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Who was simply better at getting buckets?

Tracy peaked higher (02/03 Magic) as a scorer. Carmelo was more reliable getting buckets overall throughout his career.. so I chose him. When healthy, Mcgrady was the better overall player

Tough call. I'd argue they were very comparable scorers but Melo was built like a bull while T Mac was more graceful of a scorer. Both insanely skilled.

But Tmac was miles ahead the better playmaker and defender.

Tough call. I'll go with Melo, as he had more longevity with his scoring. Like others have stated already though, TMac definitely peaked higher

Huge T-Mac fan but i'll take Melo for consistency and longevity.

Melo averaged 20+ppg in his first 14 seasons! 22nd in the NBA for career ppg. Can't see him dropping much as his career will be over pretty soon.

23.6ppg in the regular season and 24.5ppg in the playoffs. Much higher than T-Mac in significantly more games.

Though call!? T-Mac was a whole tier level above Melo

T-Mac easily.

this question really put melo's career into perspective for me. He's very VERY forgettable. I am wrecking my brain trying to think of a Melo moment...

Earlier in their careers: Melo

Later in their careers: T-Mac

Melo. One more trick in his bag....bully ball in the post.

Richfield wrote:Earlier in their careers: Melo

Later in their careers: T-Mac

Late in his carrier T-Mac averaged 9 PPG, how the hell does your take correlate with reality?

gavran wrote:

Richfield wrote:Earlier in their careers: Melo

Later in their careers: T-Mac

Late in his carrier T-Mac averaged 9 PPG, how the hell does your take correlate with reality?

Yeah no bad choice of words. Cut the last 6-8 years off end of TMac's career, that's not what I had in mind.

What I mean was Melo sort of hit the ground running, and he didn't have to grow as much to get to his prime.

He was a better scorer than TMac at that point of his career (earlier).

TMac started off slow then more slowly built up to his prime.

He was a better scorer than Melo at that point of his career (later).

Melo started doing in college and was a GOAT level scorer for nearly 20 years. Stop it...

As a whole, TMac and it's not even close bc Melo is terrible defensively

Better player by far: T-Mac
Better career: Melo

Gimme both healthy in their prime and I'll take T-Mac 12 times out of 10. No brainer.

OP obviously didn't watch peak T-Mac. He was up there with peak Kobe in offense and was actually better than Kobe offensively in 2003.

1 season absolute peak pure scoring then it's tmac

If we are talking full prime then its melo because he did it for longer

Optms wrote:OP obviously didn't watch peak T-Mac. He was up there with peak Kobe in offense and was actually better than Kobe offensively in 2003.

Question was better scorer, not better offensive player. For what it's worth Melo's best points per 100 are right in line with tmac's and his TS% was better. Perfectly reasonble to argue melo and tmac in terms of better scorer. Really in raw scoring Tmac, Melo, and Kobe are all reasonably close.

As offensive players, clearly Tmac and Kobe are far and away ahead of melo as they're better at everything else.

When both were healthy Tmac was much harder to guard. In his prime you had some teams trying to guard him with 2-3 players. Melo has been the healtheir player but Tmac scored in more ways and was much more explosive before his injuries.

Optms wrote:OP obviously didn't watch peak T-Mac. He was up there with peak Kobe in offense and was actually better than Kobe offensively in 2003.

I watched peak Tmac lol

Easily t-mac. Had multiple runs with 30+ point in the po, Carmelo never barely had one.