Meaning, this is a crossroads. Melo can either force a trade to a team and be a supporting cast player or he can use this cast to develop a leadership role. Words mean nothing. Show leadership through defense. Not offense. Defense.

I sort of think he will be a Laker or Clipper by next summer, but it'd be cool to see him develop into a leader.

This roster reminds of the 2006 Lakers - a few more moves away from being able to claim we are in contention.

EwingsGlass wrote:I takes this offseason as one of two things. 1) I get bitter and blame Phil Jackson for everything wrong in the world or 2) realize that my offense only game is not drawing teammates that want to be with Me.

Meaning, this is a crossroads. Melo can either force a trade to a team and be a supporting cast player or he can use this cast to develop a leadership role. Words mean nothing. Show leadership through defense. Not offense. Defense.

and thats why i fully expect him to ask to be traded by all star break. lol

anrst wrote:does the clippers losing deandre force them into the melo sweepstakes?

No. They need a defensive anchor. Lakers on the other hand may have missed out on everyone. Aldridge is still out there, but Spurs seems most obvious. I guess the clips get Koufas.

StarksEwing1 wrote:

anrst wrote:does the clippers losing deandre force them into the melo sweepstakes?

possibly. Im sure paul is pushing it.

Finally my dream of Lance Stephenson can come true!!

callmened wrote:

EwingsGlass wrote:I takes this offseason as one of two things. 1) I get bitter and blame Phil Jackson for everything wrong in the world or 2) realize that my offense only game is not drawing teammates that want to be with Me.

Meaning, this is a crossroads. Melo can either force a trade to a team and be a supporting cast player or he can use this cast to develop a leadership role. Words mean nothing. Show leadership through defense. Not offense. Defense.

and thats why i fully expect him to ask to be traded by all star break. lol

Hahaha! The reason we don't attrack FAs is because we have less money to offer and a ridiculous media that has unrealistic expectations. Even when your winning they attack you. These players have no interest in that and whocan blame them. You can try to come up with all these reasons but under the current CBA, we pay less and NY is a stressful place to play. Nobody here would take less money to work is a poor environment. Why should they?

StarksEwing1 wrote:

EwingsGlass wrote:I takes this offseason as one of two things. 1) I get bitter and blame Phil Jackson for everything wrong in the world or 2) realize that my offense only game is not drawing teammates that want to be with Me.

Meaning, this is a crossroads. Melo can either force a trade to a team and be a supporting cast player or he can use this cast to develop a leadership role. Words mean nothing. Show leadership through defense. Not offense. Defense.

melo is what he is at this point. At 31 he isnt gonna change his game. His biggest asset is scoring. Also he is a pretty good rebounder. Im sure he could put more effort in defense but he is a weak defender. He isnt a guy who makes guys around click or be better.

you're describing a bench player. he should agree to try coming off the bench while phil builds a team that can play defense at every position and work the triangle.

getting him to work the triangle and play defense is a fool's errand. melo got his money now it's time for him to be a good employee, recognize his limitations and do what is asked of him.

This has a similar look to the 54 win team
G Jose
G Galloway
G Afflolo
F Melo
C Lopez
Then you bring in KP as a scorer off the bench. Let the kid go off and try to stay out of foul trouble on defense. Galloway can run the PG at that point because its a lot of Melo/KP 2 man game in the pinch post now. So your guards are Galloway and Afflolo. Now you can go with Grant or Williams depending on matchups or needs.

That's not a great team, but if some things go right for the Knicks they can win 45 games. What needs to go right? We need 75 healthy games from Melo, Jose, Lopez and Afflolo. After that we need Grant and KP to play positive rolls. I can easily see Grant being the 30mpg guard off the bench as he can play 1,2 and even cover 3's when we go small. KP should be a scorer off the bench. Keep his defensive mistakes to a min, but get him scoring the ball off the bench. Keep him on the floor. Hopefully 20mpg for KP. They need Afflolo OR Williams to play their best ball. Not both per say, but one of these guys needs to come in and win that #2 scorer role like JR did 3 years ago.

If all those things happen the Knicks will certainly be a playoff team. Now Melo could have a nagging hammy for 2 months, Afflolo could be out of shape, Williams could be looking to get his and KP tears and ACL... I mean who knows. There is some upside for this group for sure. The pressure is on Melo indeed, but its a role he's succeeded in the past many many times. Who's the #2 scorer on this team?

dk7th wrote:

StarksEwing1 wrote:

EwingsGlass wrote:I takes this offseason as one of two things. 1) I get bitter and blame Phil Jackson for everything wrong in the world or 2) realize that my offense only game is not drawing teammates that want to be with Me.

Meaning, this is a crossroads. Melo can either force a trade to a team and be a supporting cast player or he can use this cast to develop a leadership role. Words mean nothing. Show leadership through defense. Not offense. Defense.

melo is what he is at this point. At 31 he isnt gonna change his game. His biggest asset is scoring. Also he is a pretty good rebounder. Im sure he could put more effort in defense but he is a weak defender. He isnt a guy who makes guys around click or be better.

you're describing a bench player. he should agree to try coming off the bench while phil builds a team that can play defense at every position and work the triangle.

getting him to work the triangle and play defense is a fool's errand. melo got his money now it's time for him to be a good employee, recognize his limitations and do what is asked of him.

EwingsGlass wrote:

RedmenBaller wrote:

EwingsGlass wrote:I takes this offseason as one of two things. 1) I get bitter and blame Phil Jackson for everything wrong in the world or 2) realize that my offense only game is not drawing teammates that want to be with Me.

Meaning, this is a crossroads. Melo can either force a trade to a team and be a supporting cast player or he can use this cast to develop a leadership role. Words mean nothing. Show leadership through defense. Not offense. Defense.

Amazing. No matter what the issues it always goes back to Melo. I would have agreed with you three years back. But watching Melo beat himself up with minutes, improve on defense and go through all the changes, got give him credit. And disagree, guys are looking at us only because of Melo and as apples to deciding not to come here because of him. You are right though, he should bolt. Should of signed a Lebron like contract with opt out and cashed in once TV money hit. And we would all be here hyping up all the misfits put together by a failing franchise. As every other player we have let go due to fan and media expectations and now thriving elsewhere. As we saw in Cleveland, even Lebron needs a big supporting cast. No ring with at least two more all stars on the team and solid role players. Name who you feel we have surrounded him with? And please don't say hobbled STAT or one dimensional Chandler. Our ridiculous attempt at big three. You need a good GM to put the right players together. And few would deny having a scorer like Melo on their team. Which I know Phil is doing. Just think it will take time and patience. Something fans or media don't have.

Everything does come back to Melo. It is absolutely on his shoulders. He's not some passive observer in this franchise. He's front and center with Fish and Jax. From every perspective, he needs to be more than 20 and 8 guy. He needs to be the team leader. There are a million reasons why it has nothing to do with. But the end of the day is that this is either his team or it's not. He got no superstar help. No all star said, I want to play in NY. so, he either needs to step up and take his game to superstar level or go be a sidekick. I'll give him every opportunity to step up, but it needs to be more than it has been. He has to make his teammates better. Or else.

Can Melo change the fact that NY is offering less money? Can he get the media to back off for ayers who aren't interested in dealing with it? It is a cool story that you put together but these are the real issues.