Is Melo really any better than Ryno for what we would need him to do? I really don't think this pushes OKC past us.
Thunders has all the elements and they are contender, something I won't say to Rockets as long as Morey is here.
Melo would've been a definite upgrade over Ryno we will see how OKC's on court chemistry is, but you could make the argument that they're now the 2nd best team in the West...they have defenders like Roberson, PG, and Adams down low, and they have scorers in Russ, PG, and Melo...they've upgraded their shooting and got a much better backup PG than they had last season what helps us is that Billy Donovan isn't exactly an offensive guru so he might not be able to design an offense that's more than constant ISO's between Russ, PG, and Melo
Has Carmelo or his camp said anything yet? I would think they would if they were happy with the deal.
For all those saying stop the doom and gloom: While this is a good team it's not competitive enough to overtake GS. Melo possibly maybe could have gotten us there. Not only are we back to no chance against GS again but OKC just pulled very close or even wth us talent wise. So yes that's reason for doom and gloom.
The thing is Russ is still going to Russ games away like he usually does. Melo will never see the ball. Someone already said it, OKC now has 3 top 20 usage players.
BS man. Everyone is an underdog against GS, but we have one of the better chances in the west to knock them off with this roster. We haven't even seen a single minute of Harden and Paul together and people want to cancel the season. This board as usual is comical.
I agree that OKC has 3 great offensive weapons now... but I still think Houston a better all-around team than OKC. IMHO our bench is deeper than anybody in West. IMHO I believe that will allow us to hit the post-season better prepared than many teams. I would rank the West as 1) GSW 2) Spurs - only cause Pop gets the most out of his people 3) Htown 4) OKC 5) Minny 6 - 8: DEN; POR; SAC; Pellies; Jazz; DAL I really wanted Carmelo here for what he could possibly bring come playoff time. I hope the hunt is still on for that 3rd star for our starting unit (as well as a backup PG).
I wonder if part of the trade pitch was, "Kanter is a much better rebounder than that. He was letting Westbrook get rebounds all year."
They wouldn't have needed to do that. The "trade pitch" could have just been footage of Ryan Anderson in the playoffs. Knicks would have quickly taken the trade for Kanter.