WargamesX wrote:bronxknicksfan1 wrote:testerosa wrote:
No need for me to dig up data. I never said Randle is more talented or statistically a better player than Melo. I just said he's been a better Knick. To me, that simply means I've enjoyed his career and the teams he's played on significantly more than I did Melo's. You said so yourself- Melo's run was a massive disappointment. So for that reason alone, I don't miss that era and I don't look back on it fondly pretty much at all. It was a waste of 7 years, whereas this current team (led in large part by Randle) still has real hope to contend at some point soon.
I also never said it was all Melo's fault (although he had a lot to do with it by forcing a trade instead of signing as a FA). Of course the Knicks FO made mistakes, just as we can point to some mistakes Leon and co. have made with this team (although they've been much better overall than Grunwald, Mills and Phil IMO). For instance, imagine if they didn't sign Fournier, drafted Haliburton over Obi and put their FA money to use in some other way that might have landed us a legit 2 way wing. Who knows. Hindsight is 20/20 and it's not worth toiling over. The fact remains, the Knicks tapped themselves out trying to make the finals with Melo. Just because they traded a pick for Bargs the following year doesn't mean they could have added the final piece to the '13 team but chose not to. That was a bold assumption on your part.
One last counterpoint I will make is that... for all the flack Randle catches for "choking in the playoffs", I think it's extremely unfair to overlook his injury last year. The dude is tough as nails. He sat out the last 10 games or so of the regular season to get right, clearly wasn't 100 percent when he came back but was still playing pretty well until he re-aggravated it, and he never complained or considered sitting out. I respect him for that, and I will never consider that a choke job. 2021 was different. Suddenly fans were back in the arena, the lights were bright, the defense loaded up on him (dude was playing with no other ball handlers or shooters) and he didn't perform. It is what it is.
Again, Melo is clearly the more talented, more highly regarded and more HOF-worthy player. He's got more accolades and a much better reputation around the league. There's no denying that. But when you take all the hype surrounding his arrival and all the gaudy numbers, and put it up against the early outs in the POs, the losing seasons and times he missed the playoffs altogether, plus the carousel of coaches and the constant drama and tension...... his time with the Knicks was a huge fail, for Melo on a personal level and for the Knicks franchise. And I'm sorry but it pains me to see people put him in the same conversation as Ewing, King and Clyde as some sort of Knicks legend. Houston and Sprewell are well above him on my list in terms of what they meant for the team and the city. Not even close.
Just admit it. We star phucked for Melo and got ass phucked in the end. His 2 most famous moments in the Garden were 62 points on the bum ass Bobcats, and sucker punching Mardy Collins in the face.
Randle was the #1 and best player on the team for one playoff run since he’s been a Knick and that was the 2020-21 season. The Knicks were bounced from the playoffs easily while he had one of the worst playoff meltdowns in history.
Last season, Brunson was clearly the best Knick on the team. Has Melo ever played with a Knick better than him or even close to being him equal? Add context of the team surrounding the player. This is the most talented Knicks team in the 21st century. And it’s not close. Put prime Knicks Melo on this team instead of Randle and this team would be considered a contender.
Would we or would everybody be complaining about him ball hogging, shooting us out of games, and not passing to Brunson or anyone else to keep his stats up? Also at least Randle plays team defense consistently, Melo did that every couple of games when he felt like it.
Melo was cool, but he was a bit of a diva too….. Randle will have his moments but usually will try to distribute whenever he’s having a bad game. If you could ADD Melo to this team they might be contenders just because he would be able to focus on scoring and the team could run at a high level in spite of that. I don’t think he would make them better just replacing Randle.
Talking about shooting the team out of games, Randle was shooting tour dates in the playoffs and to start the season, didn’t he?
As for defense, Randle’s defense is very come and go as well. When was that ever consistent for him? There’s clips of him mailing it in all the time, especially when he doesn’t have a good offensive game.
And Melo has always deferred when he had a good PG. Andre Miller, Billups, Kidd…he’s had some of his best seasons next to those guys. Hell, he played with one of the most ball dominant guards of all time in AI. He’d have no issue playing next to Brunson.
Just a reminder, Melo was considered a top 10 player in his prime. Melo wasn’t just any scorer in the league, he was one of the top 5 scorers during his time. Saying that the team could perform in spite of that is an insult to what he would bring to a team like this one. He’d level them up because of the type of scoring threat that he is. Randle is not and has never been at that level of player.
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