did lebron really deserve to win ROY?

[eagereyez]

Pretty sure when there's a person in the draft with some all-time great expectations like Lebron, bad teams will magically become worse.

[MannyRam99]

I don't know why people are saying LeBron had bad team mates lol. In actuality he was deferred to, he got nearly 20 shots a game and only managed to get 20 on horrible percentages.

Ricky Davis could have gotten 20 ppg with those attempts (he did prior). If the attempts were distributed more fairly the scoring would be something like ...

Boozer 18 ppg

Big Z 10 PPG

Davis 14 PPG

James 15 PPG.

This is all pointless any ways because he went on to become a top 15 player all time.

[TheOUTLAW]

Hater thread.

Lebron really did deserve the award over Melo.

Melo was amazing but Lebron was even more so, Lebron was clearly the better all-around player even as a rook.

Melo was better than Lebron at every aspect of basketball except for playmaking in their rookie seasons

IMO this just is not true. Melo was a better shooter, but he also had way more scoring options and a very good point guard on his team. LeBron was the primary scorer and playmaker on the Cavs and IMO he also had a far superior impact.

[Bertrob]

Both Lebron and Melo had strong arguments for ROY
If either Carmelo or Lebron won, it would have been a good choice
Lebron won. He had a strong argument as well.
Why is this a debate? Its not like Lebron didn't have a good argument but won it.

[iamworthy]

Both Lebron and Melo had strong arguments for ROY
If either Carmelo or Lebron won, it would have been a good choice
Lebron won. He had a strong argument as well.
Why is this a debate? Its not like Lebron didn't have a good argument but won it.

You should run for president.

[branny]

20/5/5 is pretty rare..

[TheGarden]

I still say it should have been a tie or Melo

Leading his team to the playoffs in a stacked western conference as a rookie is a great achievements along with scoring more ppg, rpg and better %'s

But hey LeBron won the ROY the day he was drafted

[Manimal]

Carmelo wasn't the only player they added that season. Don't forget that. He had a better supporting cast than LeBron.

Andre Miller, Earl Boykins, Jon Barry. I don't know how responsible those guys could be for a 26 win improvement.

[parapooper]

Carmelo wasn't the only player they added that season. Don't forget that. He had a better supporting cast than LeBron.

Andre Miller, Earl Boykins, Jon Barry. I don't know how responsible those guys could be for a 26 win improvement.

Miller's RAPM was top25 in the NBA (sth which Melo never accomplished in his entire career) at +2.5, while Melo's was -2.2 (LeBron was at +0.6). 95+% of the NBA sucked less at defense than Melo according to RAPM.
So how responsible could Melo be for a 26 win improvement? Not only did his team play worse with him on the floor but he was actually one of the worst players in the league in that regard.

[og15]

Can it be noted that the Nuggets only added Andre Miller. Unless you want to count Camby getting more burn and Nene improving as "adding people to the roster". Vashon Leonard could have easily been replaced.

Lebron imo, had a better supporting cast with Boozer and Big Z. McInnis distributed just as much as Miller. Only thing Melo had was a coach.

7 more wins in a tougher conference, including winning both h2h matchups against Cleveland is pretty darn good. Melo had a lot of nights where he could have went for 40 as well.

What does it matter. ROY equals media, and media favors statlines. Lebrons assist number gave him the edge.

Marcus Camby went from 29 games to 72 games, that is significant.

Added: Andre Miller, Voshon Lenard, Jon Barry, Earl Boykins and Carmelo Anthony

Jeff Mcginnis was a terrible PG

Actually getting McGinnis and allowing Lebron to handle the ball a little less and not guard PG's was part of what made Cleveland start playing well. They improved upon adding him, but he was traded for part way throught the season, and they didn't have him the whole year.

At no point was Wade the best rookie, don't try to lump him with Bron or Melo because he doesn't belong

funny thing is that I was the weird guy arguing that Wade should be ROY and just wasn't getting as many minutes as them and had other solid players on his team, so he was actually as productive while being more efficient. It felt good to see him perform so well in the playoffs and confirm what I had been saying all season long.

[TheOUTLAW]

Wade was actually very good as a rookie, but he didn't have the visibility of the other rookies and he did have a good stretch when he was injured. That said, I still don't think he was better than LeBron.

