....Melo is a massive upgrade to _ones or NoDMo in pick and roll defense and in simply taking his man.


Will, that's two different defensive upgrades with the acquisition of Melo to play 35 minutes at the 4. Two upgrades.

 

No need to bench Parsons. With his offensive role further reduced, his defense should get back to where it was. In certain matchups -- OKC, Miami, Phoenix, Indiana and Brooklyn possibly -- the defensive wing could start, but against most teams like Portland, Golden State, San Antonio (Manu comes off the bench), and Chicago that would be unnecessary if not detrimental.

 

Totally agree that the cumulative (offensive/defense) upgrade with Carmelo at PF (versus TJones/DMo etc) is substantial.

Carmelo in man-on-man defense is at worst even with those guys. And offensively is off the charts. Just as basketballholic illustrated below, the things that Carmelo could do for the Rockets offensively would have big benefits for them defensively. If for no other reason than giving the Rockets their base half court defense on most positions with less transition defense issues (via Carmelo putting the ball in the basket).

 

Then you will get the Asik effect. While that sounds great and can work in a game of 2k. Players in RL have egos. Parsons being a player with a gigantic ego. He will not handle the bench correctly

 

Hope the Mavs make a garbage recruitment film for Melo like they did for Dwight

 

Excellent point.

He's also an upgrade as a rebounder over both those guys. So as a whole....

Less Turnovers
Less opposing Fast Breaks (more balls going in the hoop)...although we're already pretty good at this
Better Rebounding (less 2nd chance points)

Defense is all about context. He indirectly improves our defense by being a significantly better offensive player than TJones, and he directly improves it by simply knowing where to be on rotations and rebounding the ball. He doesn't need to be a shut down defensive power forward to be effective (a skill we can aquire with the BAE or MLE).

 

It would just be Smith and I don't think his contract is bad for the Rockets in that scenario. It is just north of the MLE and he is worth that for a team that is already capped out. Plus it is only 2 years. It essentially gives you another MLE type backup who can shoot, score, and defend, plus allows you to use the MLE in the same offseason to seriously upgrade either PG or backup C and still also have the BAE and next year's MLE.

Smith isn't a bad contract once we are already capped out for a guy like Melo. If we acquire Melo, Love or another Max type FA, cap room doesn't matter again for at least 3 years. So essentially you have Smith for a year and then you have him on an expiring deal and he never cuts into potential cap room.

 

No... Melo is a potential free agent, but he absolutely wants to get a S&T & wants to join a contender so he can make more money & contend at the same time.

The Rockets and Bulls need to be able to offer a decent enough package to the Knicks to make it worth their while. So while I'm sure Melo & his camp don't want to see his new team give up a ton of assets & players especially, to get him, they are smart enough to know that if the offers are Sh#$, Phil & the Knicks will opt to just allow Melo to leave on his own or sign their offer sheet.

Melo NEEDS

A. Dallas for leverage to sign him outright where NYK lose him for nothing and
B. he also NEEDS his true first preference to have a S&T package that Phil/Knicks accept so he can get paid much closer to his true max dollar amount.

 

Didn't Harden say recently that he did not want to break up the team/get a 3rd star? He said that he wanted Parson's back on the team.

Saw this on local sports news.

Does this mean the team is destroyed should we get Melo as Harden would struggle with who's team this is?

Would Melo avoid Houston b/c of this?

 

Who cares? It's Houston that should be avoiding Melo and not the other way around.

 

The only thing I worry is by getting that 3rd star Melo, we'd need 1 more year to get chemistry together/be in contention. Dwight is 28 and Melo 30, that means in 2016, we better be ready for contention and win or else we'll miss their prime. You need at least 2-3 years of contention status to get a good chance to win it all (unless you're Lebron).

So when Dwight is 30, and Melo is 32, it'll be contention opportunity #1 @ 2016
Dwight 31, Melo 33, opportunity #2
Dwight 32, Melo 34, opportunity #3

Looking at the age, it doesn't look realistic that we can contend unless we are coached like the SPURS.

 

I don't think DM agrees with you on that.

 

I have to disagree. I think this off-season and going into next year with the group we have now will naturally result in more chemistry, better play. Toss in an offensive juggernaut who's also a seasoned vet, and in my opinion, you turn up a big notch what we have now. If who we have left after a deal is the core of last season, and we don't improve, it wasn't because of Melo, using the assumption that we nabbed him. It was because of something else. That's another topic, probably.

 

God i envy the spurs, lets take a look at the age of some of their star and role core players...

Duncan (38) Ginobili (36) Bonner (34) Parker (32) Diaw (32) Splitter (29)

All but maybe Bonner are key components to their success, just insane.

 

Melo, Harden, and Dwight. I love it.

Always have a option for buckets. Defense.. Just scream at them McHale.

 

I'd agree with you if Melo doesn't play a big role in our core group. You are essentially adding 30+ min/game player into the group. And not only that, but he may become #1/#2/#3 option in the offence. That's quite a big shake up on the offensive side of the game. As well you are adding in a new heavy minute player in the defensive side of the game. Just learning to switch off PnR alone will take time because you need to know your mates' tendencies.

If we added in a role player like Tyson Chandler, then you'd be right on in terms of chemistry. Unfortunately, we are adding in a major player and I don't believe it'd be so easy to just add him in when he plays major factors in both offence and defence.

 

Melo showed in the Olympics that he could come into a new team situation and fit in. That helps my optimism. Of course, the odds that he wears our uniform next season are slim, so all this discussion may prove moot, but that's why we're here, right?

 

If Melo chooses to go to Houston, then Chicago is irrelevant. The same is true vice versa. He is a free agent therefore he chooses where he wants to end up. The Knicks don't have a choice on which team to trade him to. They only have a choice to S&T him for assets (if that's what the team Melo chooses wants) or to let him walk for nothing.