"They're not Carmelo", Ewing said laughing.

[AshyLarry]

nope, go see the thread "dumbest things NBA fans say", he has some classics over there

Who you think posted those quotes?

Lol my bad you did, still, his quotes are classics.

[Tazo]

I'm amazed he managed to keep from crossing the line just enough to last 5.5 years without getting waived. Until now.

[MF Doom]

nope, go see the thread "dumbest things NBA fans say", he has some classics over there

Who you think posted those quotes?

Lol my bad you did, still, his quotes are classics.

Well, he's banned now and I don't understand how he lasted so long. He was always trolling.

[NickAnderson]

He tried to say Shaq was a better defender then Dwight lol

[Roscoe Sheed]

Would have been interesting if they had kept Bernard King. King was his best teammate if he had been healthy

[UDRIH14]

he was lucky he got to play with chris dudley the no.2 greatest center after rasho nesterovic....

[kerinth]

Moses way past his prime. Philly Webber was a 20/10 guy and they didnt even make the playoffs.

Philly Webber had all of his usual bad habits and no athleticism to back himself up. Atlanta Moses averaged 8+ FTA/g both seasons at 78%+ FT (actually closer to 8 and 9 FTA/g). And he did it at 58% and 56% TS, no less. And of course he averaged 21/12 in the playoffs that first year (they didn't make it the second of his three years there), on just under 61% TS.

Still wanna play that card?

I mean yeah, he wasn't 30 ppg Moses, but that's a damned fine player.

You're right as usual tsherk, but I think the key to the Atlanta teams under Fratello might have been defense: the team Def for ATL was on steady decline since its 86-87 peak, when they had ranked 2nd (bball ref, team drtg), and lost to the 87 DET team on the rise in the second round. In '88 they beat MIL first raound, and the series w/ BOS - while excellent drama for the NBA - amounted to choosing a middling drtg team to play the Det 88 playoffs juggernaught. DET would only get stronger the next two years.

In 88-89 they added Malone (and Theus, i believe) and strengthened their already strong OReb while ranking 4th offensively and 9th defensively by o/drtg, but the team lost Willis for the year and fell in the first round to MIL who were better defensively (6th).
With Willis and Malone together in 89-90 they were still strong offensively (4th) but fell off a cliff defensively, ranking 25 out of 27 teams. Doc rivers + John Battle miss half the season. They missed the playoffs.

Looking back maybe end-peak 32 year old Tree Rollins leaving after 88 hurt them more than they thought it would. I don't think of late 80s Moses as a strong defender though I have only seen a scattering of games. Willis wasn't a lane-protecting force himself, and the combo seems kind of ill conceived.

All in all I don't want to blast Malone of this time, but he may have been a better fit on a stronger defensive team/poorer offensive/Oreb/FT drawing team (say a slightly lesser 82 76ers ) than the hawks of the time.

[So_Ill]

I know it would be totally against the rules of this board but somebody should spend a day or two (or 3 or 4) gathering all of D-31 awesomely bad quotes and put them into one thread. No one will be able to post in the thread is will only serve as a shine to the best poster realgm has ever had.

[tsherkin]

This isn't the premise of the article, so by quoting this, you may be taking things out of context.

No, I was heading off trolls at the pass.

Ewing was alluding in the entire article that having that elite wing in this case small forward is something he never had throughout his career, and wish he did.

Yes, if you read the article, then it wouldn't be necessary. When have been able to trust some people not to be stupid, read something and go off half-cocked about it? I just wanted to point out that Ewing wasn't slamming Carmelo, because that's one way you can see it from that quote, snipped as it was. Rather, it was very clear than no matter how much he liked the players he had, none of them were ever as good as Melo.

You're right as usual tsherk, but I think the key to the Atlanta teams under Fratello might have been defense:

I'm gonna snip this quote there, because I don't disagree. You run Nique and Rivers/Webb out there, you are going to have a problem. Nevermind that Moses was never a dominant defender either, though he had a few years at his peak where he was pretty good. It definitely didn't help. There was also some chemistry conflict between Nique and Moses in terms of favorite spots, though that was a lesser issue.

In 88-89 they added Malone (and Theus, i believe

Yep, Theus was there.

All in all I don't want to blast Malone of this time, but he may have been a better fit on a stronger defensive team/poorer offensive/Oreb/FT drawing team (say a slightly lesser 82 76ers ) than the hawks of the time.

Yeah, I wish he still would have been in Philly, but oh well. And yeah, the Hawks weren't exactly killing it 80s Lakers-style with the roster that they had in terms of chemistry and depth, I was just pointing out that it's wrong that Nique didn't play with talent. The problems were always centered around other things.

It was pretty cool to see just how dirty Moses still was even then, though, no? That's 15, 16 years into his professional career. Then he averaged 11/8 off of the bench the year after, then went to Milwaukee (oh, the humanity...) and managed about 16/9 in ~ 30/31 mpg. Then he FINALLY fell off. Except he was still a dirty offensive rebounder, he just couldn't stay on the court or stay healthy.

[aznkillabeezZz]

Sprewell>Carmelo.

[tsherkin]

Sprewell>Carmelo.

At what? Feeding his family?

[primecougar]

Sprewell>Carmelo.

At what? Feeding his family?

made my day
thank you melo is so underrated

[knicksosmoove]

Sprewell>Carmelo.

Coming from someone who claims a Sprewell jersey as one of his most cherished possessions, this is not true.