MS wrote:What have I said that isn’t spot on?We traded half our team for a guy that virtually is the same player, as our best player. It works in Miami because Lebron and Wade are unselfish and play exceptional defense.
Is there a difference between Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson?
We had to take on Balkmans contract, Fields went from promising trade chip and glue guy to having no value, Gallo and Chandler virtually duplicate Melo’s production and spaced the floor and both were unselfish, Felton was playing at a fringe all-star level and developing serious chemistry with STAT, AR and Moz were both raw, but useful projects.
Does that add up to a championship? No it doesn’t, but there is an opportunity to build with pieces and have flexibility. Right now our roster consists of a lost second year SF starting at the guard position, a combo guard that’s lost his confidence playing out of position, a jump shooting power forward how isn’t being aggressive, a journeyman past his prime point guard, a former all-star injured point guard who we are all hoping returns to his Golden State form and a defensive center whose needs a pg to get him easy buckets.
Melo is a closer I get it. He’s great when the game is on the line, but with this team the game is always going to be on the line. He needs to score 35+ to get us wins because we have no depth and balance.
If someone can explain how we get that and who do we add that’s something to talk about…
I get the frustration- i feel the same way when we put up a stinker like we did yesterday, but where I disagree with you is that you don't put any context to it. Wade and Lebron do work well together now- but do you know why that is? It's because they've played together for over 100 games! It took them all of last season to get some chemistry going. Melo and STAT have no chemistry at all, but they've hardly played together- they keep taking turns getting injured.
Do you know what Felton is shooting this season? 34.6% and 16.7% from 3pt. People complained about him for most of his stint with new york (he got off to a slow start too if you remember), until he got traded, at which point he passed into Knick folklore as the second incarnation of Magic Johnson.
I didn't like the trade either, but I wouldn't say the old team was a championship calibre team either. Do you know what we would have done if we'd kept that team? Complain and go into wild hysteria every time Gallo didn't score 20 points, or had one of his poor shooting slow starts, or declare Wilson Chandler a bust every time he went through those passive stretches. We would have killed Felton by now if he'd shot the %'s he's shooting in Portland.
It's the lack of patience, lack of context, that annoys me- it's not making excuses, it's understanding that we need a lot more time to get the best out of the group we have (we haven't even played with BD yet- can't wait until people give him 3 whole games to get on top form before the start blasting him!), it's understanding that we'll have games where we'll look good, and games where we stink; it's understanding that a player can go through slumps but get better- not every game is the end of the world, and to think we have no scope for improvement is ridiculous.
We have no depth at the moment, but lets see what happens once JJ and BD are back, and whether we can add another bench player either from China or via a small trade. Lets see how they play once BD gets back (and lets give him a fair chance to get back into playing shape once he does). And remember how early in the season it is.
1/13/2012 11:55 AM