Melo?

[Illuminaire]

Melo is a good player being paid far, far too much for what he's brought to the table over his career. His problem has always been his billing as a franchise superstar, when in reality he's more in the Ginobili realm of overall team impact. On the US Olympic team when he could be the third or fourth best player on the court he was fantastic. He even played defense!

Of course, it's nearly impossible to get him into a similar situation on an NBA team as long as he's making superstar money. If the Wizards had the ability to just add him on without other salary considerations he'd be a very good addition. Unfortunately, even if the Wiz were to sign him as a free agent that would mean losing their other free agents and crushing almost all future flexibility.

I don't see it. Not unless the Wiz could swing a Porter+Magic Beans trade for another above average starting big.

[barelyawake]

I think the more people who put us on their short lists the better. So, please Melo say you want to come here (so other players will think, "Huh... Maybe that's a good idea."

[mohammed10]

I think the more people who put us on their short lists the better. So, please Melo say you want to come here (so other players will think, "Huh... Maybe that's a good idea."

BA- Heck, i'll take the long list as well. When was the last time 'Washington' and 'front-line free agent' were mentioned in the same sentence?

[hands11]

I was thinking that Melo is going to opt out and the Wizards would have an opportunity to sign him straight up in free agency. I wouldn't do it, but that could be the way things unfold.

Melo in, then the Wizards turn around and trade him for Kevin Durant in 2015
Gotta have pieces sometimes to get pieces. Like him or not, he is 2nd in the league in scoring and 29 isn't old.

Funny. I remember in the beginning of the rebuild talking about making room for a FA with as much star power as Melo and at the time it was all about... no way would he ever come here, which was true at the time.

He is an amazing offensive player. Can't argue that.

You never know with a player like him. In the right place and the right players around him, he could put it together. Time is running out for him. I think he is ready to check his me me me, approach to the game. Hey, look how good Monte Ellis looks now that he moved teams and have a PG next to him.

Not saying I would do the trade, but it is interesting to play around with the idea.

[Higga]

A few years ago I'd be all over Melo but the guy just has a stench of a loser about him. All the talent, great #s, but something about him just screams loser.

[Dark Faze]

Melo is intriguing because he's actually a better rebounder than Nene, is a relatively healthy guy and hasn't really lost a step at all. I think you'll definitely get at least three more all-star level seasons out of him at a minimum.

I actually think if he played the stretch 4 for us that we'd be incredibly tough to stop offensively. With John running a PNR game with Gortat and being able to dish out to one of Melo, Beal and Web I mean you just can't defend it. And if the shotclock gets down we can just pass out to Melo for his iso game.

My main concern with Melo is--is his inefficient and ball dominating style a product of the type of teams he played for or is it just who he is? Because this teams chemistry would die if his high usage rate stays what it is for us. We need 15 efficient shots a game from him and not 22, and the offense simply has to run through John, nobody else.

If he lets John dominate the ball and just takes good wide open shots other than the odd isolation or two at end of clock situations, we'd be a legit top team in the league no question.

I wouldn't trade Porter for him. The Knicks simply have no room to bargain. I'd offer an unprotected 2015 pick, Nene and Ariza which should help their tank game, maybe in a three team trade where they can get a prospect back while shipping nene somewhere else.

[mhd]

Melo would be alot more attractive if he extended at Nene's current salary, but he wants 20+ million a year. That's too much tied up to the cap.

[Silvie Lysandra]

[
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.

He's a great (but rather inefficient at times) individual scorer but he has a negative impact on the rest of his team, and he's a net negative on defense. Iverson is actually a great comparison, or Jerry Stackhouse with the Pistons where him shooting less made the team win more.

If you're building the kind of team you need for him to win, you'd be better off trading him and building a more balanced roster.

[nate33]

Melo would be alot more attractive if he extended at Nene's current salary, but he wants 20+ million a year. That's too much tied up to the cap.

Yes. This is the problem. Since Melo isn't a first-tier superstar in the Lebron James/Kevin Durant mold, he is actually a negative value at his salary. He is still a really good player, but not good enough to carry mediocre talent to a championship. You need to put real good talent around him, and you can't afford that good talent unless you are willing to exceed the luxtax by a significant amount.

