Knicks · Does Lakers lack of success so far put things into perspective. (page 15)

ChuckBuck wrote:

tkf wrote:

jrodmc wrote:

Nalod wrote:Durant>Melo and the young man is improving.

Kudo's to melo for being in the conversation after 16 games and the main cog in the knicks early success this year.

TKF, I would not say Melo is in the same bizzaro clown world that Dwight has existed the last few years. Melo graduated and let his clown card expire.

While I agree the Mooby worship is a bit much to take as many have over inflated Melo's status, I don't think he deserves quite the bashing.

His history and playoff record speak for itself. Great win scorers like Andrian Dantley but now plays in a higher exposed era and in a big market.

18-6 did show he can do it in NY. This year he is doing it even better.

Im not keen on extropolating this out to a conf championship but its plausable.

The more you fuel the debate the more you'll insite the response. Your call.

What this has to do with lakers and perspective I still don't get.

I just know you'll tie this whole thread back to faith in the rise of the N*yets somehow, though.

For the billionth time, he's POTW for the Eastern Conference, his team's at the top the division, one of the best records in the league. And he's just doing his thing. Nothing special. A few nice passes. Some blocks. Last seen diving his lazy defensive ass all over the the floor.

Even the anti-NY-homer e-media and rags are mumbling about MVP. But we're all smarter than the rags and e-media right?

People had no problems canonizing TheBeard just a few short thread pages ago. My oh my.

Hate will continue until multiple chips appear.

And then they who hate will finally drift off permanently to the Nugget or Rocket boards...

or when multiple players disappear... guess which one I think will come first?

Amare?

the choice was between multiple chips and certain players disappearing... before the hate finally left...

i expect that this roster will full of new players before we win multiple chips...

At least we are not aligning the Suns vs Knicks with MDA the center piece of it all. Now its the Lakers.

Perspective? I've lost it.

Hahaha Kobe and his "big boy pants" comment thrown right in his face

ChuckBuck wrote:Hahaha Kobe and his "big boy pants" comment thrown right in his face

ha ha ha that is priceless

tkf wrote:

jrodmc wrote:Kobe is now playing with a new, more stupid Shaq on steroids. This will end uglier than that the last marriage. Less than 20 games into the season and DivaHow is already talking about moving on. How's a classless clown, but Kobe must truly be an A-grade ahole teammate.

Bye bye Nash. Bye bye Blake. Buh bye Pringles.

In other, non-topic related news:
The Nets cant quite hang with the Big Dogs Yet.

why didn't D'antoni try to depose Avery? You've got Deron, an offensive first&last big man, Hump and Evans would have to go, but other than that, what's not to SSOL with that team?

I said it a million times.. howard is a bozo, from the same school of bozo that carmelo came from..

Kobe is a jackass but he is a winner and committed to winning like no other player... Jordan was an A-hole, but I will take him as a teamate because his only goal was to win... kobe has that same DNA...

nets can't beat OKC, but who can't.. we could not beat memphis.. we may not be ready to hang with the big dogs yet either if that is your criteria..

howard is certainly a bozo-- he is clearly in love with himself as much as melo is-- but i am not ready to write him off until i see him play with steve nash. he is liable to immediately be more effective as a finisher in the pick and roll. he worked with hakeem about 5 years too late. maybe success with nash will breed some effing humility from this idiot.

Dwight Howard is selfish now?

I'd trade anyone not named Melo for Howard right now.

Lakers arent playing to Howard's strengths. Plain and simple.

You have to just give it to Howard to slam and he'll block shots, don't over think it. With Nash there will be better looking passes and everyone will be fed, it'll be fine. It's just that they have Duhon right now, even Blake went out with abdominal surgery!!

AnubisADL wrote:Dwight Howard is selfish now?

I'd trade anyone not named Melo for Howard right now.

Lakers arent playing to Howard's strengths. Plain and simple.

I wonder have you watched all the Laker games? I have and they are spreading the floor and giving Howard plenty of space to score inside. The Lakers have a few big issues with their roster and until they make some changes and also get healthy at PG, things will be up and down. Right now they have too many guys that aren't getting it done and that puts pressure on Kobe to make it happen all game. A healthy Nash and Blake makes the game much easier for the role players and the stars.

Still the Lakers have big problems with perimeter defense and they miss having guys like Barnes that can play some D away from the basket. They get broken down too easily when you have Darius Morris and Duhon out there. Just not enough quickness to shut down penetration. Lakers have really bad role players IMO.

