I've been avoiding all this Melodrama like the plague because I don't believe there are very many honest brokers when it comes to those who can't stand him. That's not to say they haven't been right about some of his flaws. If nothing Melo does will ever be good enough for a segment of this board, then having a rational discussion with them is rather pointless.
Still going to stay out of it but I thought this article does a good job of balancing the pros and cons and maybe it will inspire a more open minded give and take on the subject because in the end if you really are a Knicks fan you want Melo to continue improving as a player. Pointing out or at the very least admitting what he's doing right as the season progresses doesn't negate your opinion about the other things he does wrong. Doesn't have to be one or the other.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/carmelo-anthony-most-polarizing-figure-nba-131800346.html
COMMENTARY | It seems that no matter what anyone says about the New York Knicks these days, the conversation inevitably comes around to their best player, Carmelo Anthony.
And, when the topic involves Anthony, extremes normally abound.
Regardless of whether the opinions come from fans of the Knicks or other NBA teams, the praise and criticism for Anthony proliferate in a way that appears to divide fans like no other player in the league.
The 'Melo Haters Say…
Anthony's detractors make some fair points when mentioning his propensity to look for his own shot over valuing ball movement; his lack of trust in his own teammates; and as his usual unwillingness to become as great a star defensively as he is offensively.
While the Knicks' shots per game slightly decreased, from 81.6 to 81, between the regular season and the postseason this year, Anthony, after attempting a league-leading 22.2 field goals per game during the regular season -- nearly two full shots more than the next closest player (Kobe Bryant, 20.4) -- increased his shots by over 3½ per game, to 25.8 in the playoffs.
That would have been fine had Anthony's field goal percentage not dropped. But, it did, by nearly four percentage points, from a respectable 44.9 percent during the regular season to a subpar 40.6 in the postseason, as the extra 3.6 shots translated to only one-half of a made field goal more in the playoffs (10.5) than in the regular season (10).
The problem isn't in the numbers, however, but rather, in Anthony's shot selection.
As New York's best scorer and shooter -- when he has open looks -- it would behoove the Knicks if Anthony took even more shots than he already does, provided he were always as efficient as he sometimes can be.
Yet, that's often not the case. Too frequently, Anthony, though one of the league's best tough shot makers, settles for missing too many highly contested, forced shots when he should be passing.
And, although Anthony is the reigning NBA scoring champion and a six-time All-Star, and was an All-NBA Second Team selection twice and All-NBA Third Team choice four times, none of those accolades had much to do with his defense.
Critics of his style of play argue that the 29-year-old Anthony can never go from being the star that he's become, to raising his level of play to that of elite status in the NBA.
The 'Melo Proponents Say…
Conversely, there are some substantial arguments in Anthony's favor.
There's no denying that despite his flaws, Anthony still remains one of the league's primary talents on a team that isn't built well enough to fully utilize Anthony's abilities.
He won't admit it, but some of Anthony's inclination to take things upon himself offensively results from the absence of legitimate second and third scoring options to compliment him.
Former star Amar'e Stoudemire was supposed to fill the role as Anthony's chief sidekick, but knee injuries derailed those plans and left the Knicks without a single starter besides Anthony as a reliable and consistent scorer.
That responsibility has fallen to reserve guard J.R. Smith. Even though Smith had a solid year that earned him the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year Award this season, when an erratic sixth man is a team's second-best scorer, it's far from an ideal situation to help a club's first option.
Even the greatest of all-time, Michael Jordan, needed Scottie Pippen, before he could start winning championships. The last group of Knicks to win NBA titles (in the 1970s) had several Hall of Famers. As did the great Boston Celtics teams of the 1960s and 1980s. The Los Angeles Lakers, San Antonio Spurs, and Detroit Pistons all needed multiple great players to win championships. LeBron James had to leave his hometown and become part of a Big Three in Miami to win a title. Anthony's division rival and fellow great scorer, Paul Pierce, got as far as the Eastern Conference finals and the Eastern semifinals just once each, over his first nine years, and was involved in 33-win and 24-win seasons in his seventh and eighth years respectively, before becoming part of his own Big Three title-winning team in Boston.
In fairness, before joining the Knicks, Anthony repeatedly failed to get past the first round of the playoffs himself, even when paired with a similar type of player in Allen Iverson, who along with Anthony, gave the Denver Nuggets the league's top two scorers at the time.
Yet, when coupled with a team player and former NBA champion, with the capabilities to score and facilitate, in Chauncey Billups, Anthony led the Nuggets to their first Western Conference finals appearance in 24 years (in 2009).
It should also be noted that head coach George Karl, who was at odds with Anthony while coaching him, has yet to make it out of the first round of the postseason in the three years that Anthony has been a Knick in the playoffs -- something that can be seen as more of an indictment on the limits of Karl's postseason success, just as much, if not even more than of what Anthony failed to accomplish in Denver.
Mike D'Antoni, who coached Anthony in New York before Woodson did, similarly accomplished less with the Lakers than Anthony's Knicks in this year's regular season and playoffs, even with the likes of Bryant, Steve Nash, Dwight Howard, and Pau Gasol.
Meanwhile, Anthony, in his first full, non-lockout season in New York, led the Knicks to their first division title in 19 years and first playoff series win in 13 years -- two things they wouldn't have come close to achieving without him.
Syracuse also rode Anthony's stellar play to an unexpected national title in the former high school phenom's only year in college.
Decriers of Anthony's low 3.1 career assist average, including 2.6 this season (tying a career low), will call Anthony out as a selfish player. But, Anthony has always been asked to be a scorer first, and while his disparagers complain of the ball stopping when it gets to him, Anthony is doing exactly what Knicks head coach Mike Woodson wants him to do (to Woodson's fault) in an offense that is at times, isolation-heavy by design.
Despite what others say about that, the Knicks somehow managed to share the ball enough to make an NBA-record 891 3-pointers during the regular season, with Smith (155 treys) and forward Steve Novak (149) draining almost as many as Anthony (157). Smith also led the team in 3-point attempts, taking 22 more (436-414) than Anthony.
After a three-game stretch in March that included two wins (one, in a 29-point blowout over Utah), and a close one-point loss to Oklahoma City without Anthony (due to injury), some misguided Knicks fans argued that New York was actually better without Anthony. That is, until the Knicks completed a poor Western swing largely without Anthony, and then reeled off a season-high 13-game win streak, mostly with a healthy, very efficient, and highly productive Anthony leading the way.
What Do You Say?
Until Anthony, who will enter his 11th NBA season next year, can win a title, or at least make multiple trips to the NBA finals, his faultfinders will remain visible in full force.
At the same time, Anthony became the first Knick to have the NBA's top-selling jersey, as he overtook James in that category, in April, providing further proof that Anthony still has plenty of backers.
Sports topics in general, are normally made out to be black and white, when the truth is typically somewhere among several shades of gray.
It's no different with the game of Anthony, whose critics and supporters regularly make valid and impassioned points, without considering the opposite side, more than with any other player in the league.
Chances are, you have a strong opinion either way, about seemingly the most polarizing figure in the NBA.
Jonathan Wagner is a regular Knicks contributor for Yahoo! Sports, a Knicks beat writer for New York Sports Day, and a co-host discussing the Knicks and other sports topics on the New York Sports Geeks internet radio show. Follow Jonathan on Twitter @JonathanJWagner.