[RatherUnique]

I don't know why people are saying LeBron had bad team mates lol. In actuality he was deferred to, he got nearly 20 shots a game and only managed to get 20 on horrible percentages.

Well his main competition for rookie of the year shot an almost equally poor percentage so Bron's efficiency certainly didn't hurt him in a comparison from that perspective.

[big_ticket]

LBJ deserves it selling out every arena he played that year,

[Joao Saraiva]

I still say it should have been a tie or Melo

Leading his team to the playoffs in a stacked western conference as a rookie is a great achievements along with scoring more ppg, rpg and better %'s

But hey LeBron won the ROY the day he was drafted

Tell me the differences between them in those 3 things please. Then go look up their difference in APG that you conveniently forgot, in SPG and BPG. Why did you forget those?

[Tien]

Lebron being compared with Melo is just insulting.

[[GR]]

Carmelo wasn't the only player they added that season. Don't forget that. He had a better supporting cast than LeBron.

Andre Miller, Earl Boykins, Jon Barry. I don't know how responsible those guys could be for a 26 win improvement.

Miller's RAPM was top25 in the NBA (sth which Melo never accomplished in his entire career) at +2.5, while Melo's was -2.2 (LeBron was at +0.6). 95+% of the NBA sucked less at defense than Melo according to RAPM.
So how responsible could Melo be for a 26 win improvement? Not only did his team play worse with him on the floor but he was actually one of the worst players in the league in that regard.

Laughable. By this same statistic, Greg Ostertag was more important than Karl Malone.


Andre Miller never sniffed the playoffs before coming to Denver, which just so happened to coincide with Melo's rookie season.

[og15]

The only point that needs to be made is that it wasn't only Melo. It wasn't the same team situation + Melo, it was a team with a new starting PG, SG, and SF, basically a new starting C based on how little Camby played, Nene was the only constant, moved from C to PF, and new main guys off the bench. It was a team that had their previous starting C play 40+ more games, it was a team that he'd two new guys getting all the bench minutes.

The top 8 guys in minutes in 02-03: Howard, Nene, J.Harrington, D.Harvey, R.White, Yarborough, R.Bowen
The top 8 guys in minutes in 03-04: Anthony, Miller, Nene, Leonard, Camby, Boykins, Barry, Birdman

One has to be naieve to act like it was just Melo that made them get better. Anyone who was analytical and watched the season in 02-03 and then 03-04 knew that it was a whole team change.

Lebron being compared with Melo is just insulting.

As rookies? Not at all

[KING CB4]

Lebron being compared with Melo is just insulting.

This. Melo fans hold on to the ROY arguement like its a bar of gold. Its all they have left now after Lebron just crushed their team in the playoffs.

[og15]

Cleveland 02-03 most minutes: R.Davis, Ilguaskas, J.Jones, Boozer, Miles, Palacio, Wagner, S.Parker

Cleveland 03-04 most minutes: James, Boozer, Ilgauskas, Ollie, E.Williams, Newble, McInnis, Battie


Showed a lot about how poor Ricky Davis was impact wise, but Boozer improved, and him and Ilgauskas were arguably the most productive players on the team, similar to Miller and Camby for Denver (remember that as rookies, these guys barely cracked 20 PPG, weren't that efficient and turned it over a lot). Though they were there the previous season, Boozer got about 10 more MPG, McInnis was real nice for them. So again, wasn't even just Lebron, they had improvements, and if they had McInnis all year, they would have been even better, though still inferior to Denver.

[Zane]

I always thought melo should have been rookie of the year, I never actually checked the numbers until tonight,aside from melo getting his team to the playoffs, he also shot a better fg% 3% free throw % and was better on the boards, LEBRON had all the hype, but if the tables were turned, melo was the high school Phenom and number one pick, would lebron still have won it?

3% better in FG... lol. Somehow you forgot the APG. That didn't matter, right? You only choose the stats you want. What about steals and blocks also? Cause LBJ was better in both.

The blocks and steals differential really isn't that big, also LeBron played more total minutes and MPG then Melo. Averaging .2 blocks more a game is nothing. LeBron's passing was a lot better then Melo's but I think Melo has a pretty solid case against him for winning that year.