[ozthegandp]

why is this such a risk? trade for him see if it works out if it doesnt he'll prob use his early termination option and we have max cap space in the summer. we get free of our huge contract two yrs early. if he doesnt use his option trade him in the last yr of his contract when he has huge trade value.

[ozthegandp]

and the idea that free agents arent going to come here is bs to me. i mean its a pretty sure bet we make the playoffs this yr. there's no reason free agents are not going to want to come to a playoff team that has cap space and is a fairly large market.

[WallToWall]

My main concern with Melo is--is his inefficient and ball dominating style a product of the type of teams he played for or is it just who he is? Because this teams chemistry would die if his high usage rate stays what it is for us. We need 15 efficient shots a game from him and not 22, and the offense simply has to run through John, nobody else.

I think it is who he is. Even with a team of all stars (the Olympic team), he still played that style...looking to run iso's. Many times it leads to ill-advised shots.
My impression is that right now, he is totally going after $$, as opposed to a shot at the NBA Championship...he wants to get paid.
I dont think he would fit the type of player the Wiz would want because over time he will be a disruption. Although, I would want him on my team, I would not give up much for him. I think most see him as a starter, but I see him as someone off the bench. He can take advantage of opponents much weaker players on their bench, perhaps even playing the style he is accustomed to playing. Of course, he would never go for that!

[Ruzious]

Melo is intriguing because he's actually a better rebounder than Nene, is a relatively healthy guy and hasn't really lost a step at all. I think you'll definitely get at least three more all-star level seasons out of him at a minimum.

I actually think if he played the stretch 4 for us that we'd be incredibly tough to stop offensively. With John running a PNR game with Gortat and being able to dish out to one of Melo, Beal and Web I mean you just can't defend it. And if the shotclock gets down we can just pass out to Melo for his iso game.

My main concern with Melo is--is his inefficient and ball dominating style a product of the type of teams he played for or is it just who he is? Because this teams chemistry would die if his high usage rate stays what it is for us. We need 15 efficient shots a game from him and not 22, and the offense simply has to run through John, nobody else.

If he lets John dominate the ball and just takes good wide open shots other than the odd isolation or two at end of clock situations, we'd be a legit top team in the league no question.

I wouldn't trade Porter for him. The Knicks simply have no room to bargain. I'd offer an unprotected 2015 pick, Nene and Ariza which should help their tank game, maybe in a three team trade where they can get a prospect back while shipping nene somewhere else.

He gets more rebounds, but when he's on the court - NY gets outrebounded by 3%, and when Nene's on the court, Washington is even in rebounding. He gets more rebounds because he's playing with guys like Bargnani who don't rebound. If he replaced Nene, the Wizards rebounding would most likely not improve, the defense would get significantly worse, and the offense would probably be less efficient.

[miller31time]

His salary, no matter how excessive it may be, doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that we probably wouldn't be able to be the one to pay it to him.

I'm at the point where having capspace (or a great amount of cap flexibility) doesn't matter too much since nobody is coming here of their own freewill anyway. So we might as well try to acquire some talent if it's there for the taking. That's why I would be fine with acquiring Anthony. Yeah, he'd be grossly overpaid. Yeah, he's not a superstar player and yeah, he has some leadership issues but beggars can't be choosers and god knows this organization could use a marquee name to get us some national attention -- that way, we'd actually look like an appealing destination for other big-name players down the road.

But it's a moot point - NYK wouldn't trade him here for anything less than one of our star players and Otto Porter ain't cuttin' it. And on the off-chance they DID deal him to us for chump change, he wouldn't be more than a one-year rental.

[verbal8]

But it's a moot point - NYK wouldn't trade him here for anything less than one of our star players and Otto Porter ain't cuttin' it. And on the off-chance they DID deal him to us for chump change, he wouldn't be more than a one-year rental.

If the Knicks deal him, with pretty much knowing he will ETO and it is a one year rental - could they get much more than Nene and Ariza(and having to take on Maynor)?

Even though Melo is a "fake superstar" he could command something in return in S&T - which Ariza most likely would not. I think moving Nene and Maynor would allow signing a "25% max" F/A and keeping Gortat. They way Gortat is playing he will likely out earn his cap hold(around $10 million), especially on a short deal.