They play defense like they are old and slow. Metta World War is really a 4 now. They need a perimeter wing who can defend and hit an outside shot.

Not to many in the league available and Pau's contract is a monster with a 15% trade kicker to boot!

nixluva wrote:

AnubisADL wrote:Dwight Howard is selfish now?

I'd trade anyone not named Melo for Howard right now.

Lakers arent playing to Howard's strengths. Plain and simple.

I wonder have you watched all the Laker games? I have and they are spreading the floor and giving Howard plenty of space to score inside. The Lakers have a few big issues with their roster and until they make some changes and also get healthy at PG, things will be up and down. Right now they have too many guys that aren't getting it done and that puts pressure on Kobe to make it happen all game. A healthy Nash and Blake makes the game much easier for the role players and the stars.

Still the Lakers have big problems with perimeter defense and they miss having guys like Barnes that can play some D away from the basket. They get broken down too easily when you have Darius Morris and Duhon out there. Just not enough quickness to shut down penetration. Lakers have really bad role players IMO.

Nash and Blake supposed to improve that? Also to your point they had MWP guarding Harden late and not Kobe. If Kobe can;t guard his position anymore they are probably lost because right now MWP has lost the lateral quickness to defend guards.

Bonn1997 wrote:

newyorknewyork wrote:

dk7th wrote:

newyorknewyork wrote:

tkf wrote:

newyorknewyork wrote:

tkf wrote:

Nalod wrote:I get it now, if somehow MDA demonstrates further alienation tendancies with another player,
then Melo is obsolved of his sins!

Wow!

what exactly doe Homers stand to gain from this? IS melo up for sainthood? Vetting for a seat on the Supreme court?

You guys are that desporate for a hero?

it is absolutely amazing.... i have never seen a fan base root for the failure of 5 players and a coach to validate and hero worship one guy..... I thought if you like someone, you like them and didn't need others to fail to justify why you like them....

This thread isn't about rooting for players to fail or giving anyone praise.

At the same time you seem quick to create a scapegoat for a teams failures, but get upset when they recieve praise.

no, just annoyed at undue praise and people trying to force feed me greatness that isn't there...

Its an atmosphere that you helped create with over the top bias. You have no problem force feeding blame all onto one person when the team loses, but when they win you want to claim team and spread the praise around. Mean while you create standards for Denver, Lin, MDA by knocking the Knicks in order to propel them but get upset when they are criticised for not reaching those standards and cry foul. The only thing that annoys you is your desire to be right.

your criticism is unfair. carmelo anthony has underachieved most of his career. not playing great defense and not being a playmaker will do that to a player and his teams. add to this that he has been an inefficient scorer-- what dunderheads call euphemistically a "volume shooter"-- and the first place you look is carmelo.

now is he more efficient thus far into the season. the answer is yes, in fact it is borderline good, 57.5TS. but his usage relative to his assist rate is an abomination. 34.7 to 11.3. yuuuuck. and his 3-point shooting percentage will certainly go down, dragging his efficiency down with it to his career level of absolute mediocrity: 53-55%. this hurts his team.

so the reason for the criticism is that carmelo anthony basically plays basketball in a kind of vacuum the vast majority of the time. win or lose, he is going to accumulate points, mostly inefficiently, while not making others better on either end of the floor.

The criticism is fair of Melo's game. But at the same time the guy has won 591% of his games in Denver and made the playoffs every yr of his career and is on pace to having a great season in NY. If he was as bad as you claim he doesn't achieve that. He also has went to the WCF which tells me that these issues you have against him can be worked with. You guys act as if he is a some mediocre career loser.

IMO I think a lot of those issues can be worked out with personel and coaching, Example Woodson is a defensive first coach the first that Melo has played with in his NBA career. Is it a suprise to you that he now is playing the most defense effort he has played with since Woodson took over. The key with his usage, playmaking ability, and shot selection is that he is cappable. It comes down to him trusting his teammates. He has played some of the best basketball of his career with Billups and Kidd, I don't think that is a conicidence. But his ability to produce, his clutch gene(minus this season) and versatility isn't something that grows on trees.

To be fair, Denver's and our winning %s in games he's missed has been around .550 (Denver) and higher for us too. No one's saying he's a loser but I would classify him only as a "good" player not a "great" one. I know calling him "good" is not strong enough praise for many though and I'll probably be called a hater.

