Carmelo Anthony to OKC for Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott and a draft pick

[HoopsMalone]

Just getting rid of kanter and Doug "The Human Christmas Tree" was terrific in itself.

The fact that they landed a guy who fits perfectly with Westbrook and George is amazing.

Melo has been miscast most of his career as a #1 scoring option. He really excels off the ball. He's an excellent catch & shoot, excellent cutter, and very good offensive rebounder/garbage man.

He can still be very good at the 4, but he is fairly washed up as a 3.

George to an extent is a similar type talent whose drastically improved 3pt shot makes him a very suitable off the ball player too.

Defensively, OKC can pressure the ball with Westbrook . Adams is one of the best centers in the league against the PNR due to his mobility. And George/Roberson can guard the top wing scorer. This makes it incredibly easy to hide Melo defensively, and it's not like he's anywhere near the defensive liability kanter or McDermott were.

Offensively, it's going to be impossible to stop the westbrook/Adams PNR again now that you can't just collapse the paint.

A few months ago Westbrook was all but gone. It's still tough to gauge what's going to happen but man they've done a great job putting together a one year title attempt regardless.

Sent from my SM-N920V using RealGM mobile app

[NoStatsGuy]

Just getting rid of kanter and Doug "The Human Christmas Tree" was terrific in itself.

The fact that they landed a guy who fits perfectly with Westbrook and George is amazing.

Melo has been miscast most of his career as a #1 scoring option. He really excels off the ball. He's an excellent catch & shoot, excellent cutter, and very good offensive rebounder/garbage man.

He can still be very good at the 4, but he is fairly washed up as a 3.

George to an extent is a similar type talent whose drastically improved 3pt shot makes him a very suitable off the ball player too.

Defensively, OKC can pressure the ball with Westbrook . Adams is one of the best centers in the league against the PNR due to his mobility. And George/Roberson can guard the top wing scorer. This makes it incredibly easy to hide Melo defensively, and it's not like he's anywhere near the defensive liability kanter or McDermott were.

Offensively, it's going to be impossible to stop the westbrook/Adams PNR again now that you can't just collapse the paint.

A few months ago Westbrook was all but gone. It's still tough to gauge what's going to happen but man they've done a great job putting together a one year title attempt regardless.

Sent from my SM-N920V using RealGM mobile app

wow you are actually a person who watches basketball i cant believe it. funny how people in here say melo ist not an all star and ONLY good in ISO. that tells me they dont know what they are talking about. everytime melo has had competent teammates he was tearing it up. Melo is amazing off the ball, sadlymost people dont watch melo and only read espn. ergo melo = no defense and only iso. you will learn to appreciate that man guys, trust me.

[spearsy23]

Just getting rid of kanter and Doug "The Human Christmas Tree" was terrific in itself.

The fact that they landed a guy who fits perfectly with Westbrook and George is amazing.

Melo has been miscast most of his career as a #1 scoring option. He really excels off the ball. He's an excellent catch & shoot, excellent cutter, and very good offensive rebounder/garbage man.

He can still be very good at the 4, but he is fairly washed up as a 3.

George to an extent is a similar type talent whose drastically improved 3pt shot makes him a very suitable off the ball player too.

Defensively, OKC can pressure the ball with Westbrook . Adams is one of the best centers in the league against the PNR due to his mobility. And George/Roberson can guard the top wing scorer. This makes it incredibly easy to hide Melo defensively, and it's not like he's anywhere near the defensive liability kanter or McDermott were.

Offensively, it's going to be impossible to stop the westbrook/Adams PNR again now that you can't just collapse the paint.

A few months ago Westbrook was all but gone. It's still tough to gauge what's going to happen but man they've done a great job putting together a one year title attempt regardless.

Sent from my SM-N920V using RealGM mobile app

wow you are actually a person who watches basketball i cant believe it. funny how people in here say melo ist not an all star and ONLY good in ISO. that tells me they dont know what they are talking about. everytime melo has had competent teammates he was tearing it up. Melo is amazing off the ball, sadlymost people dont watch melo and only read espn. ergo melo = no defense and only iso. you will learn to appreciate that man guys, trust me.

