if it's true, Stat's feeling like he's the odd man out.

crzymdups wrote:I don't think Carmelo and Amar'e will ever work together. Both guys need to be receiving 20+ shots per game to be effective and that's not effective in the context of team ball.

If your premise is that they cant work only because they both need multiple shots, then I think your wrong. We've seen teams have 2 or more guys that need to get it up a lot of shots and it worked.

Westbrook/Durant and James/Wade come to mind instantly when thinking about guys who need to get up a lot of shots to be effective. I think a better argument would be they might not work defensively. Or we might need to considering tweaking the other pieces around them to make a better fit, I.E, better shooting SG and a face-up center who can opne up the paint for Stat. Or moving Stat back to center for the mismatch and pairing him with a rugged defensive/rebounding 4.

Uptown wrote:

crzymdups wrote:I don't think Carmelo and Amar'e will ever work together. Both guys need to be receiving 20+ shots per game to be effective and that's not effective in the context of team ball.

If your premise is that they cant work only because they both need multiple shots, then I think your wrong. We've seen teams have 2 or more guys that need to get it up a lot of shots and it worked.

Westbrook/Durant and James/Wade come to mind instantly when thinking about guys who need to get up a lot of shots to be effective. I think a better argument would be they might not work defensively. Or we might need to considering tweaking the other pieces around them to make a better fit, I.E, better shooting SG and a face-up center who can opne up the paint for Stat. Or moving Stat back to center for the mismatch and pairing him with a rugged defensive/rebounding 4.

Well, if you want me to elaborate, my premise is that they are too similar in what they need and where they need the ball. I don't think you can have a SF/PF combo where both guys need 20 and probably want 25 shots a night. Especially when neither is particularly good or committed to defense.

Durant and Westbrook are a PG/SF combo and play and score differently. Wade and James are two of the best players in the game, top 5 easily. And they are incredibly committed to defense.

Neither Amar'e or Melo are committed to defense, neither is really a good passer. Both take a high volume of jump shots that they shouldn't take and need to be setup by a playmaker. Thankfully we have Lin now, but unfortunately, Lin can't make Amar'e and Melo play defense.

I think you try to trade Amar'e and keep Melo, because Melo is a clutch end of game scorer and has more range and versatility with his offensive game. Amar'e is almost duplicated by Tyson in the offense - right now, Tyson is more effective in the pick and roll.

I think this is an issue that MDA has to solve during the practice time he gets. I agree that Stat has been playing terrible and it may have been one of the reasons he saw the ball only a few times. But at the same time, this team needs to get Amar'e going asap!

MDA needs to find ways to get Amar'e the ball while keeping the flow of the team. Those Lin-to-Stat pick'n'rolls need to go right.

Stat needs to be featured, but at the same time, they need to let him know that if he does nothing on D, like he has recently, he will get more touches, but of the seats on the bench.

crzymdups wrote:

Uptown wrote:

crzymdups wrote:I don't think Carmelo and Amar'e will ever work together. Both guys need to be receiving 20+ shots per game to be effective and that's not effective in the context of team ball.

If your premise is that they cant work only because they both need multiple shots, then I think your wrong. We've seen teams have 2 or more guys that need to get it up a lot of shots and it worked.

Westbrook/Durant and James/Wade come to mind instantly when thinking about guys who need to get up a lot of shots to be effective. I think a better argument would be they might not work defensively. Or we might need to considering tweaking the other pieces around them to make a better fit, I.E, better shooting SG and a face-up center who can opne up the paint for Stat. Or moving Stat back to center for the mismatch and pairing him with a rugged defensive/rebounding 4.

Well, if you want me to elaborate, my premise is that they are too similar in what they need and where they need the ball. I don't think you can have a SF/PF combo where both guys need 20 and probably want 25 shots a night. Especially when neither is particularly good or committed to defense.

Durant and Westbrook are a PG/SF combo and play and score differently. Wade and James are two of the best players in the game, top 5 easily. And they are incredibly committed to defense.

Neither Amar'e or Melo are committed to defense, neither is really a good passer. Both take a high volume of jump shots that they shouldn't take and need to be setup by a playmaker. Thankfully we have Lin now, but unfortunately, Lin can't make Amar'e and Melo play defense.

I think you try to trade Amar'e and keep Melo, because Melo is a clutch end of game scorer and has more range and versatility with his offensive game. Amar'e is almost duplicated by Tyson in the offense - right now, Tyson is more effective in the pick and roll.

As I said, a better argument would be that they probably dont work together defensively. Offensively, however, I think Amare and Melo can work fine. I think its Chandler that gets in Amare's way. Amare got on his roll last year at the 5 spot, blowing by 5's and shooting over them because they were afraid to come out. Also, he and Felton ran the pick and roll quite nicely. With Chandler in the line up, he is the one benefiting from the pick and roll with Lin. How many times has Lin waved off Amare in favor of Chandler? Chandler is clogging the paint which isn't allowing Amare the space to penetrate into the lane at the top of the key like he did last year.

We've seen Sf/Pf combo's that need to put up shots and still be effective. Presently, Rudy Gay and Zach seem to be a nice combo that hasn't hindered the Grizz's success. At his best, Amare doesn't need 20-25 shots to be effective. Over his career he shot over 50%; 17 shots and more trips to the foul line would work nicely. Unfortunately for Stat, his jumper and his explosion has abandoned him and he looks pedestrian out there. Because he's looked so bad, a combo of Amare and a Macy's Mannequin wouldn't work right now.

Syniko wrote:What the hell is Stephen A. Smith's problem?? This dude is annoying as hell. He's like a caricature and he say things that makes absolutely no sense from one day to the next. His radio show is like a spoof of sports talk. How can anyone take him seriously anyway?

Not to mention he cannot speak without his obnoxious yelling...

nyvector16 wrote:

Syniko wrote:What the hell is Stephen A. Smith's problem?? This dude is annoying as hell. He's like a caricature and he say things that makes absolutely no sense from one day to the next. His radio show is like a spoof of sports talk. How can anyone take him seriously anyway?

Not to mention he cannot speak without his obnoxious yelling...

Yea, he's funny once in a while, but I'm at the point where I'm all like: "stfu stephen a smith".

He sucks.

TheGame wrote:I doubt if Amare was furious that he would have told SAS. The guy is just trying to start controversy.

Yea. Just think of the balls you need to make this up and throw it out there with authority.

Terrible.