Pistons Eye Carmelo, Source Says

[RTM]

I might be interest in Melo, but only if the right deal came along for the Pistons. The most I'd trade is Billups/McDyess/Maxiell. Then I'd look to deal Tay (lets say to TOR for Ford) and Sheed to GS (for Harrington and #14?)

Ford/Stuckey
Rip/Afflalo
Melo/Bill Walker
Harrington/Amir
MLE (Diop?)/Marresse Speights

Even then (and this is a decent scenario) I'm not sure the change would make us any better...

Needless to say, Melo to DET would mean big change, leaving me skeptical...

[Nutty Nats Fan]

I mentioned this on the Nuggets board, but would Detroit be willing to trade Prince, Rip, and McDyess for Melo/Kmart?

I highly doubt Denver accepts, but the twist is to send Rip in a deal to the Bulls for Hinrich, TT, and a 1st(not this year's), which all goes to Denver.

Then find a team for Prince, or Denver keeps him and McDyess.

Pistons would be left with:

Billups/Stuckey?
Stuckey/Affalo
Wallace/Amir
Melo/Hayes
Kmart/Maxiell

Not exactly a deep team.. which does make it harder for them to trade for Melo. Unless Wallace and Billups could be used to bring in starters and bench depth?

[Kash]

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finally someone realizes thats its just not melo whos terrible at D. Its JR, AI, Kmart, among others.

You obviously do not follow the Nuggets, Kmart is the best defender on the team, and most Nuggets fans agree on this. He single handedly gives Duncan fits.

[airchibundo507]

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You obviously do not follow the Nuggets, Kmart is the best defender on the team, and most Nuggets fans agree on this. He single handedly gives Duncan fits.

k-mart is our best man defender, but the biggest problem with this nugget defense (including k-mart) is that we don't understand how to rotate. rotation deals with ball IQ and team chemistry...none of which we have. we have guards gambling for steals, forwards watching the ball instead of their man, and a center who likes over-commit himself to blocking shots and allows his man to rack up easy "garbage" baskets underneath the rim.

our bigs don't want to rotate to the perimeter. every rotation is late...but a lot of times we don't rotate at all and give up wide-open perimeter shots.

...and we wonder why a "passing" team like the spurs and lakers can destroy us in the playoffs every year.

[airchibundo507]

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You obviously do not follow the Nuggets, Kmart is the best defender on the team, and most Nuggets fans agree on this. He single handedly gives Duncan fits.

double post.

[HarlemHeat37]

Martin is a solid defender..but he wasn't the one giving "Duncan fits" last year, it was Nene..

[airchibundo507]

Martin is a solid defender..but he wasn't the one giving "Duncan fits" last year, it was Nene..

both guys are great interior man-defenders. unfortunately, both are injury-prone.

I recall k-mart holding duncan to a 7-20 FG in one matchup this year. our guys really don't understand help defense...so the match-up was pretty much one-on-one.

[Kash]

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k-mart is our best man defender, but the biggest problem with this nugget defense (including k-mart) is that we don't understand how to rotate. rotation deals with ball IQ and team chemistry...none of which we have. we have guards gambling for steals, forwards watching the ball instead of their man, and a center who likes over-commit himself to blocking shots and allows his man to rack up easy "garbage" baskets underneath the rim.

our bigs don't want to rotate to the perimeter. every rotation is late...but a lot of times we don't rotate at all and give up wide-open perimeter shots.

...and we wonder why a "passing" team like the spurs and lakers can destroy us in the playoffs every year.

I agree completely, and I think we are fully capable of playing great team defense, the problem is Karl does not know how to coach or motivate players to play defense.

[Nutty Nats Fan]

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I agree completely, and I think we are fully capable of playing great team defense, the problem is Karl does not know how to coach or motivate players to play defense or offense.

Fixed.

Although in Karl's defense, the team was ranked top 3 in D while he was starting Yak. Then began to slowly drop as he went with AC, then finally collapse after he told the media he gave up on coaching defense.

So.. eh.. Karl sorta, coached, for a little bit.

[HarlemHeat37]

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both guys are great interior man-defenders. unfortunately, both are injury-prone.

I recall k-mart holding duncan to a 7-20 FG in one matchup this year. our guys really don't understand help defense...so the match-up was pretty much one-on-one.

oh, you were talking about this year..that's possible then, I don't really pay attention to Tim's game during the regular season all that much..

I was basing it on last year's playoffs..I thought Nene did a great job defending Duncan in the post in the playoffs..he's strong, quick for his size and athletic..Duncan still had good numbers, but he had to work hard for everything..

it's a shame the overrated Camby gets all the credit..

[airchibundo507]

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Fixed.

Although in Karl's defense, the team was ranked top 3 in D while he was starting Yak. Then began to slowly drop as he went with AC, then finally collapse after he told the media he gave up on coaching defense.

So.. eh.. Karl sorta, coached, for a little bit.

that's our second biggest defensive problem IMO.

karl didn't play guys like diawara and jones...smith's minutes were up and down the entire season. that and our front court is thin and injury prone.

we have too many mismatches defensively. we've been forced into putting point guards and small forwards on opposing shooting guards...as well as small forwards and power forwards on centers. these are all mismatches which pretty much allowed opposing teams to score at will. if they drew a double team, they could pick apart a defense that can't rotate and recover.

FOR EXAMPLE: lakers series
carter, klieza, melo, najera, k-mart on KOBE
carter, iverson on RADMONONIC
najera on GASOL

all of these were MAJOR mismatches and ended in a humiliating defeat.

[airchibundo507]

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it's a shame the overrated Camby gets all the credit..

agreed. he's one of the worst man defenders on the team.

if there were more scoring centers in the league...camby wouldn't get half the defensive attention he gets now. but low post scoring from that position is fading away...and the power forwards with scoring ability are guarded by nene and k-mart.

[Nutty Nats Fan]

IF carmelo is traded to detroit .The pistons will become a unstopable.

The sad thing is, the Pistons would be nearly unstopable if they had drafted Melo.

The beginning of last season (before AI trade), with the offense move focused on going through him in the post, he was scoring 31 PPG on 50% shooting with 4 assists and only one shooter on the team with him, JR.

Not to make Piston fans sick, but just imagine Melo doing that on the Piston's team. He has Billups to kick it out to, who can hit a three, or dump it back in to the post. Or Rip could be running around screens and cut to the basket for an easy layup (that's a pass Melo will make) or hit a three himself. Or Sheed can be lurking around for a three, wide open or covered and leaving more room in the paint. Even McDyess would work well in that line up, being able to hit a jump shot.

Melo may not score as much, but his shooting percentage would be higher, and his assist numbers would also be a lot higher, especially if you included hockey assists. Plus he can bring in a good amount of rebounds when told to focus on doing that and not breaking. Also his defense would be decent if not good, being in a real system with players who would demand it. In a sense, he'd be on the short list for MVP.

And someone thinks not drafting Melo was avoiding a mistake.

[Rasheeed!!!]

the difference between having Melo and Prince is that although LBJ or Pierce may score 30, Melo will certainly score close to that or even more.....whereas Prince has never been able to consistently score on the bigger guys.....Jefferson, Artest, Pierce, LBJ etc

[triplet1984]

You know, it'd be pretty amazing if the Pistons were able to get Carmelo. Dumars is already a great GM, but to turn your one big mistake (darko), into Rodney Stuckey AND still get the guy you shoulda picked IN HIS PRIME would be pretty imperssive.