He's not only iso, but that is still where his primary value lies. He isn't klay Thompson and treating him like it will bring his value down. Defensively he is awful.

[HoopsMalone]

Actually melo doesn't have much value in iso. His iso just isn't effective enough to lead an efficient offense. It's not 1991.

Iso players In general are a hindrance to your teams offense. There are a few exceptions like Kyrie, Isaiah, kawhi etc. And iso scoring has some value off the bench to carry otherwise ineffective units. (Think using Derrick rose instead of a Ramon sessions/Spencer hawes pick and pop game).





Sent from my SM-N920V using RealGM mobile app

[vtime]

No one can stop a Westbrook/Melo pick and roll. NO INE. And Melo is a fantastic low post player at pf, unfortunately teams have always played him out of position at sf.

[Makaveli2]

Can't really say that when he inherited kd (top 1 or 2 player in the league for a few years now) and hasn't gotten farther then the rockets without kd. In my humble opinion a better judgment is when they went heads up on the trade.

He will still be considered the winner of the harden trade.

lol morey

And have less success than Presti.

[spearsy23]

Can't really say that when he inherited kd (top 1 or 2 player in the league for a few years now) and hasn't gotten farther then the rockets without kd. In my humble opinion a better judgment is when they went heads up on the trade.

He will still be considered the winner of the harden trade.

And have less success than Presti.

Presti drafted Durant. And he has had one year without Durant. Morey has had ten.

[DaddyCool19]

No one can stop a Westbrook/Melo pick and roll. NO INE. And Melo is a fantastic low post player at pf, unfortunately teams have always played him out of position at sf.

Wasn't it more like that he didn't want to play as a full time PF because it was more physical?

[TravisScott55]

It would be some lengendary tv if the Thunder knocked off the Warriors in the playoffs. Motivated Melo is still a top 15 player.

[hardenASG13]

It would be some lengendary tv if the Thunder knocked off the Warriors in the playoffs. Motivated Melo is still a top 15 player.

Not sure about the top 15 thing, tho he certainly can still fill it up for stretches. But yeah this kinda feels like it was rigged by the league to get a challenger to golden State, and what better team than okc!? I mean, I guess the trades kind of make sense for indy/nyk, but trading a scoring big, and some average to below average role players and a second rd pick for Paul George and Carmelo is just surreal. Love it.

[Yodi2007]

Just getting rid of kanter and Doug "The Human Christmas Tree" was terrific in itself.

The fact that they landed a guy who fits perfectly with Westbrook and George is amazing.

Melo has been miscast most of his career as a #1 scoring option. He really excels off the ball. He's an excellent catch & shoot, excellent cutter, and very good offensive rebounder/garbage man.

He can still be very good at the 4, but he is fairly washed up as a 3.

George to an extent is a similar type talent whose drastically improved 3pt shot makes him a very suitable off the ball player too.

Defensively, OKC can pressure the ball with Westbrook . Adams is one of the best centers in the league against the PNR due to his mobility. And George/Roberson can guard the top wing scorer. This makes it incredibly easy to hide Melo defensively, and it's not like he's anywhere near the defensive liability kanter or McDermott were.

Offensively, it's going to be impossible to stop the westbrook/Adams PNR again now that you can't just collapse the paint.

A few months ago Westbrook was all but gone. It's still tough to gauge what's going to happen but man they've done a great job putting together a one year title attempt regardless.

Sent from my SM-N920V using RealGM mobile app

Wrong except Melo fits with no one in OKC! Melos defense is like Kanter's and he stops the ball too much!

[HoopsMalone]

You are complety incorrect.

Kanter gets put through PNR on every possession he is in the game. He can't stop anyone 1 on 1 from getting to the basket which means open layups or you have to help which means open 3s. Or worst case they just force a switch and now you have kanter on skates trying to guard PG's on the perimeter.


The 1-3 Or 1-4 PNR is significantly less of a weapon for most teams so melo doesn't have to worry nearly as much about this type of skilled defense (or lack thereof in this case)

There's also the tiny problem of kanter being a terrible rim protector because he's so slow and immobile. Not to mention the difficulty he has playing uptempo and his condition issues.