Derrick Rose says Hello........

huh? Have you looked at the standings? It's early but Chicago's not even on pace to make the playoffs.

Bonn1997 wrote:

newyorknewyork wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

newyorknewyork wrote:

dk7th wrote:

newyorknewyork wrote:

tkf wrote:

newyorknewyork wrote:

tkf wrote:

Nalod wrote:I get it now, if somehow MDA demonstrates further alienation tendancies with another player,
then Melo is obsolved of his sins!

Wow!

what exactly doe Homers stand to gain from this? IS melo up for sainthood? Vetting for a seat on the Supreme court?

You guys are that desporate for a hero?

it is absolutely amazing.... i have never seen a fan base root for the failure of 5 players and a coach to validate and hero worship one guy..... I thought if you like someone, you like them and didn't need others to fail to justify why you like them....

This thread isn't about rooting for players to fail or giving anyone praise.

At the same time you seem quick to create a scapegoat for a teams failures, but get upset when they recieve praise.

no, just annoyed at undue praise and people trying to force feed me greatness that isn't there...

Its an atmosphere that you helped create with over the top bias. You have no problem force feeding blame all onto one person when the team loses, but when they win you want to claim team and spread the praise around. Mean while you create standards for Denver, Lin, MDA by knocking the Knicks in order to propel them but get upset when they are criticised for not reaching those standards and cry foul. The only thing that annoys you is your desire to be right.

your criticism is unfair. carmelo anthony has underachieved most of his career. not playing great defense and not being a playmaker will do that to a player and his teams. add to this that he has been an inefficient scorer-- what dunderheads call euphemistically a "volume shooter"-- and the first place you look is carmelo.

now is he more efficient thus far into the season. the answer is yes, in fact it is borderline good, 57.5TS. but his usage relative to his assist rate is an abomination. 34.7 to 11.3. yuuuuck. and his 3-point shooting percentage will certainly go down, dragging his efficiency down with it to his career level of absolute mediocrity: 53-55%. this hurts his team.

so the reason for the criticism is that carmelo anthony basically plays basketball in a kind of vacuum the vast majority of the time. win or lose, he is going to accumulate points, mostly inefficiently, while not making others better on either end of the floor.

The criticism is fair of Melo's game. But at the same time the guy has won 591% of his games in Denver and made the playoffs every yr of his career and is on pace to having a great season in NY. If he was as bad as you claim he doesn't achieve that. He also has went to the WCF which tells me that these issues you have against him can be worked with. You guys act as if he is a some mediocre career loser.

IMO I think a lot of those issues can be worked out with personel and coaching, Example Woodson is a defensive first coach the first that Melo has played with in his NBA career. Is it a suprise to you that he now is playing the most defense effort he has played with since Woodson took over. The key with his usage, playmaking ability, and shot selection is that he is cappable. It comes down to him trusting his teammates. He has played some of the best basketball of his career with Billups and Kidd, I don't think that is a conicidence. But his ability to produce, his clutch gene(minus this season) and versatility isn't something that grows on trees.

To be fair, Denver's and our winning %s in games he's missed has been around .550 (Denver) and higher for us too. No one's saying he's a loser but I would classify him only as a "good" player not a "great" one. I know calling him "good" is not strong enough praise for many though and I'll probably be called a hater.

I don't think you can judge based on random games like that. In your opinion does Denver or the Knicks make the playoffs if he misses a full season with the same rosters?

It depends on who he's replaced with. If they got an average starting SF like Josh Smith or Tayshaun Prince, then they'd still make the playoffs. They had other MVP-candidate players (Billups, Camby) and many underrated but very good players. That's why they played well without Melo. If he's being replaced by some NBDL player, then probably not, though.

Y would he need to be replaced with anyone you stated they play 550. ball or better without him. Melo been in the playoffs every yr of his career. He didn't have Billups every yr of his career and Camby had seasons which he missed a ton of games or a whole season.

Bonn1997 wrote:huh? Have you looked at the standings? It's early but Chicago's not even on pace to make the playoffs.

They are 24 and 17 without him last two seasons.

Anji wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:huh? Have you looked at the standings? It's early but Chicago's not even on pace to make the playoffs.

They are 24 and 17 without him last two seasons.