My first choice would be to get one of their young bigs from the Bucks. Asik or Monroe would probably be plan B, but I would consider a Melo rental as Plan C. It doesn't work directly, but I think getting Melo would make it easy to make the FA/trade case to Kevin Love.

[WizardsWorld]

I wouldn't take Melo for free.... that's how much I don't want him on this team.

[stevemcqueen1]

He gets more rebounds, but when he's on the court - NY gets outrebounded by 3%, and when Nene's on the court, Washington is even in rebounding. He gets more rebounds because he's playing with guys like Bargnani who don't rebound. If he replaced Nene, the Wizards rebounding would most likely not improve, the defense would get significantly worse, and the offense would probably be less efficient.

It'd entirely depend on the role Melo accepted. He couldn't be Denver and NY Carmelo because, quite frankly, this is Wall's team. Wall is going to be the superior player pretty soon, if he isn't already. He's the team leader. And the rest of the guys work really well with Wall, and accept their roles as orbiting around Wall.

I HIGHLY doubt Carmelo could accept that dynamic. Not right now. He needs to be desperate first.

But if we get Team USA Melo (which was a totally different environment), then he'd be a massive upgrade for us. Melo was easily one of the two or three best players on that team and was spectacular in that role. Lethal.

Start the possessions with the ball in Wall's hand, have Melo doing a lot of catching and shooting with his triple threat game and post game as the offense's second options, sort of like how we give the ball to Nene and isolate him when the clock hits 10 seconds and our play broke down. His volume would drop but his efficiency would soar playing that kind of role with Wall. And our offense would be unstoppable. Five outstanding scoring options at each position in the starting 5 plus good scorers on the bench. Positional versatility and the ability to stagger our scoring options throughout a variety of line ups. Carmelo is capable of playing PF nearly full time, which would be nice because we could easily put three elite long range shooters on the floor with Wall most of the time.

I do think his rebounding ability as a SF would be nice but Ariza is already rebounding well. Not a huge net gain.

He definitely brings a size and strength to the SF position that the team doesn't have. Give us more ability to wear down opponents and him plus Nene plus Gortat is a very imposing front line physically. It'd help us match up with Indiana's and Chicago's size for example.

And his crunch time scoring ability would be a huge gain in a playoff format. We'd actually have the horses to go a full game and match up offensively against the OKC's and SA's and Miami's of the league. You saw how bad it got last night against Milwaukee after Wall got gassed. No crunch time scoring ability whatsoever. That wouldn't happen with Melo.

Defense would of course be a step back from Ariza. We could cope with Melo at SF. At PF, it's tougher. But it's not like we'd be much worse than we are now anyway when Nene is sitting.

The main issues to me are the money and non-basketball stuff effecting his fit here. First off, I doubt we can afford him without going into the tax. That's not desirable. Second, I seriously doubt he'd except a more limited role as a second banana here. That makes the idea a non-starter. I doubt he'll go somewhere that's not hooking him up like the Knicks are, treating him like a super duper star, giving him a voice in team direction, etc. Getting his wife on board to come here also seems like a long shot, and she seems to be a pretty big part of his decision making process.

And then the Knicks aren't going to trade him, which makes him extremely difficult to sign if he hits UFA this summer.

Acquiring Carmelo is not realistic.

[Knighthonor]

Melo doesnt produce championships, like George Karl said. At the end of the day, if its not going to help us at the ultimate goal, building a team that can win the title, then I'm not interested.


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Some HoF also didnt win a Championship but came close.

[GeeWiz]

Melo doesnt produce championships, like George Karl said. At the end of the day, if its not going to help us at the ultimate goal, building a team that can win the title, then I'm not interested.


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Some HoF also didnt win a Championship but came close.

But Melo isnt willing to sacrifice his 'legacy' to win one. Players like Stockton, Malone, Dominique, and others would do anything to win a ship, while Melo only cares about himself


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[Hidden Eye]

Wizards should not look into another older player who probably won't accept team basketball concept..and going with wiz history with injuries will miss a lot of games.

Wiz desperately need a Young talented Center.. Nene and Gortat aren't the answers for elite team success especially playoffs.