Smelters wrote:rtiff68 wrote:Smelters wrote:
I can build around Melo. It's easy. He went to the WCF with Chauncey at the lead and that Nugget team.
So you wouldn't know who to add to make that a title? Well Kobe had Shaq and a lot more as well as Bron, as well as KD, as well as TD, as well as...., as well as
How would many of those players make out with Melo's best team and playing out west?
Kobe also went back-to-back with Pau as his second best player. I'm about as far from a Kobe fan as there is (I think most on this board will confirm this), but comparing him and Melo is pretty silly. Like Melo, Kobe had/has questionable shot selection-- while both are too selfish for their own good offensively, I'd still say that Kobe is less of a ball stopper than Melo (some of that can be attributed to Phil, to be fair).
Defensively, it isn't even a comparison. Kobe might have received a few too many "reputation" based All Defensive 1st Team selections, but at his peak he was one of the best perimeter defenders in the game, while Melo has always been below average on the "other" half of the court.
I think you missed the point. I'm not comparing. I'm saying that those players have had really good teams around them. Melo has had nothing close to a team that was considered even great from the start.
You put Gasol alone on Melo's best team and they probably win the title and that team would still not be as deep as the other player's teams that I listed previously.
Look at the Nugget team from 2009
http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... akers.html
No dude, they probably don't.
I could not disagree with you more, for a multitude of a reasons. Do you really think that Melo's supporting cast was "that" bad? As in, LeBron-on-the-2007 Cavs-bad?
Chauncey Billups was 4th in Offensive Win Shares, 5th in overall Win Shares, 3rd in Offensive Box Score +/-, and 5th in overall +/- the year before he joined Melo that season...
http://www.basketball-reference.com/lea ... aders.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
That team also had a not totally washed up Kenyon Martin, who had formerly been the 2nd best player on a team that made back-to-back Finals, Nene (still starting for a playoff team), JR Smith, Chris Anderson, etc.