As Carmelo Anthony leans toward leaving New York, Chicago and Houston emerge as frontrunners

Ah, a CH7 post that is sensical and on point. Zen gets what he wants or Zen gets what he wants.

And the putative SnT? Jax might take back Asik/Lin, but reportedly NYKs are desperate to get into the Draft. Add TJo. Add Felton. Zen sez 'Ciao, baby.'

That's how I see an SnT going down twixt'n'tween the OJ car chase combatants.

 

This is fantastic; you've created a pretty realistic scenario. I doubt Ariza takes the MLE however. I wonder if we could poach someone like Shawn Marion from the Mavs or Thabo Sefolosha from the Thunder.

 

Melo played well defensively against LA both times he played him; he out-rebounded TJ on average 7 to 8 (he is a very underrated rebounder), and he is a much better offensive threat obviously. According to NBA.com's defensive impact statistics, Melo actually ranks as a better rim protector/defender than TJ in nearly every category aside from total blks/blks per game. I do think that TJ cna definitely develop into a much better player seeing as it is only his second year...but currently Melo is better offensively and defensively against PFs

 

He also plays an entire quarter length longer than TJ to get that extra rebound.

I'm not anti-Melo. I'm anti people saying TJ is a dud on the defensive end.

 

Just becuase you block a few shots doesn't mean your good at defense. TJ is an awful team defender. He gets lost as much if not more than Harden.

 

Yay! Hope it happens. Rooting for Goliath is so much fun.

 

I am not saying TJ is a dud defender, I was just saying he isn't elite. Melo is vastly underrated on the defensive end. Half the times it seemed as if he was the only one who gave a damn and tried to play defense on the knicks this past year. Also the thing is we wouldn't have to have Melo defend LA/Love/Griffin. We can stick Dwight on the elite PFs, TJ/Melo would just have to be able to defend/box out the centers/make them work on the defensive end which I believe Melo will be able to do better than TJ.

 

Except that he is :grin:

TJones has his moments, but it's usually in the form of help defense. What we need is a man to man, D up in his face type defender and Jones is horrible at best in that scenario.

So, if you can't stop them on the defensive end, slow them down by making them work of defense. And we all know Melo will son many PF's or whomever is guarding him.

Like Kobe answered a few year back regarding his most difficult player to check on D, "Carmelo Anthony".

We will devastate the league if we get Anthony, Jones simply doesn't have that potential.

 

The Rockets should OF COURSE sign Melo if he wants to join the team. It would be the Rockets one of the 4 best teams in the league and one of, if not, the most interesting teams in the league. Just not for me. I'm not a fan of Melo, but he is IMO one of the top ten players in the NBA. However IMO Melo joining the Rockets will not result in championships. I think he would improve the Rockets offensely but only marginally, while doing little to help the defensive problems which keeps the Rockets from really contending.

Harden, Melo and Howard are three devasting offensive weapons, among the best or the best at their positions, but their individual strengths/weaknesses are not perfectly suited for one another. On offense, all three are ball stoppers (harden to a much lesser extent), each needs the ball in their hands to maximize their skills, none are good moving, at cutting, spotting up and with the exception of Howards offensive rebounding, playing off the ball. On defense, only Howard is exceptional, with Melo and Harden ranging from adequate to downright terrible.

No doubt an offense with the three of them will be potent and hard to stop, but will it be good enough to mitigate the defensive problems the Rockets posses? The two biggest problems IMO is first, inability to play hard, pressing, consistent perimeter defense and second the inability to match up against big, skilled power forwards. Harden Chander Lin and others were simply one of the worst at preventing guards/wings from either driving into the paint or cutting into the paint as well as rotating from side to side. Leaks in the perimeter, caused Howard and Beverley(the only good defenders) to over rotate and over help, leading to a breakdown of the defense. On pnr with point guards, even if howard and beverley or Lin do a good job of containing the roll or pick, the Rockets were notorious for missing the third rotation from the baseline. Case in point, the many times Lin or Harden is seen in no mans land between the basket and the baseline corner 3, neither helping on the driver or denying the spot up shooter. The rockets problems vs 4's was clearly illustrated by LA in the first round and adding Melo will do nothing to improve neither the perimeter or interior defense.

IMO the rockets would be better off with Kevin Love and short of that improving their perimeter play by adding a pg like Lowry OR a wing offensively capable but defensively minded in the mold of Igguadola or Affalo along with a pf like preferbly Milsap or at worst Thadeous young.

 

TJ could be elite with his physical tools...or he could just never improve.

 

Love is obviously option 1, but we have almost no chance of trading for him since other teams can offer much better trade packages to Minnesota... After Love, Melo is arguably the next best option and I think he would instantly launch us into championship contention, even in his first year. A lineup of Bev/Harden/Parsons/Melo/Howard would be the best starting 5 in the league. The only thing we would need is some veteran minimum players/ring chasing vets to take a hometown discount and come play to solidify our bench.

 

I can see that.

Asik is a good starting C who can protect the paint and grab rebounds which there may be many on the NYKs. Lin gives them excitement, marketing and hope for 1 year...something they need in a down year. Jones gives them a young intrigue who really has room to grow. And picks...something they don't have but desperately want and need to give the fans hope and something to talk about...dream about.. And with Lin and Asik expiring, the NYKs as major players in 2015 to let Phil begin to make his mark.

All for someone who won't help them and wants to leave. Take Felton with you and I think they are popping corks behind the scenes.

 

I am not a big fan of Carmelo.

Carmelo does not play defense and has been a locker room cancer.
I hope the Rockets do not pursue or acquire Carmelo.

Carmelo would probably cost close to 20 million per year.
We could probably get Kyle Lowry and Paul Millsap for a little bit more than that and be a much better team. We would get better at the point and power forward positions. Both positions are positions where the Rockets need to improve. We get a considerably better than we currently are on the offensive end and allot better on the offensive end. On top of that, we also get better in rebounding department.

Another alternative /option instead of Carmelo would be to persue a sign and trade with Minnesota for Kevin Love. Kevin Love gives you the same upgrade on the offensive end that Carmelo does but you also get better rebounding without someone that is a locker room cancer. On top of that, I think Kevin Love is like 5 years younger than Carmelo.

My first preference is to do some sort of sign and trade for Paul Millsap and Kyle Lowry and my second preference is Kevin Love.

 

I don't understand.

We can't have cap space AND mle right?

Also for the prediction. I think how we get melo, with Philly and Boston is spot on. I disagree on the FA signings however.

 

like stromile swift. all the gear, but no idea.

 

There is a reason that Phil Jackson wants Carmelo to take a pay cut. It is because he is not worth what he is asking.

A 20 million per year guy should be a 2 way player. Someone that gives you offense and defense. If they can't give you defense, then they are only worth half of that.

 

**** kind of logic is that?

 

Please take carmelo off NY's hands. Houston you will have a problem!

 

Minnesota will have to trade Love to a team that Love is willing to resign with. That limits that number of teams that Minnesota can enter into a trade with and means that Love will not necessarily get traded to the team with the best offer.

In short, Love will get traded to a team that he is willing to resign, but one that has a package that is acceptable to Minnesota, regardless of whether or not it is the best offer.

 

I have no idea where people keep getting this Melo is a cancer crap. I have never heard any teammate say that he was a bad teammate or much of anything negative about him....Also, we don't have the assets to acquire Love. Nearly every other team that wants a shot at getting him has high draft picks and is willing to offer established players. There is nearly a 0% chance that we will get Love in a trade with Minnesota. Also, seeing that Milsap is signed with the hawks and not a FA, that is not possible unless they trade him for Asik, which the Hawks did not want to do last year...