No you're not alone on your assessment. There's a lot of questions on how Melo is a person and how he'll fit on this team. But I think you have to take the risk on a top 5 player in the league.
What's not to like about him? <object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BYpKLPdGCDI?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BYpKLPdGCDI?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>
I'm not sure he is a top 5 player in the league...but even with that said I think the Rockets should take that risk.
I love how all the guys on here pick her apart... seriously, you'd be lucky to get with a woman that looks like that.
QFT. Melo is guaranteed top 10 player in the league, top 5 can be subjective but worthy of a mention.
August 27, 2010, 11:05 pm Rethinking the System as N.B.A. Stars Move By HOWARD BECK From left, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire and LeBron James helped upset the N.B.A.’s star system this off-season by relocating or publicly contemplating it. LeBron James fled, Chris Bosh bolted and Amar’e Stoudemire drifted away. Chris Paul chirped with envy. Carmelo Anthony grumbled. And N.B.A. executives in every time zone shuddered a bit. The Summer of LeBron has turned into the Summer of Superstar Discontent and may well become the Off-season That Changed Everything. The N.B.A.’s best players are either relocating or trying to, upsetting the league’s balance of power and undermining a system that was once fine-tuned for parity and stability. The reckoning will come, as with everything else, at the bargaining table, where owners will try to wrest back control in the next labor deal. Already, there is talk among team executives of franchise tags and heavy financial penalties for players changing teams, measures that are anathema to the players union. It is unknown whether such measures were part of the owners’ initial proposal, but they will surely be introduced as the two sides haggle in the coming months. The current collective bargaining agreement expires next July. By then, Anthony could be wearing a new uniform, adding another name to the superstar exodus. As Yahoo Sports reported Thursday, Anthony has soured on the Denver Nuggets and is asking to be traded. The Nuggets, fearful of losing Anthony to free agency next summer, seem likely to oblige him. A deal could happen before the season starts in late October, but more likely it will not occur until closer to the trading deadline in February. The wait will be a compelling drama for fans and commentators, but it only adds to the angst for Commissioner David Stern and the league’s owners. For years, the league has cultivated a system of superstar inertia, providing players every possible incentive to stay put. A player who re-signs with his team is eligible for longer contracts and bigger raises, amounting to as much as $30 million over a six-year deal. With few exceptions, it has been wildly effective. Until this summer, no superstar in his prime had changed teams via free agency since 2000, when Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady joined the Orlando Magic. No player of James’s stature had done so since 1996, when Shaquille O’Neal left Orlando for the Los Angeles Lakers. Otherwise, the system worked, keeping Tim Duncan in San Antonio, Reggie Miller in Indiana, Chris Webber in Sacramento and John Stockton and Karl Malone in Utah throughout their primes. In fact, it has worked so well that some agents regard superstar free agency as a virtual myth. James destroyed the model in July, when he left Cleveland for Miami. He left $15 million on the table to join the Heat, but he would have sacrificed about $30 million had the Cavaliers not agreed to a sign-and-trade deal at the last minute. Bosh, the longtime Toronto star, followed James to Miami under a similar arrangement. Stoudemire left Phoenix for the Knicks. In the wake of those moves, Paul (New Orleans) and Anthony (Denver) delivered trade-me-or-lose-me ultimatums to their teams. Never in a single off-season have players demonstrated such a brazen show of self-determination. Rarely has so much high-level talent been on the move. It is a potentially dangerous trend for the league. If Anthony and Paul can force their way to bigger markets — perhaps creating another superteam in New York — it will undermine the N.B.A.’s decades-long commitment to parity and create despair in every small market. That is why most team executives (who are forbidden from speaking publicly on labor issues) expect more drastic measures to curtail movement in the next collective bargaining agreement. One solution would be to increase the financial incentives for a player to stay home (or, conversely, increase the penalties for leaving). Under the current system, a player who stays with his team can sign for six years (instead of five), with 10 percent raises (instead of 8 percent). The league could try to widen the gap, perhaps limiting players to three-year deals and even smaller salary increases if they change teams. Another possibility, although it is considered a long shot, would be to adopt the franchise tag system used in the N.F.L. Under that system, teams can bind star players to another year of service, essentially delaying their free agency. “It will be discussed,” said one Eastern Conference executive, adding, “I can’t see it happening.” Historically, when the system has faltered, the league has moved quickly to reinforce it. In the late 1990s, owners were alarmed at the $120 million contracts signed by O’Neal and Kevin Garnett (with Minnesota). Those deals prompted a push for maximum salaries and a more structured rookie scale, both of which were adopted in the 1999 labor deal. While Stern formulates the next patch to the system, the Nuggets are left in a precarious state. Anthony, despite annual concerns about his maturity and his attitude, is one of the league’s best pure scorers and one of its few bankable stars. He led Denver to the Western Conference finals 15 months ago. Anthony has declined to accept a three-year, $65 million extension, saying he prefers free agency next summer. In another era, that maximum offer would have ensured his loyalty. In the Summer of LeBron, the old formula seems defunct. http://offthedribble.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/27/rethinking-the-system-as-n-b-a-stars-move/
Im not buying the whole trading him at the deadline talk. If the Nuggets are going to trade him I think its most likely before the season starts. If they dont I think he just walks just like Bosh. If its the deadline and the Nuggets are a top 5 seed that will make a trade even harder to do plus you only will have Melo for 2 or 3 months.
