If LeBron signs with the Knicks, he will come in as the savior! He will instantly make Gallo an All Star, and in early December, the first "Hill looks like the best in his draftclass" topic will show up and, surprisingly, will not shut down immo! It shows that you need only a Toney Douglas as Point when you have a Bron, and the Knicks get crazy sometimes in the first Bron Season, but fall short in the Conference Semis when they face the last Standing of the Big Old Boston Basterds. In 2012 they get to the finals, But Tim Duncan, who sat out the whole Season of '11 and got a young David Robinson at his side from the '#1 selection in the draft, will stop them again!
2013! exactly 40 years after, the Knicks cruise to the 3rd Championship! They beat around the whole NBA and it shows that Gallo really was Brons Pippen, Toney is a surpreme Clutch shooter and defender and to top it off, even Jordan Hill was an unstoppable force out there!

*blink*

If LeBron passes, Walsh will not sing anybody else but maybe Bosh. So, keep cool, no JJ3, no Amare either. He will just wait for Melo to pick up the challenge and try to succeed with the exact same thing Bron passed on: Lead the Knicks to the Title! BAM! There the NBA goes again! We have the eternal Matchup of two guys in Big citys, James just signed the year before with the Bulls to make it easy for everybody. Melo stood in the shadow of Bron all the time, Rookie of the Year? Finals appearences? MVP? There will be epic playoff battles between the Knicks and the Bulls all over again, but the "2013 40 years after"-thing will happen in this scenario as well!
To sweeten it out, Walsh finally did what everybody knew from the first day at the draft in 09. He gets to bring Rubio over from Europe and all it took him was Ill Will Chandler! But hey, he was sure that he would get either Bron or Melo!

Now the question:

Who would you like to side with? LeBron James next year, or Melo the one after? ^^

To inspire a real basketball related discussion, not who do you rather have based on sympathy, but would be the better star for the supplements we have.

I think that all the young guys besides Chandler, will thrive with either LeBron and Melo. Wilson is to much the same guy, but only at 70%. He is a good Jumpshooter, Defender, Finisher and so on, but those are greats and they play the same position. Gallo-Melo would the better Jordan-Pippen. Just imaging both on the same side of the basket. Gallo is camping and Melo is posting up. Thats not fancy, but its a playoff play. A thing you can work again and again when you cant do SSOL. Do you like that as a defendinig coach? LeBron would need to get crazy to command Doubles out of his movement. he can do this. he can pass to the right guy at the right time, but here id rather go with Melo.

That said, I couldn't care less who I get, if its one of them :D

I would actually pass on Melo for 2011 and go for Paul in 2012. New Orleans has some cheap ass ownership and Chris Paul has to get frustrated seeing all these loaded West teams.

That's like asking who would you want. Kobe or Lebron ?

Career Season Averages - Melo
Year Team G GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% OFF DEF RPG APG SPG BPG TO PF PPG
03-04 DEN 82 82 36.5 0.426 0.322 0.777 2.2 3.8 6.1 2.8 1.2 0.5 3.01 2.74 21.0
04-05 DEN 75 75 34.8 0.431 0.266 0.796 1.9 3.8 5.7 2.6 0.9 0.4 2.99 3.05 20.8
05-06 DEN 80 80 36.8 0.481 0.243 0.808 1.5 3.4 4.9 2.7 1.1 0.5 2.73 2.86 26.5
06-07 DEN 65 65 38.2 0.476 0.268 0.808 2.2 3.8 6.0 3.8 1.2 0.4 3.60 3.12 28.9
07-08 DEN 77 77 36.4 0.492 0.354 0.786 2.3 5.1 7.4 3.4 1.3 0.5 3.29 3.29 25.7
08-09 DEN 66 66 34.5 0.443 0.371 0.793 1.6 5.2 6.8 3.4 1.1 0.4 3.02 2.95 22.8
09-10 DEN 26 26 37.3 0.483 0.371 0.879 1.8 4.2 6.1 3.1 1.2 0.4 2.92 3.31 30.7

With the debate about him or lebron, when you compare their 2009-10 Statistics, it gets even more interesting depending on how you look at the numbers.

Melo
PPG 30.7
RPG 6.1
APG 3.1
SPG 1.2
BPG 0.4
FG% 0.483
FT% 0.879
3P% 0.371
MPG 37.3

Lebron
PPG 28.9
RPG 6.8
APG 8.0
SPG 1.4
BPG 0.7
FG% 0.507
FT% 0.782
3P% 0.368
MPG 38.0

with all that said however, IMHO the one major intangible lebron has the edge in is fear and dominence of the games outcome. opponents truly fear facing him and almost step aside to let him do what he wants whenever he wants. his ability to hit long shots (especially those bomb 3's) with the shot clock winding down is plain ridiculous. he also has the ear of the refs where melo doesnt (at least not yeat)...

lebron is just a freak of nature folks.

jimimou wrote:its a fair question. i was a big melo criticizer in years past b/c i got the impression his game was one dimensional (where's daJoka - i remember him telling me i was crazy for thinking like that early last year). but then there was a point last year where he just started showing it on all fronts. and this year, watching their games on league pass, the guy's been a beast on each side of the floor. I posted his career stats below - each and every year the guy has improved (better word = matured) an additional facet of his game.

Career Season Averages - Melo
Year Team G GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% OFF DEF RPG APG SPG BPG TO PF PPG
03-04 DEN 82 82 36.5 0.426 0.322 0.777 2.2 3.8 6.1 2.8 1.2 0.5 3.01 2.74 21.0
04-05 DEN 75 75 34.8 0.431 0.266 0.796 1.9 3.8 5.7 2.6 0.9 0.4 2.99 3.05 20.8
05-06 DEN 80 80 36.8 0.481 0.243 0.808 1.5 3.4 4.9 2.7 1.1 0.5 2.73 2.86 26.5
06-07 DEN 65 65 38.2 0.476 0.268 0.808 2.2 3.8 6.0 3.8 1.2 0.4 3.60 3.12 28.9
07-08 DEN 77 77 36.4 0.492 0.354 0.786 2.3 5.1 7.4 3.4 1.3 0.5 3.29 3.29 25.7
08-09 DEN 66 66 34.5 0.443 0.371 0.793 1.6 5.2 6.8 3.4 1.1 0.4 3.02 2.95 22.8
09-10 DEN 26 26 37.3 0.483 0.371 0.879 1.8 4.2 6.1 3.1 1.2 0.4 2.92 3.31 30.7

With the debate about him or lebron, when you compare their 2009-10 Statistics, it gets even more interesting depending on how you look at the numbers.

Melo
PPG 30.7
RPG 6.1
APG 3.1
SPG 1.2
BPG 0.4
FG% 0.483
FT% 0.879
3P% 0.371
MPG 37.3

Lebron
PPG 28.9
RPG 6.8
APG 8.0
SPG 1.4
BPG 0.7
FG% 0.507
FT% 0.782
3P% 0.368
MPG 38.0

with all that said however, IMHO the one major intangible lebron has the edge in is fear and dominence of the games outcome. opponents truly fear facing him and almost step aside to let him do what he wants whenever he wants. his ability to hit long shots (especially those bomb 3's) with the shot clock winding down is plain ridiculous. he also has the ear of the refs where melo doesnt (at least not yeat)...

lebron is just a freak of nature folks.

WOW! Didn't realize how close some of those stats are this year! Melo has definitely improved his game to a whole different level. But I would still go for Lebron since he is the sure thing or as close to it as you can get.