Some folks here obviously hate this player so you know what you can expect from those folks.
For me Melo has been mostly wait and see. I did NOT like the trade but end of the day is was very fair. Gallo and Chandler are two guys who miss a ton of time for various reasons. Mosgov is cute to have but low impact and high cost all things considered. Chandler/Gallo/Mos = $20mm in salary. Melo = $21mm in salary. At face value this isnt even close... the Knicks got a steal in terms of value and impact. Only including the picks makes it even close to palpable for the Nuggets.
I also hated losing a young and very good Felton (at the time) for an old Billups. Wrong their too... Felton simply sucks. No injury excuses as he's out of shape. If he was just hurt fine.. you get a pass. Cant control that, but he's hurt and FAT.
When Melo came here Amare was a full blown star. He was playing great and it certainly seemed like Melo had another star player to go to the wars with. Out with Billups in with Tyson. Knicks are still pretty good and even without Amare still win 54 games last year.
Last year Melo did his job. He was 3rd in MVP voting. He was an all star, won the scoring title and had some totally dominating stretches where the Knicks had big runs in the win column averaging 30/10 in April comes to mind.
So if your Melo its fair to look around the league at your peers. Other guys with elite stats, big contracts who are expected to lead their teams to a lot of wins and playoff runs. Max players.
Lets look at the big money guys:
1. Kobe Bryant $30,453,000
2. Dirk Nowitzki $22,721,381
3. Gilbert Arenas $22,346,536
4. Amare Stoudemire $21,679,893
5. Carmelo Anthony $21,490,000
6. Joe Johnson $21,466,718
7. Dwight Howard $20,513,178
8. Pau Gasol $19,285,850
9. Chris Bosh $19,067,500
9. LeBron James $19,067,500
11. Kevin Durant $18,773,176
12. Chris Paul $18,668,431
13. Dwyane Wade $18,536,000
14. Deron Williams $18,466,130
15. Rudy Gay $17,888,932
16. Zach Randolph $17,800,000
17. Brandon Roy $17,779,458
18. Derrick Rose $17,632,688
19. Blake Griffin $16,402,500
20. Paul Pierce $15,333,334
21. Carlos Boozer $15,300,000
22. Marc Gasol $14,860,523
23. Brook Lopez $14,694,000
24. Kevin Love $14,693,906
24. Russell Westbrook $14,693,906
26. Emeka Okafor $14,544,687
27. Luol Deng $14,312,125
28. Roy Hibbert $14,283,844
28. Eric Gordon $14,283,844
30. Andrew Bogut $14,200,000
Durant has Ibaka/Westbrook (and vise versa)
Lebron has Wade and Bosh
Joe Johnson has Deron, KG, PP, Bropez
Kobe and Gasol dont win without each other (or Shaq)
Rose has Knoa and Boozer
CP3 has Blake and Jordon (the best PGs have pretty epic frontcourts)
Love and Sota look a lot better when Rubio plays like a star right?
So if your Melo, coming off a 54 win season, you see the Knicks offseason moves what is your reaction?
Some folks love to blame Melo, but it seems more and more that Melo's comments, regardless of context are appropriate and warrented.
Its todays NBA. You dont just get max money. You go where they are going to set you up to succeed as well.
When other stars have left for other teams why did they leave? Usually to play with better talent. If Lebron, Dwight, Bosh, etc wanted to come here fans would be pretty pumped.
So why is Melo vilified for being honest? Management laid out a lot of get him here. What have they done to keep him here? I mean we all talk about this massive dysfunction because its plain as day. While TFK would have you believe Melo is the cause the dysfunction was here long before he go here.
So if your Melo why are you staying here in this zoo when LA or whoever else will pay you similar to not be the poster boy of the sh!t show this organization calls basketball?
"winning is more fun... then fun is fun" -Thibs