The Knicks 2008-9 roster were a 2nd round postseason team .. without a clueless Isiah Thomas in the pic, or a phony lying Donnie Walsh in the pic, or a celebrity headcoach Dantoni DNP healthy players to TANK the season.
The Knicks 2010-11 roster were a meshin postseason team, before we got involve with the Chaotic Melo-trade, we only needed to trade for a veteran SG, or a veteran combo-guard in the 2012 February trading deadline to replace Landry Fields in the starting lineup.
We did not need to trade 3 of our starters and 2 future first round picks for the Denver Nuggets two feuding-bitter players "Melo & Billups" on who Nuggets team it was.
Billups Leadership lead to a WCF postseason team vs Melo leadership the following season lead to a first round postseason team.
See this is what im talking about .. the Knicks-Team win a game and Dolan's big media headlines are "Melo scored 29 points for the Knicks win".
The Knicks Jason Kidd & Kenyon Martin strong leadership took the Knicks-TEAM on a strong-run to win 16 games out of the Knicks final 18 games of the 2012-13 season (Kenyon Martin only played 18 reg-season games for the Knicks, replacing injured Tyson Chandler.). Those two ex-teammates that took the Nets to the FINALS twice were the number #1 reason the Knicks won the Atlantic division title, and recieve the NBA 2nd worst playoff team in the first-round (The Rondoless Celtics).
The only Postseason team the "Rondoless Celtics" had a chance to beat in a 7 game series in 2012-13 were the 38-44 Bucks.
Last year when the Miami Heat was on the longest winning streak in NBA history, the majority of the Miami Heats headlines were on Chris Anderson (Birdman) joining the team, plus all the post games reports, u had Lebron, Wade, Bosh, and Ray giving the game win to the "Birdman". A big oposite of the ISO-Melo Melo Melo Knicks...
Kidd, Rasheed Wallace, Marcus Camby, Kurt Thomas and Kenyon Martin all played a leadership role. Take Melo off of this team and our season would have been in JR Smith's hands. The leading scorer on a team by default is usually mentioned more in the headlines when the team wins or loses. Especially if they make 20 million dollars a year.
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Im actually surprised at the responses. I see the consensus is that many of you aren't pleased with what Melo has done so far and him leaving, you guys wouldn't mind. Am I reading it right? But you guys basically stated what I have been saying amongst other basketball fans about Melo. He's a talented and gifted scorer. He is definitely one of the best we have seen in the league, but that alone doesn't win. I don't think he's a selfish player but he is a "score first" player and too often than none, doesn't get others involved. His defensive energy and effort is subpar. Guys like Mj, Kobe, LeBron, Wade, CP and KD scan till have a profound affect on their team and the game even if they're aren't scoring as much. They exert just as much effort on the defensive end as well. If he isn't scoring, what else is he doing?
In this league, you need guys who can play both sides of the ball. Look at how Indy has risen in the last few years. George and Hibbert are by no means "elite" scorers but take as much pride on D as they do on offense. Now look at their team. The knicks will be a solid team this year but they aren't even top 3 in the east imo. I think he's staying but it'll be interesting to see nonetheless.
IMO it seems most of us don't want to pay him $25-30mil a year, and rightfully so. If we do preform closer to ESPN standards, shouldn't we try to trade him, and get back some nice pieces to build around Hardaway Jr and Shump? I'd do that if i was the mgr. I know we won't come close to the package we gave away, but What you guys think...
You can't just make stuff up to support your argument. The 2008-2009 team did not make the playoffs, regardless of what excuse you want to give.
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Kidd, Rasheed Wallace, Marcus Camby, Kurt Thomas and Kenyon Martin all played a leadership role. Take Melo off of this team and our season would have been in JR Smith's hands. The leading scorer on a team by default is usually mentioned more in the headlines when the team wins or loses. Especially if they make 20 million dollars a year.
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There was no argument over the FACT the Knicks organization TANK the 2008-9 season .. arbitration made the Knicks organization pay Marbury every penny of his $21M final contract for not playing one reg-season game in his final contract.
Marbury's arguement to arbitration was the Knicks TANKING the season .. the Knicks could not prove him wrong and had to pay.
So true .... However we had other scorers on the team (beside Melo/JR ball-hoggin) Woody forbid others to shoot (Jason Kidd did not like Woody forbidden others from scoring, and thats why Kidd stop doing that easy layup move he perfected for 18 years.).
In our 18-5 run, Felton was averaging 16 pts and 7 ast per game. Chris Copeland 29 pt game vs the Lin & Felton matchup that gave us 18-6 record, became a reason to add Copeland to the rotation for 12 to 18 minutes per game, not to DNP Copeland to garbage time losses when Sheed/Camby/Amare were out with injuries.
Plus when we stopped all the ball-movement we went into a "isolation-system" on offense for 48 minutes, which was not fair to the majority of players on the team. The isolation-system only gave experience indivdual-scorers the option to score, we did not give certain players Tyson, Amare, Sheed, Camby, K.Thomas, K-Mart, Novak, Brewer, Shump, and Prigioni a fair chance to score in a "isolation-system" where they have to beat their defender off the dribble for a shot. There were no more pick n rolls or back-door passes, or moving the ball to find a open man .. and still these Knicks players help us win 54 games
That is another indication of how selfish this guy is. I dont blame him for wanting to make as much money as he can, but for him to come out and say he wants to test the market while undrer the contract, tells me all about him.
Not a team player, selfish scoring title chaser.
I would let him go. After watching his game in new york, i say he will never lead his team anywere.
He is overpriced as of now. Forget about giving him more.