Carmelo Anthony to OKC for Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott and a draft pick

[hardenASG13]

Losing kanter takes away half of our arguments. He was a crazy player, if you caught him in the right stretch he was either amazing or awful.

Really an unbelievable offseason, glad I bet OKC when they were 40:1 a few months ago. Melo will be great vs. Golden state or houston he's still very skilled. OKC has to be 2nd favorite behind GSW.

[JEIS]

Oladipo, Sabonis, Kanter, McDermott, and a 2nd round pick

for

Paul George AND Carmelo Anthony

Just wait til Lebron joins the Thunder and you guys boot Durant out of the playoffs and win it all.

[ThunderBolt]

As far as I'm concerned this is our biggest free agent signing and it proves it's possible to get big names to OKC. Yes I'm aware it was a trade but with Melo's NTC, this was essentially a free agent signing to me.

[Pillendreher]

As far as I'm concerned this is our biggest free agent signing and it proves it's possible to get big names to OKC. Yes I'm aware it was a trade but with Melo's NTC, this was essentially a free agent signing to me.

Seems to me people actually do want to play with Russ.

[bondom34]

Well not on RealGM but other sites Houston fans salty as hell. Love it.

And raise your hand if you thought anything like this for the offseason. Darn.

[jambalaya]

Wade and other buyouts will look at joining.

[Durant Durant]

Niice. Okc becomes even more relevant this coming season

[jwpark23]

never expected this.. WOW

[nymets1]

Carmelo I don't think is a true #1 on a team, He would be so amazing as the 3rd best player on OKC.

[spearsy23]

So, I'm not even excited because I'm sad to see enes go. I hope he tears **** up in new York.

[spearsy23]

Also, I think we got better, but not as significantly as the pundits will pretend. Melo is a solid player, but he's not even an all-star caliber guy at this point. I'm curious if Russ extends now though.

Russ/PG/Melo isn't that huge of step down from pre-prime Russ/Harden + Cupcake. Too bad the warriors are two steps up from that Miami team.

Wade would be an interesting bench addition as a backup PG.

[slick_watts]

i don't think melo is that good anymore, but dumping kanter and mcdermott for nothing would have been a positive move imo. weakest position last year (pf) has sure been shored up.

[spearsy23]

Really wondering what the bench looks like. We know presti would prefer Melo off the bench, and that's really the best place for his iso-star game, but it's obviously up to Melo.

[retrobro90]

I really dont agree with the idea that we'd be better with Melo coming off the bench. Patterson is a better defender for sure but even though he can shoot the 3 he's not really a floor spacer. Defenses will let him take that shot. Melo draws sooooo much more attention by comparison and creates a lot more space. We can also maximize his effectiveness surrounding him with good defenders.

[spearsy23]

I really dont agree with the idea that we'd be better with Melo coming off the bench. Patterson is a better defender for sure but even though he can shoot the 3 he's not really a floor spacer. Defenses will let him take that shot. Melo draws sooooo much more attention by comparison and creates a lot more space. We can also maximize his effectiveness surrounding him with good defenders.

Only so many basketballs and the bench has nobody who can get their own shot. You play a Russ/PG/Melo lineup, but you maximize the time Melo gets on the ball which is his primary usefulness. And Patterson definitely spaces the floor, teams don't leave him wide open in the corner.

[retrobro90]

I really dont agree with the idea that we'd be better with Melo coming off the bench. Patterson is a better defender for sure but even though he can shoot the 3 he's not really a floor spacer. Defenses will let him take that shot. Melo draws sooooo much more attention by comparison and creates a lot more space. We can also maximize his effectiveness surrounding him with good defenders.

Only so many basketballs and the bench has nobody who can get their own shot. You play a Russ/PG/Melo lineup, but you maximize the time Melo gets on the ball which is his primary usefulness. And Patterson definitely spaces the floor, teams don't leave him wide open in the corner.

They don't leave him the way they leave someone like Roberson but they'd prefer Patterson get an open three over a Russ/Adams look at the rim or a PG three. There's only so much they can prioritize and the Patterson three isn't at the top of their list. Pretty much every Patterson three is an open shot. Melo draws a hell of a lot more attention out there.

All 3 of Russ/PG/Melo will play with the second unit. Even if by some metric starting Melo isn't the most effective way of distributing who gets what touches they're all still going to be staggered throughout the game to optimize each player's usefulness. Melo is far from being only an ISO player too. We didn't just trade for 37 year old Jamal Crawford. He's very effective off the ball and when he does have it he's quite adept at passing despite what his reputation would suggest.

[spearsy23]

I really dont agree with the idea that we'd be better with Melo coming off the bench. Patterson is a better defender for sure but even though he can shoot the 3 he's not really a floor spacer. Defenses will let him take that shot. Melo draws sooooo much more attention by comparison and creates a lot more space. We can also maximize his effectiveness surrounding him with good defenders.

Only so many basketballs and the bench has nobody who can get their own shot. You play a Russ/PG/Melo lineup, but you maximize the time Melo gets on the ball which is his primary usefulness. And Patterson definitely spaces the floor, teams don't leave him wide open in the corner.

They don't leave him the way they leave someone like Roberson but they'd prefer Patterson get an open three over a Russ/Adams look at the rim or a PG three. There's only so much they can prioritize and the Patterson three isn't at the top of their list. Pretty much every Patterson three is an open shot. Melo draws a hell of a lot more attention out there.

All 3 of Russ/PG/Melo will play with the second unit. Even if by some metric starting Melo isn't the most effective way of distributing who gets what touches they're all still going to be staggered throughout the game to optimize each player's usefulness. Melo is far from being only an ISO player too. We didn't just trade for 37 year old Jamal Crawford. He's very effective off the ball and when he does have it he's quite adept at passing despite what his reputation would suggest.

Nobody is arguing that Patterson is a better floor spacer than Melo, but he's adequate enough that I believe there would be greater returns having Melo to ballast the second unit and close games with Russ than having him play decoy to begin the game.

Crawford had a better assist percentage than Melo last year.

[Makaveli2]

He will still be considered the winner of the harden trade.

lol morey

[Boarder Patrol]

For this stage in his career you'll be getting the best version of Melo possible. Motivated for the first time in years to be a part of something special, spotting up and playing off ball enough to keep him happy while also getting some post/iso touches. An efficient 18-20 PPG with decent defense is what I'd expect.

[bondom34]

He will still be considered the winner of the harden trade.

lol morey

And have less success than Presti.