And around .750 with him

newyorknewyork wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

newyorknewyork wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

newyorknewyork wrote:

dk7th wrote:

newyorknewyork wrote:

tkf wrote:

newyorknewyork wrote:

tkf wrote:

Nalod wrote:I get it now, if somehow MDA demonstrates further alienation tendancies with another player,
then Melo is obsolved of his sins!

Wow!

what exactly doe Homers stand to gain from this? IS melo up for sainthood? Vetting for a seat on the Supreme court?

You guys are that desporate for a hero?

it is absolutely amazing.... i have never seen a fan base root for the failure of 5 players and a coach to validate and hero worship one guy..... I thought if you like someone, you like them and didn't need others to fail to justify why you like them....

This thread isn't about rooting for players to fail or giving anyone praise.

At the same time you seem quick to create a scapegoat for a teams failures, but get upset when they recieve praise.

no, just annoyed at undue praise and people trying to force feed me greatness that isn't there...

Its an atmosphere that you helped create with over the top bias. You have no problem force feeding blame all onto one person when the team loses, but when they win you want to claim team and spread the praise around. Mean while you create standards for Denver, Lin, MDA by knocking the Knicks in order to propel them but get upset when they are criticised for not reaching those standards and cry foul. The only thing that annoys you is your desire to be right.

your criticism is unfair. carmelo anthony has underachieved most of his career. not playing great defense and not being a playmaker will do that to a player and his teams. add to this that he has been an inefficient scorer-- what dunderheads call euphemistically a "volume shooter"-- and the first place you look is carmelo.

now is he more efficient thus far into the season. the answer is yes, in fact it is borderline good, 57.5TS. but his usage relative to his assist rate is an abomination. 34.7 to 11.3. yuuuuck. and his 3-point shooting percentage will certainly go down, dragging his efficiency down with it to his career level of absolute mediocrity: 53-55%. this hurts his team.

so the reason for the criticism is that carmelo anthony basically plays basketball in a kind of vacuum the vast majority of the time. win or lose, he is going to accumulate points, mostly inefficiently, while not making others better on either end of the floor.

The criticism is fair of Melo's game. But at the same time the guy has won 591% of his games in Denver and made the playoffs every yr of his career and is on pace to having a great season in NY. If he was as bad as you claim he doesn't achieve that. He also has went to the WCF which tells me that these issues you have against him can be worked with. You guys act as if he is a some mediocre career loser.

IMO I think a lot of those issues can be worked out with personel and coaching, Example Woodson is a defensive first coach the first that Melo has played with in his NBA career. Is it a suprise to you that he now is playing the most defense effort he has played with since Woodson took over. The key with his usage, playmaking ability, and shot selection is that he is cappable. It comes down to him trusting his teammates. He has played some of the best basketball of his career with Billups and Kidd, I don't think that is a conicidence. But his ability to produce, his clutch gene(minus this season) and versatility isn't something that grows on trees.

To be fair, Denver's and our winning %s in games he's missed has been around .550 (Denver) and higher for us too. No one's saying he's a loser but I would classify him only as a "good" player not a "great" one. I know calling him "good" is not strong enough praise for many though and I'll probably be called a hater.

I don't think you can judge based on random games like that. In your opinion does Denver or the Knicks make the playoffs if he misses a full season with the same rosters?

It depends on who he's replaced with. If they got an average starting SF like Josh Smith or Tayshaun Prince, then they'd still make the playoffs. They had other MVP-candidate players (Billups, Camby) and many underrated but very good players. That's why they played well without Melo. If he's being replaced by some NBDL player, then probably not, though.

Y would he need to be replaced with anyone you stated they play 550. ball or better without him. Melo been in the playoffs every yr of his career. He didn't have Billups every yr of his career and Camby had seasons which he missed a ton of games or a whole season.

Yes, and he was obviously replaced by other players. They didn't play 4 on 5!

tkf wrote:

newyorknewyork wrote:

Nalod wrote:I think fans are way quick to judge.

The title of this thread says a lot. Another teams lack of success began in preseason. Its not like MDA took over a fully functioning unit.

Can you turn around a team in 8 games? Not usually.

Woodson's 18-6 was different because he was already on the bench. It does not diminish the job he has done, but MDA's 8 game stint with his 3rd string PG does not elevate Woodsons either.

Pau is not able to run right now. He is missing two starters.

Why they lose last nite? Execution of a half court offense, defense lapse and future franchise player can't hit his FT's.

Him being a clown only makes it worse.

The eyes of the world are on MDA.

