gunsnewing wrote:blkexec wrote:He is now a legit combo guard, with veteran leadership, and less hirky jerky crossovers. This is the perfect time to bring him back. He's also a backup PG, so his skills fills multiple needs.Backup PG
Backup SG
Vet Leadership on the floor
Leadership in the locker room
Additional scoring
Better than Ledo
Understands his strengths and weaknesses
At this stage in his career, he can't hurt you coming off the bench. He's also a possible starter, due to injuries.
The question is who are we trading and what teams will be in the mix for this possible 3 way trade? Thats the bigger question. Otherwise, it's a no brainer. Could regain that six man of the year award 1 last time.
Exactly except he is not a backup PG. Calderon is but a Craw has some qualities that fit this system. Height, ballhandling and making plays for himself and others.
We would actually have some playmakers for the for the first time in a long time in KP, Grant & Crawford. Look at Phil's play championship roster. Littered with guys who not only can make plays for themselves but also make plays for others when the defense collapses on them. Jordan, Pippen, Kukoc, Kobe, Shaq, Eddie Jones, Odom & Gasol. Melo is the only one who has been ball dominant and a black hole. I still don't get why Phil re-signed him. Only reasonable explanation is he feels he can trade him instead of letting him walk for nothing or it was a marketing ploy that Dolan was behind. Craw actually defends as well which is another trait those guys had. He is adept at getting steals and disrupting with his long arms.
I agree with most everything you've pointed out. I think with regard to Melo, Phil is looking at the fact that Melo can go off at any time and raise his level of play to elite levels. Having a player like that can often be the difference once you have a quality team at every other position. Those kinds of elite scoring talents can push a team over the top in big moments. There are very few of those kinds of players in the league. It makes no sense to just jettison one unless you know you have a way to get another one. A Bird in the Hand so to speak.
An example of what i'm talking about is when the Knicks faced the Pacers in the playoffs, there was game six when Melo was going off and we just needed for the rest of the team to come thru. I think only Shump stepped up.
NOT: Smith closed out a miserable series with 4-for-15 shooting. For the six games he shot 26-for-90 (.289), including 9-for-39 (.231) from the 3-point line. ... Tyson Chandler fouled out with two points, six rebounds and zero blocked shots. ... Raymond Felton missed all seven of his shots.
If you had a better team around Melo in that scenario things could've been much different.
8/20/2015 12:25 PM LAST EDITED: 8/20/2015 12:28 PM