I just explained on the last page how melo fits perfectly in OKC. I'm a noted Melo hater. The guy has been overrated his entire career. Those Denver squads were good because they were LOADED, not because of melo individually. The Knicks squad was only good after they added Tyson chandler who had just led Dallas to a title.

But melo is really a special complementary player. Melo has always been miscast in this league. When you run your offense thru him it can only be mediocre because he doesn't get enough guys involved and you don't generate enough good looks to have a top ranked offense.

But when he's busy averaging 20 ppg as a 2nd or 3rd option look out.

Sent from my SM-N920V using RealGM mobile app

[HoopsMalone]

Teams packed In the paint last year which rendered the Westbrook/Adams PNR ineffective. They took away the lobs that Adams is so good at catching. They shut down the driving lanes that Westbrook is so deadly at exploiting. They dared Oladipo, Roberson, and Gibson to knock down jumpers. Quite a different story than leaving Durant, Ibaka, and Waiters open in years past.

You'll get run off the court if you stayed glued to shooters at the expense of letting Westbrook run free with Adams. And you're going to get bombed on if you leave Carmelo and George wide open. The lanes should open up for Roberson to cut as well now that teams can't just collapse the paint.

More importantly when Westbrook sits for 10 minutes OKC will not get run off the floor anymore. Carmelo or George can go iso and generate an acceptable, (if not downright good) efficient offense while he rests. That cannot be understated.

Defensively, OKC now has top 5 potential. That may be a stretch but I think they are certainly top ten. When you start missing jumpers, NOBODY is better in the history of the NBA than generating points in transition than Westbrook.

People forget that two years ago Golden State actually had to slow down the tempo because Westbrook was running them off the court when they went small.

This team is now very, very good. There is nothing stopping them from adding another piece before the deadline. There will be PLENTY of teams looking to shed salary to avoid the tax or repeater tax, especially if revenue comes in low like it did last year.

Sent from my SM-N920V using RealGM mobile app

[Tricky_Kid]

Finally a West team to root for against warriors. I hope You win on west

Sent from my HUAWEI CAM-L21 using RealGM mobile app

[bondom34]

Can't really say that when he inherited kd (top 1 or 2 player in the league for a few years now) and hasn't gotten farther then the rockets without kd. In my humble opinion a better judgment is when they went heads up on the trade.

He will still be considered the winner of the harden trade.

And have less success than Presti.

He kinda drafted Durant.

[spearsy23]

People saying we can challenge the warriors need to slow down a bit. They still have 4 of the top 6 players and fit a ton better. Plus our bench is absolute trash. We can challenge the spurs and rockets now, maybe even Cleveland, we're still two tiers behind golden state.

[bondom34]

People saying we can challenge the warriors need to slow down a bit. They still have 4 of the top 6 players and fit a ton better. Plus our bench is absolute trash. We can challenge the spurs and rockets now, maybe even Cleveland, we're still two tiers behind golden state.

Agree with the point, but the bench isn't trash compared to last year still. I actually think it's decent.

[HoopsMalone]

It's pretty bad. But that won't matter much come playoff time

Sent from my SM-N920V using RealGM mobile app

[tmorgan]

Haven't posted anything anywhere on RealGM for a couple of months as I wait for the season, but this deal motivated me to post.

I have no idea whether Russ/PG13/Melo + Adams and Roberson and others is a legit threat to Golden State or not, but thank goodness for Presti having some balls. It's going to be worth watching. Melo may be better than he's looked for a couple of years in NY -- it's hard to give your best effort on a losing team that doesn't even really want you there.

Good luck, Okies... I hope something awesome comes of this, just for the sake of the league, if nothing else. A preordained finals matchup sucks, so I'm rooting for you (or Houston) and Boston to put pressure on the incumbents.

[spearsy23]

People saying we can challenge the warriors need to slow down a bit. They still have 4 of the top 6 players and fit a ton better. Plus our bench is absolute trash. We can challenge the spurs and rockets now, maybe even Cleveland, we're still two tiers behind golden state.

Agree with the point, but the bench isn't trash compared to last year still. I actually think it's decent.

Grant/dakari/felton/singler are all horrible, Abrines hopefully isn't, patterson(or robes or Melo) is good. So yes, better than last year, but still god awful.