Post#163 » by The Rebel » Mon Oct 18, 2021 2:18 pm
If anything this thread shows how underrated Melo has become.
People want to talk about his lack of success in the playoffs, yet ignore the fact that for 5 years straight the Nuggets lost a high paid starter within the 1st month of the season and still made the playoffs at times where it took 50 wins to get in. They ignore how many guys on those teams that were getting substantial meaningful minutes were not good enough to get meaningful minutes on any other teams. Guys like Greg Buckner, Eduardo Najera, Earl Boykins, Elson, and so many more couldn't get minutes with bad teams but got plenty of minutes with the Nuggets.
You want to talk about Melo's stats going down in the playoffs. Sure they did, we were starting guys like Greg Buckner, Marcus Camby, and Andre Miller, defenses could triple team Melo and there was nothing anybody else on the roster could do to make them pay. Then you add AI and they basically took turns because neither one of them was effective playing off the ball all the time.
The melo deal was made by the KNicks, Melo did not tell them who to trade, and the fact is the package they gave up wasn't the problem. The issue was that they picked up the option on Billups and then amnestied him a few weeks later. Amare getting hurt and them using the money to sign Tyson Chandler, when they could have declined the option on Billups and amnestied Amare leaving them a max contract slot open for Chris Paul who said he would meet Melo in New York at Melo's wedding.
The 2 times Melo was on a team with a non-ball dominate PG that could shoot his team made it out of the 1st round. \
Melo made a dumb choice joining the Knicks which had a long history of terrible management, he choose money over rings, but he was damn good and carried plenty of teams to the playoffs that had no right to even be there.