koko88 wrote:i can't choose a guy who in 9 years was eliminated 8 times in the first round.
It's funny you should mention this, since prior to KG and Ray-Ray showing up, Pierce played in a very weak EC and made it TO the playoffs only four times in 9 years. He made it out of the first round in consecutive seasons, going as far as the ECFs in 2002, but that's not really a much more sterling record.
Now, things to consider.
In his full seasons Denver, Melo's teams won an average of 48.3 games, including a 3-year stretch of 50, 54 and 53.
In that time, Denver was 8th, 7th, 3rd, 6th, 8th (with 50 wins!!), 2nd (WCFs) and 4th in the conference.
Notice how many times they won a lot of damned games and were still only the 8th seed?
OK, let's just look at the 6th-8th seed appearances. That's 04, 05, 07 and 08. So that's 43, 49, 45 and 50 wins.
In those same seasons, they'd have been 4th, 3rd, 4th and 4th in the Eastern Conference.
Those years, they ended up facing the MVP-Garnett Timberwolves, the title Spurs, the title Spurs again, and the NBA-finalist Lakers (making their first of 3 consecutive Finals appearances).
You don't think that had something to do with Melo's playoff record?
I don't even LIKE Melo as a player, and I can't help but see a giant fault in your logic here.
