Minnesota Sports Forum

Jesus the West is getting even crazier.

Melo to OKC for Kanter, McBuckets and a 2nd rounder

I don't know what to think about this deal. The Knicks didn't get much for him, but is the Thunder better? George fits with both of them, but I'm not sure Westbrook and Melo fit together.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:I don't know what to think about this deal. The Knicks didn't get much for him, but is the Thunder better? George fits with both of them, but I'm not sure Westbrook and Melo fit together.

Melo is a better scorer than Kanter and is less of a liability defensively especially against teams like GS and Houston.

Will Beasley get some legit minutes now?

CoolBreeze44 wrote:I don't know what to think about this deal. The Knicks didn't get much for him, but is the Thunder better? George fits with both of them, but I'm not sure Westbrook and Melo fit together.

The Thunder traded away a guy they couldn't play certain parts of the game and a disappointing shooter for one of the best pure scorers in the league on a team missing scoring outside of two guys. Melo has always made it work on Team USA and this is the closest environment he's had to that. He's also 33 and his career is starting to wind down. I think the winning will take care of a lot of his issues. He gets to jack up 3's all game long with Westbrook drawing a lot of attention. We'll see what kind of depth they get, but this puts them in the upper echelon with GS, HOU and SA as opposed to being right below them with us.

The Thunder are definitely better with this trade. Melo didn't really make bad teams better, but with other good players, he's been great. I don't necessarily expect Olympic Melo, but I expect he's going to accept his role and help OKC a lot. Damn, that's a steal. OKC pulled off two thefts this summer. This also increases the chances of George and Westbrook staying. A total coup for the Thunder.

Westbrook
Roberson
George
Melo
Adams

That starting unit is nuts. Roberson and Adams are a great fit with those guys. Good defenders who don't need too many offensive touches. Plus they've got Patterson, Abrines, and Felton off the bench, and all of those guys are ok. That's a super short bench, but if they went with an 8 or 9 man rotation, they could limit their weaknesses and keep a lot of talent on the floor at all times.

Man, Houston and OKC are going to be right there behind the Warriors, and the Spurs should be up there too. It's going to be almost impossible to crack the top 4 in the West.

The silver lining to all this is the Thunder are all in for a year and then they're done. Keeping Westbrook, PG and Melo would make them big tax payers and we know how they feel about that.

The fact that the only example we can come up with where Anthony was on a very successful team is Team USA, where they would have dominated with or without him, tells me everything I need to know about Carmelo Anthony. I've never seen him as an NBA winner, and at 33, he's not getting any younger. If you watched him much last year, he clearly looked much older than he had in the past, and his stats decline reflects it...near career lows in rebounding and assists, and only 43% and 36% shooting. He averaged less than 6 rebounds per game as a SF...I don't think he will be anywhere near the league average for PFs this year. And does anyone think his defense will magically get better at his age? I applaud OkC for trying to make something happen, but this closes the gap between them and the Wolves IMO rather than widening it. Maybe at 33 he finds the fountain of youth and actually makes an NBA team better...but I say the odds are against it.

longstrangetrip wrote:The fact that the only example we can come up with where Anthony was on a very successful team is Team USA, where they would have dominated with or without him, tells me everything I need to know about Carmelo Anthony. I've never seen him as an NBA winner, and at 33, he's not getting any younger. If you watched him much last year, he clearly looked much older than he had in the past, and his stats decline reflects it...near career lows in rebounding and assists, and only 43% and 36% shooting. He averaged less than 6 rebounds per game as a SF...I don't think he will be anywhere near the league average for PFs this year. And does anyone think his defense will magically get better at his age? I applaud OkC for trying to make something happen, but this closes the gap between them and the Wolves IMO rather than widening it. Maybe at 33 he finds the fountain of youth and actually makes an NBA team better...but I say the odds are against it.

I think your take is the most realistic. This isn't fantasy basketball, you have to stop the other team too. Melo has never elevated any team and his best days are behind him. I'm not overly concerned as a Wolves fan.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:The fact that the only example we can come up with where Anthony was on a very successful team is Team USA, where they would have dominated with or without him, tells me everything I need to know about Carmelo Anthony. I've never seen him as an NBA winner, and at 33, he's not getting any younger. If you watched him much last year, he clearly looked much older than he had in the past, and his stats decline reflects it...near career lows in rebounding and assists, and only 43% and 36% shooting. He averaged less than 6 rebounds per game as a SF...I don't think he will be anywhere near the league average for PFs this year. And does anyone think his defense will magically get better at his age? I applaud OkC for trying to make something happen, but this closes the gap between them and the Wolves IMO rather than widening it. Maybe at 33 he finds the fountain of youth and actually makes an NBA team better...but I say the odds are against it.