Its almost disrespectful to Woodson to compare or gains perspective. They are unrelated.

Again Nalod the thread wasn't about MDA. The teams lack of success before MDA only strengthens the perspective. You have Howard, Gasol, Kobe and they struggled to make the princeton offense work got one coach fired and now there is drama Laker land with the SSOL offense. Mike Brown went to the finals with Lebron James and average role players he isn't the horrible coach that he was made out to be in LA either.

Brown should have scrapped trying to install a system and let the players play and play to there strengths. Systems require specific personel to run smooth.

The Knicks struggled last season because the system didn't fit the personel. Instead of ppl accepting that they wanted to blame one specific person for all the problems. Now even greater players are struggling when put in the same situation.

that one specific person was whining and not playing hard.. he admitted that... kobe openly supported what brown was doing and on the court, guy is having another great season, lakers got off to a bad start, early but they are 8-9, we were 7-13 afer 20 games... we were awful until lin saved our asses... the premature reactions are hilarious... somehow we have to seek validation for carmelo.. this is sickening, and i am surprised that is hasn't even made the biggest homers sick of trying to validate a player they have so much faith in... tell me, if the lakers reel of 5 straight wins... does this still put things into perspective?

Yea that's what it was he was whinning and not playing hard. We didnt' start the season 6-4 until Melo got injured in Memphis and came back trying to play through injury during a 1-9 slide. So if it all came down to Melo not playing hard and whining why are the Lakers losing to the Kings and Orlando Magic?

Lakers winning 5 straight doesn't excuse them losing to the Kings, Pacers and Magic. Houston I can give them because they have played competitive ball with most teams.

tkf wrote:

NYKBocker wrote:

tkf wrote:

JrZyHuStLa wrote:It would make sense to trash Carmelo if Denver, Houston, and Mike D'antoni were having more success.

But they're not.

Excuses and posts don't matter. Only wins do.

that is ridiculous..you don't criticize a player based on someone else success or failure.. what sense does that make?

I don't understand that either. What does Denver, Houston or MDA have to do with Melo. You criticize the deal then let it go. Melo's performance should only be judged with his performance. Right now, Melo is having a very good season. I know that bully ball sometimes surfaces but the only thing I can say is baby steps. He is doing more good than bad right now.

the need to validate carmelo has really gone over the top.... I don't get the mentality, if someone is playing good or bad, it shouldn't matter what another player or coach for that matter is doing elsewhere... If carmelo has a good season and dantoni takes the lakers to the finals, and gallo and lin both are allstars.. does that mean that carmelo didn't have a good season? I don't get it... and it can go the other way.. if those guys had a horrible season and carmelo tanked the season as well does that mean we should not criticize him? just a warped sense of thinking with some posters..

Change the names, the principals stay the same. Its about a balanced roster and playing to your strengths not about validating Melo.

Bonn1997 wrote:

Anji wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:huh? Have you looked at the standings? It's early but Chicago's not even on pace to make the playoffs.

They are 24 and 17 without him last two seasons.

And around .750 with him

Doesn't change the fact the team plays around .600 ball without him, does it???

Sometimes good players actually play on good teams, 93-94 Bulls say HELLO!!!!!!!

tkf wrote:

JrZyHuStLa wrote:It would make sense to trash Carmelo if Denver, Houston, and Mike D'antoni were having more success.

But they're not.

Excuses and posts don't matter. Only wins do.

that is ridiculous..you don't criticize a player based on someone else success or failure.. what sense does that make?

lol you just have to laugh at this one.

Bonn1997 wrote:

MSG3 wrote:

tkf wrote:

MSG3 wrote:

tkf wrote:

MSG3 wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

newyorknewyork wrote:

dk7th wrote:

newyorknewyork wrote:

tkf wrote:

newyorknewyork wrote:

tkf wrote:

Nalod wrote:I get it now, if somehow MDA demonstrates further alienation tendancies with another player,
then Melo is obsolved of his sins!

Wow!

what exactly doe Homers stand to gain from this? IS melo up for sainthood? Vetting for a seat on the Supreme court?

You guys are that desporate for a hero?

it is absolutely amazing.... i have never seen a fan base root for the failure of 5 players and a coach to validate and hero worship one guy..... I thought if you like someone, you like them and didn't need others to fail to justify why you like them....

This thread isn't about rooting for players to fail or giving anyone praise.

