Melo?

[mohammed10]

Yeah, I was on the fence on the Gortat trade, but I think it's clear that the trade for him makes it likely that he will be a Zard next season - far more likely than if they hadn't traded for him. So, I disagree with calling him a rental. As far as him being replacable - everyone on the Wiz is replacable. He is not easily replacable.

Getting Anthony would serve no positive purpose - short-term or long-term.

Last time I checked, Gortat was an unrestricted free agent after this season. He can sign with anyone. We might have the inside track but there's no denying there's a significant amount of risk involved... with the upside being well short of contender status.

Much like with Melo, there would be significant risk involved... with the upside being well... probably the same thing.

So what's really the difference?

I would be surprised if Gortat gets offered a max contract.

As long as Ernie is our GM, nothing surprises me anymore...

[Ruzious]

Yeah, I was on the fence on the Gortat trade, but I think it's clear that the trade for him makes it likely that he will be a Zard next season - far more likely than if they hadn't traded for him. So, I disagree with calling him a rental. As far as him being replacable - everyone on the Wiz is replacable. He is not easily replacable.

Getting Anthony would serve no positive purpose - short-term or long-term.

Last time I checked, Gortat was an unrestricted free agent after this season. He can sign with anyone. We might have the inside track but there's no denying there's a significant amount of risk involved... with the upside being well short of contender status.

Much like with Melo, there would be significant risk involved... with the upside being well... probably the same thing.

So what's really the difference?

I would be surprised if Gortat gets offered a max contract.

And a max contract for Melo would be a LOT more than the "max contract" that Wall signed. Signing Melo would be a disaster. Signing Gortat likely won't be a disaster.

[Ruzious]

A deal that dumps Nene's salary and brings back Melo would be something I would consider. Even if it meant including Porter.

Well, I couldn't disagree with you more.

[Dat2U]

A deal that dumps Nene's salary and brings back Melo would be something I would consider. Even if it meant including Porter.

Well, I couldn't disagree with you more.

Note I said consider. A lot would depend on how Porter has looked. Potentially getting out of Nene's deal (and throwing in Maynor) makes it real tempting though.

[dandridge 10]

because we can at least retain Gortat (Or at least have a legitimate shot at resigning him). Melo would walk. He has no desire to be here so why waste the time or resources.

Yeah, I was on the fence on the Gortat trade, but I think it's clear that the trade for him makes it likely that he will be a Zard next season - far more likely than if they hadn't traded for him. So, I disagree with calling him a rental. As far as him being replacable - everyone on the Wiz is replacable. He is not easily replacable.

Getting Anthony would serve no positive purpose - short-term or long-term.

Last time I checked, Gortat was an unrestricted free agent after this season. He can sign with anyone. We might have the inside track but there's no denying there's a significant amount of risk involved... with the upside being well short of contender status.

Much like with Melo, there would be significant risk involved... with the upside being well... probably the same thing.

So what's really the difference?

I see the biggest difference between Melo and Gortat is that Melo is a "me" player and Gortat appears to be a team player. Melo is a great scorer, but he absolutely brings nothing else to the table. I suspect that Gortat would have more impact on our success than Melo. Teams that rely on "me" players like Melo as their cornerstones usually do not go very far.

[Ruzious]

A deal that dumps Nene's salary and brings back Melo would be something I would consider. Even if it meant including Porter.

Well, I couldn't disagree with you more.

Note I said consider. A lot would depend on how Porter has looked. Potentially getting out of Nene's deal (and throwing in Maynor) makes it real tempting though.

Great - then all you need to do next offseason is sign 3 quality bigs - and you don't have Porter.

[Silvie Lysandra]

I wouldn't trade for Melo even if it was salary neutral. The guy is a bum. He's a slightly better Rudy Gay, the epitome of empty stats. He's a net negative on the court and any team that has real championship aspirations would not have him on their team except as a scoring 6th man.

[dorianwrite]

The Knicks would not do this deal, anyway -- any variant that has been mentioned. They need a superstar to put butts in the seats at MSG, and even if Anthony isn't a championship cog and the team stinks, he is still a legitimate star name. The conversation is moot, except as a theoretical.

[LyricalRico]

I wouldn't trade for Melo even if it was salary neutral. The guy is a bum. He's a slightly better Rudy Gay, the epitome of empty stats. He's a net negative on the court and any team that has real championship aspirations would not have him on their team except as a scoring 6th man.

I wouldn't go quite that far, but I agree that Melo isn't a "make your teammates better" type. He'd have to be in the situation Iverson was in the year he got to the Finals - surrounded by self-motivated, blue collar types that are going to be focused and bring it every night regardless of what Melo does. Outside of Chandler, NY just doesn't have those kinds of guys. Instead they have pretty boys who want to score and who will stop doing other things if their shot isn't falling (Amare, JR Smith, Bargnani, even Shumpert who is an overrated defender IMO).