I think your take is the most realistic. This isn't fantasy basketball, you have to stop the other team too. Melo has never elevated any team and his best days are behind him. I'm not overly concerned as a Wolves fan.

Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. Carmelo in his prime was a great fantasy basketball player, but I've never found him very efficient. If he puts up big fantasy stats this year, he'll be taking shots away from much more efficient George and Westbrook, and that will be to the Wolves' advantage. I also found this stat comparison between Kanter and Anthony interesting:

https://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/pcm_finder.fcgi?request=1&sum=0&player_id1_hint=Carmelo+Anthony&player_id1_select=Carmelo+Anthony&y1=2017&player_id1=anthoca01&idx=players&player_id2_hint=Enes+Kanter&player_id2_select=Enes+Kanter&y2=2017&player_id2=kanteen01&idx=players

Anthony is always going to sell more t-shirts, but which guy fits better next to two all stars like George and Russ? Look at TS%, rebounding %, offensive and defensive rating, win shares, and WS/48. Heck, Kanter even scores at a higher rate per 36 than Melo...and he's a true PF whereas Melo will be playing out of position. It will be interesting to see if Melo's enormous ego can handle being 3rd fiddle, and if he finds the nightlife in Oklahoma City as stimulating as the Big Apple. I forecast big problems with this trade.

longstrangetrip wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:The fact that the only example we can come up with where Anthony was on a very successful team is Team USA, where they would have dominated with or without him, tells me everything I need to know about Carmelo Anthony. I've never seen him as an NBA winner, and at 33, he's not getting any younger. If you watched him much last year, he clearly looked much older than he had in the past, and his stats decline reflects it...near career lows in rebounding and assists, and only 43% and 36% shooting. He averaged less than 6 rebounds per game as a SF...I don't think he will be anywhere near the league average for PFs this year. And does anyone think his defense will magically get better at his age? I applaud OkC for trying to make something happen, but this closes the gap between them and the Wolves IMO rather than widening it. Maybe at 33 he finds the fountain of youth and actually makes an NBA team better...but I say the odds are against it.

I think your take is the most realistic. This isn't fantasy basketball, you have to stop the other team too. Melo has never elevated any team and his best days are behind him. I'm not overly concerned as a Wolves fan.

Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. Carmelo in his prime was a great fantasy basketball player, but I've never found him very efficient. If he puts up big fantasy stats this year, he'll be taking shots away from much more efficient George and Westbrook, and that will be to the Wolves' advantage. I also found this stat comparison between Kanter and Anthony interesting:

https://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/pcm_finder.fcgi?request=1&sum=0&player_id1_hint=Carmelo+Anthony&player_id1_select=Carmelo+Anthony&y1=2017&player_id1=anthoca01&idx=players&player_id2_hint=Enes+Kanter&player_id2_select=Enes+Kanter&y2=2017&player_id2=kanteen01&idx=players

Anthony is always going to sell more t-shirts, but which guy fits better next to two all stars like George and Russ? Look at TS%, rebounding %, offensive and defensive rating, win shares, and WS/48. Heck, Kanter even scores at a higher rate per 36 than Melo...and he's a true PF whereas Melo will be playing out of position. It will be interesting to see if Melo's enormous ego can handle being 3rd fiddle, and if he finds the nightlife in Oklahoma City as stimulating as the Big Apple. I forecast big problems with this trade.

Kanter is a true PF? When in like 1995? lol

I'm not sure how you missed it but Melo has been playing minutes as a PF for years.

Edit:

I'm not a Melo guy he is a scorer (actually pretty good rebounder) and I don't know that he is a winner but I tend to defend him to some extent. The guy has struggled to stay healthy often even if e played a good number of games he was hampered. Winning? Tell me the other star he played with? Honestly the best player he played with in his prime with the Knicks was probably Tyson Chandler.

If he isn't relatively happy in OKC this yeah well...I guess we will know all we need to know about him. However, he is leaving an absolutely shitstorm organization that he actually didn't want to leave but he basically didn't have a choice and ultimately they wanted him gone. Now he is going to go play with the best 2 players he has ever played with and for one of the best run franchises in the league as this offseason has shown. Honestly he will probably be thrilled to be there and it will feel like a new beginning a vacation of sorts playing for a someplace that has a clue about what they are doing. Westbrook and George are going to get him easy looks and the team is built to play around star players. The only issue is whether he can stay healthy.