sidsanders wrote:

kam77 wrote:Al scored 40 pts, willingly accepting his role off the bench and people still kill him. Unbelievable.

shot selection is what i dont like. goes for anyone on this team who keeps chucking 3s or other shots that are awful (contested, fade away 3s, etc).

i'm with sid on this one... it's not enough to just put up numbers during games if you're gonna make ill advised decisions down the stretch of them... here's the difference between Al Harrington & Carmelo Anthony down the stretch tonite... both of them put up huge #'s today, but unlike Al, Melo chose to trust his teammates down the stretch when the Knicks were doubling up on him, & passed out of those double teams & hit open teammates for uncontested shots... that's when Chauncey & JR Smith were both able to step up w/some big shots during the stretch run... Al chose to try & take the game on his shoulders & carry the Knicks to a win, forcing up shots into double teams... even when he got to the line he missed some key FT's that really killed us tonite... this is what keeps him from taking that next step towards being an Allstar calibre player... he's inherently selfish, perhaps not even consciously, & he just doesn't think sometimes... he wants so badly to be the man & win the game, it serves as a detriment to the team on some nights.

don't get me wrong, i'm not an Al Harrington hater... in fact i've always wanted to go after him in trades in the past cuz i knew the type of scorer he was & how he could help an offensively challenged team... but this year Al came into camp saying he would dedicate himself to being a leader on the floor & serving as a role model to the younger guys, but so far he seems more concerned about putting up #'s in his contract season than anything else, because when he's got the ball in his hands, he's putting up a shot 85% of the time from what i've seen regardless if he's double teamed or not.

Ira wrote:

TMS wrote:

sidsanders wrote:

kam77 wrote:Al scored 40 pts, willingly accepting his role off the bench and people still kill him. Unbelievable.

shot selection is what i dont like. goes for anyone on this team who keeps chucking 3s or other shots that are awful (contested, fade away 3s, etc).

i'm with sid on this one... it's not enough to just put up numbers during games if you're gonna make ill advised decisions down the stretch of them... here's the difference between Al Harrington & Carmelo Anthony down the stretch tonite... both of them put up huge #'s today, but unlike Al, Melo chose to trust his teammates down the stretch when the Knicks were doubling up on him, & passed out of those double teams & hit open teammates for uncontested shots... that's when Chauncey & JR Smith were both able to step up w/some big shots during the stretch run... Al chose to try & take the game on his shoulders & carry the Knicks to a win, forcing up shots into double teams... even when he got to the line he missed some key FT's that really killed us tonite... this is what keeps him from taking that next step towards being an Allstar calibre player... he's inherently selfish, perhaps not even consciously, & he just doesn't think sometimes... he wants so badly to be the man & win the game, it serves as a detriment to the team on some nights.

don't get me wrong, i'm not an Al Harrington hater... in fact i've always wanted to go after him in trades in the past cuz i knew the type of scorer he was & how he could help an offensively challenged team... but this year Al came into camp saying he would dedicate himself to being a leader on the floor & serving as a role model to the younger guys, but so far he seems more concerned about putting up #'s in his contract season than anything else, because when he's got the ball in his hands, he's putting up a shot 85% of the time from what i've seen regardless if he's double teamed or not.

Your points on Al have some validity, but I'll take 41 points on 24 shots - along with 10 boards, 2 blocks and 2 steals.

Actually the difference between Al and Melo are this:

First, to give Al some cover for not passing, Melo has team mates that can make plays & knock down shots - not sure we can say the same for the Knicks.

Second, Al isn't as good as Melo and doesn't have the same court vision Melo does. Al puts his head down on drives because he needs to focus on where he dribbles - Melo and others don't need to.

Al forces shots because 1. he needs to, who else is going to make them and 2. because he has no vision to find the open player.

bitty41 wrote:Maybe I'm in the minority here and I'm not saying that I wouldn't love him on the Knicks but I think Melo is one-dimensional.

Sure he can make a few passes but he doesn't rebound, his defense leaves a lot to be desired. Even still he is one of the best scorers in the league.

He's a superstar talent. As someone said, he has great court awareness, doesn't put his head down and dribble in. He is a scorer, first and foremost, if that's what you mean by one dimensional. But that's what we need, someone to take over at the end, someone that isn't as sporadic as Harrington.