token wrote:How does melo make his team better when he has an alstar on his team in billups, to really be good team you have to have depth and more than one alstar. Wade barley did and bosh would have done it if he didn’t get injured. Yea the lakers did good lol, first round exist with what less than 50wins.
How does Melo make his team better? I am guessing you are talking teammates, however just in case let me point out that Melo has always lead his team to a winning record and the playoffs regardless of teammates, despite joining the worst team in the league when he was drafted. It is an accomplishment when your team can have 250 games lost to injuries, and play 2-5 guys in the rotation that should be in Europe, you may lose in the playoffs, but teams dealing with that kind of crap accomplish a great deal making the playoffs. Being a fan of a team like Toronto where they struggle to even remember what the playoffs are, I would think you would view a trip there as something worthwhile.
Now if you are talking about actual teammates, I have a list of those.
Let's look at some of Melo's current and past teammates.
Billups was seen as pretty much done, and dumped to the Nuggets in a salary dump, only to have a career resurection.
Aaron Afflalo was traded for a future 2nd round pick, and now many on the trade board would not hesitate to give up picks or other prospects for him.
JR. Smith was forced into a trade from the Hornets to the Bulls, where they never even talked to him, but sent him to Denver for 2 2nd rounders after shopping him for over a week. He has finished top 5 in 6th man of the year voting in each of the last two years.
Chris Andersen could not even get a guaranteed deal after he came back from his drug suspension to look like crap with the Hornets. After a season in Denver he turned down bigger deals to sign a $21 million dollar deal with the team.
Dahntay Jones was out of the league when the Nuggets called him, he left last offseason for a nice long deal considering he is about a 10th man on his current team.
AI was sent to Denver with the 76ers thinking he was totally done, he put up near career numbers while in Denver, only to be traded 4 months later and be out of the league within the year.
Anthony carter was out of the league prior to catching on with Denver after they traded their PGs, prior to his major mistakes in the western conference finals against the Lakers last year he was suddenly thought a top backup pg.
Steve Blake was on a $1.25 million dollar contract when he was salary dumped just months before he expired. Fact is that most thought he was on his way out of the league, and Bucks fans celebrated when they dumped him. After just 49 games in Denver he earned an almost MLE deal that the Blazers had hated until they finally dumped him this year.
Earl Boykins was in and out of the league prior to joining the Nuggets, While with the Nuggets he was in the top 5 of 6th man of the year voting, once he was dumped so that the Nuggets could get under the luxury tax, he went right back to being in and out of the league.
Eddie Najera was traded to Denver along with a prospect and a 1st rounder for expiring contracts. After 3 and a half years he left the Nuggets to sign with the Nets, where the only time he has been heard from since was when they salary dumped him to the Mavs, and he commited a flagrant 1 in his few minutes he has been allowed to play since.
Greg Buckner was cut by the 76ers despite a guaranteed deal and was out of the league, when the Nuggets signed him. after 2 years with the Nuggets he signed a nice long contract, only to be salary dumped, not once, hell not even twice, but three times since he left the Nuggets. With his last team being the Mavericks, who have cut him again.
Francisco Elson was a backup Center for the Nuggets, when he left the Nuggets it was to go to the Spurs where he was penciled in as the starter, less then a year and half later he was salary dumped. He was also salary dumped a 2nd time after that, and finally expired, allowing him to sign a couple of minimum deals since then.
Marcus Camby was the salary filler on an injured Mcdyess for the 8th pick trade. Not only did he revive his career, but he won a DPOY award while playing with the Nuggets.
The two things in common with all these guys is they all went to the playoffs as members as the Nuggets, and they all played with Melo. The only guy who has been here as long as Melo is Nene, and he missed most of 2 seasons with injuries. Yet despite having 3 seasons in a row where they lost a starter in the 1st week, through over 110 teammates, seasons where their head coach was battling cancer, seasons with over 250 games missed due to injuries, Melo and the Nuggets have made the playoffs. The names here prove that players come to Denver to rehab their career, and get another deal. I have asked plenty of times for someone to provide me a list of guys made better by all the supposed great players in the league, that are said to make players better. Kobe and the Lakers can do it. D Wade and the Heat have not had anyone leave with a better rep then they arrived with since Shaq left. Lebron? Bosh?
By the way some of you are complaining that the Raptors need a starting SG, I hear Buckner and Demarr Johnson both need jobs. Fact is they were the entire SG rotation for the Nuggets for a couple of years from 04-06.
) Pg in the league. Instead they will try and deal Calderon's far less valuable big contract.