At this point I don't buy the trade deadline stuff either. I don't believe the Nuggets will allow Melo to steamroll them into just any trade. But it's in the interests of both sides to settle this before training camp starts. After everything that has come out, I can't see Melo playing for them at all this season.
I don't think Melo will opt out........ IMO, the Nuggets will hold onto him, and he will sign the extension for fear that he will lose out on $$$ if he waits on the new CBA. DD
Wizards contacted Denver about Carmelo Anthony Take it for what it's worth, but the Wizards recently made an obligatory call to the Denver Nuggets to check on the availability of all-star forward Carmelo Anthony, a league source said on Friday. The source added that the Wizards were simply doing their due diligence and that the same phone call was made by "29 teams. Carmelo is pretty good." Multiple Internet reports have made it clear that Anthony is looking to move elsewhere. Anthony will earn $17 million in the final year of his deal, but has stalled all summer to sign a $65 million extension with the Nuggets, the only team for which he has played since going third in the 2003 draft. The likelihood of Anthony returning to play professionally near his home town of Baltimore is on the shady side of slim. Denver has told league executives that it is seeking a package of expiring contracts, future draft picks and young prospects in any deal for its franchise cornerstone. Yahoo! Sports reported on Thursday that Anthony made it clear to owner-in-waiting Josh Kroenke that he wants to leave during a meeting last weekend in Baltimore. The New Jersey Nets and Los Angeles Clippers have emerged as the two most probable destinations, with Anthony's wife, LaLa Vasquez, a former MTV personality, seeking to a better location to pursue her entertainment career. Yahoo! Sports also mentioned Golden State, Houston and Charlotte as possibilities. The Wizards have no plans of trading No. 1 overall pick John Wall and no large expiring contracts of note, while the Nuggets have no interest in taking back bad contracts, which rules out shipping Gilbert Arenas and the four years and $80 million left on his deal. If the Wizards were to assemble an attractive package of young players -- excluding Wall -- there likely wouldn't be a team with enough remaining talent to encourage Anthony to sign an extension in Washington. "I really don't think they know what they are going to do yet," the source said of the Nuggets. Masai Ujiri was introduced as the Nuggets' executive vice president of basketball operations on Friday and told the Denver Post that he does not want to trade Anthony and would like to meet with him. "I love Melo," Ujiri told the newspaper. "Carmelo is the Denver Nuggets, he's the city of Denver, he's done so well on this team. So we're going to deal with the issue full force." Ujiri, a former member of the Nuggets scouting department who recently worked for the Toronto Raptors, added that he intends on keeping Anthony in Denver for years to come. "He's a superstar in the league, and that's our priority. We want to keep Melo. We love Melo. That's all I can say." The Wizards are in the midst of rebuilding around Wall, which kept them from entering the free agency frenzy for LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade and others this summer. But while Anthony is an established superstar, he is relatively young at age 26. The three-time all-star is one of the more prolific scorers in the league, with a career average of 24.7 points. The Nuggets have been in disarray this offseason with the organization deciding not to renew the contracts of vice president of basketball operations Mark Warkentein and vice president of player personnel Rex Chapman earlier this month. David Griffin, their first choice take over as general manager, declined the job in a dispute over money. Coach George Karl is also recovering from cancer. And, after getting approval to purchase the St. Louis Rams this week, owner Stan Kroenke was forced to hand over the Nuggets and the NHL's Avalanche to his 30-year-old son, Josh. Speculation that Anthony wanted out of Denver began to swirl shortly after Chris Paul reportedly made a toast during Anthony's wedding last July about forming a super team with Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire with the New York Knicks. Anthony has done little since then to quash the momentum of his possible departure. By Michael Lee | August 27, 2010; 7:12 PM ET http://voices.washingtonpost.com/wizardsinsider/2010/08/carmelo-anthony-to-the-wizards.html