It''ll never happen, but put Melo on a team like last year's Chicago Bulls and he'd have a shot at the Finals IMO. But I agree he'd be a bad fit in DC. The current Wiz run is based on defense and burgeoning team chemistry. I'd rather look for guys that would fit in to that type of mentality, rather than forcing a complete re-tooling to accomodate a single primary scorer.

[nate33]

The Knicks would not do this deal, anyway -- any variant that has been mentioned. They need a superstar to put butts in the seats at MSG, and even if Anthony isn't a championship cog and the team stinks, he is still a legitimate star name. The conversation is moot, except as a theoretical.

Exactly. People are arguing about nothing. There's no chance NY trades us Melo for anything less than Beal or Wall, and that's clearly a no go from our end.

[verbal8]

It''ll never happen, but put Melo on a team like last year's Chicago Bulls and he'd have a shot at the Finals IMO. But I agree he'd be a bad fit in DC. The current Wiz run is based on defense and burgeoning team chemistry. I'd rather look for guys that would fit in to that type of mentality, rather than forcing a complete re-tooling to accomodate a single primary scorer.

I think it could work to the level of producing a good play-off team. You would have to get the Carmelo that played defense and rebounded for the Team USA, rather than the score-first/score-second guy who plays in the NBA. It might take a bit for him and Wall to mesh, but the rest of the Wizards would probably work out pretty well with Melo. One thing would be to have at either Melo or Wall on the court. You still want to upgrade back-up PG, but you can run some of the offense through Melo.

I think if the team was honest with Melo about the arrangement, it could work for everyone. I bet seeing Melo sacrifice for the team would make the Lakers interested in offering him a max deal.

Definitely a risk, but if you aren't putting any future assets on the line it might work out.

[Dat2U]

I wouldn't trade for Melo even if it was salary neutral. The guy is a bum. He's a slightly better Rudy Gay, the epitome of empty stats. He's a net negative on the court and any team that has real championship aspirations would not have him on their team except as a scoring 6th man.

To me this is just wrong. I get it that he's not a "superstar" but to compare him to Rudy Gay is just going overboard. I also disagree he's a net negative on the court, that's pure hate. His actual impact is certainly debatable but the rest of it goes to far.

[payitforward]

A deal that dumps Nene's salary and brings back Melo would be something I would consider. Even if it meant including Porter.

Well, I couldn't disagree with you more.

Yikes! Me neither.

Melo is not that good a player.

[crackhed]

tuff to run a team oriented offense with lots of ball movement with a guy like melo in the lineup

[tontoz]

I don't quite understand the angst. People here loved the selling off of a draft pick for the one year rental of a solid, but replaceable C but are totally taken aback by the suggestion of Melo?

Dat, I'm not sure how many people "loved selling off of a draft pick for a one-year rental of a solid, but replaceable C".

Back on topic: Melo = no.

The poll showed most people here in favor of it. It was a strong majority if i remember right.

[tontoz]

I see the biggest difference between Melo and Gortat is that Melo is a "me" player and Gortat appears to be a team player. Melo is a great scorer, but he absolutely brings nothing else to the table. I suspect that Gortat would have more impact on our success than Melo. Teams that rely on "me" players like Melo as their cornerstones usually do not go very far.

To be fair Melo is currently averaging 10 rebounds per game. But still i am not that interested in him.

[stevemcqueen1]

I don't quite understand the angst. People here loved the selling off of a draft pick for the one year rental of a solid, but replaceable C but are totally taken aback by the suggestion of Melo?

because we can at least retain Gortat (Or at least have a legitimate shot at resigning him). Melo would walk. He has no desire to be here so why waste the time or resources.

How do you know he doesn't want to be here? I doubt he's even considered us TBH. I doubt he has any idea what he wants to do this summer at this point. He's going to wait and see what teams offer him this summer IMO. And I mean offers beyond the max contract.

[JWizmentality]

No....just...no

[stevemcqueen1]

I wouldn't trade for Melo even if it was salary neutral. The guy is a bum. He's a slightly better Rudy Gay, the epitome of empty stats. He's a net negative on the court and any team that has real championship aspirations would not have him on their team except as a scoring 6th man.

To me this is just wrong. I get it that he's not a "superstar" but to compare him to Rudy Gay is just going overboard. I also disagree he's a net negative on the court, that's pure hate. His actual impact is certainly debatable but the rest of it goes to far.

Yeah Melo catches a lot of unreasonable hate. He is a good player. He's not as good as LeBron or Durant. But he's good. A perennial AS, one of the most gifted scorers of his generation, and usually an automatic ticket to the playoffs when the team around him is reasonably well built.

But I don't think he's a fit here. First off, I don't think he could handle taking a back seat to Wall, and this is Wall's team. Second, Melo is looking for a lot of off court BS in his team IMO. Would his wife sign off on coming to DC? I highly doubt it. He's going to try and find a way to make it work in either NY or LA IMO.

We've got a good chemical mix going right now and adding Melo would drastically change that. He's extremely talented, but he doesn't fit here.

[stevemcqueen1]

If Melo truly only cared about winning championships though, he would ditch NY and go to Chicago, Dallas, or Houston.