At the same time you seem quick to create a scapegoat for a teams failures, but get upset when they recieve praise.

no, just annoyed at undue praise and people trying to force feed me greatness that isn't there...

Its an atmosphere that you helped create with over the top bias. You have no problem force feeding blame all onto one person when the team loses, but when they win you want to claim team and spread the praise around. Mean while you create standards for Denver, Lin, MDA by knocking the Knicks in order to propel them but get upset when they are criticised for not reaching those standards and cry foul. The only thing that annoys you is your desire to be right.

your criticism is unfair. carmelo anthony has underachieved most of his career. not playing great defense and not being a playmaker will do that to a player and his teams. add to this that he has been an inefficient scorer-- what dunderheads call euphemistically a "volume shooter"-- and the first place you look is carmelo.

now is he more efficient thus far into the season. the answer is yes, in fact it is borderline good, 57.5TS. but his usage relative to his assist rate is an abomination. 34.7 to 11.3. yuuuuck. and his 3-point shooting percentage will certainly go down, dragging his efficiency down with it to his career level of absolute mediocrity: 53-55%. this hurts his team.

so the reason for the criticism is that carmelo anthony basically plays basketball in a kind of vacuum the vast majority of the time. win or lose, he is going to accumulate points, mostly inefficiently, while not making others better on either end of the floor.

The criticism is fair of Melo's game. But at the same time the guy has won 591% of his games in Denver and made the playoffs every yr of his career and is on pace to having a great season in NY. If he was as bad as you claim he doesn't achieve that. He also has went to the WCF which tells me that these issues you have against him can be worked with. You guys act as if he is a some mediocre career loser.

IMO I think a lot of those issues can be worked out with personel and coaching, Example Woodson is a defensive first coach the first that Melo has played with in his NBA career. Is it a suprise to you that he now is playing the most defense effort he has played with since Woodson took over. The key with his usage, playmaking ability, and shot selection is that he is cappable. It comes down to him trusting his teammates. He has played some of the best basketball of his career with Billups and Kidd, I don't think that is a conicidence. But his ability to produce, his clutch gene(minus this season) and versatility isn't something that grows on trees.

To be fair, Denver's and our winning %s in games he's missed has been around .550 (Denver) and higher for us too. No one's saying he's a loser but I would classify him only as a "good" player not a "great" one. I know calling him "good" is not strong enough praise for many though and I'll probably be called a hater.

Depends what your definition of great is. Is great MJ, LeNron, Magic, Kobe? If so, Carmelo is not great. But Carmelo is easily in the class of guys like Durant. My CURRENT top 5 is:

LeBron
Kobe
Durant
Melo
Westbrook

not sure westbrook should be in that class, but i guarantee you if lebron or Durant was a knick you guys would be fuming if someone were to suggest that carmelo is in their class... and he just isn't....

No one is in LeBron's class. But Durant? Give me an argument why Durant is in a higher class than Melo. They are almost identical players statistically. KD is a better ball handler while Melo is a better post player. They are both great rebounders at their position. I would argue that Melo is actually a better defender when engaged. If I had to choose one over the other I'd go with KD but only because I'll go with the young guy if all else is equal.

they are not identical at all.. durant is a better scorer, a more efficient score, a better facilitator, or ball mover, better rebounder.. the guy is just a better all around player...

I would argue that Melo is actually a better defender when engaged

and what does that mean? what about the other 99% of the time when he isn't engaged?

If I had to choose one over the other I'd go with KD but only because I'll go with the young guy if all else is equal.

All things are not equal... if you go with KD, you go with him because he is flat out better.. and deep down I think you feel the same way....

A better argument would be between carmelo and Deron williams...

I really don't think KD is better than Melo. I think perhaps he has more of an unselfish gene at an earlier age. I think they are very similar players. They are both excellent rebounders. KD is not a great facilitator. He makes smart passes but in terms of facilitating they are equals. I think KD gets some easy assists off of passes to Westbrook. With Melo passing out of the post like he does, a made shot usually comes off of the 2nd or 3rd pass after the initial one from Melo. To say Melo is not playing D 99% of the time is to not admit he's turned a corner this year. Deron isn't in the class of either of these players. Utah Deron, yes. But not NJ/BK Deron.

Having someone take 18 shots a game and make only 42% should not be helping your assists. It's probably hurting them. Durant is better than Melo in every major area (scoring efficiency, assists, rebounds, steals, blocks).

How does he ever win?