Top 50: Carmelo Anthony, no. 9

Melo at 9?shouldn’t that low!

Dang … it’s crazy that Melo dropped 3 spots since last year. Definitely a top 10 player and has the best midrange game in the league. Now if he could only play some D …

With D’Antoni I wouldn’t be surprised to see him have a career year. I think his dimes will pick up. Maybe 5 dimes a game.(I’d be surprised but at the same time not at all because of the type of offense.) I expect his rebounds to be over 8. He and Amare’ will each need to score over 25 a game. I see Amare at 25 and Melo with 28 or so. The Knicks are going to win allot of games during the regular season, 50+, but as we all know their Defense will be their downfall in the playoffs.

AYE lets stop with this “when healthy” stuff. if a player aint been healthy for a year or 2, he get a pass?? every player out there taking the same risk. melo is 9 dwill is 10

Nice to see the enthusiasm and effort from the kids on this piece. Good job.

Lake, if Melo never avg. 4apg in a similar offense while in DEN, what makes you think he could avg. 5apg in NYK with another ball-dominant forward?
Also, he’s avg. 28+ ppg twice in his career and that was while attempting the most FGs in his career (22.4fga in 06/21.8fga in 09) I doubt he takes the many shots with Amare as his teammate. I see him putting up similar stats to last season (25.5/7/3)

No argument with #9. If he could play a little defense, he’d be #6 or #7.

IF… I MEAN a BIG IF…Melo play EVERYBODY like they Bron n Durant he would be top 5 HANDS down…plays better D than Durant ..better passer than Durant …get more GROWN man rebs than Durant …i trust him to get stops over Durant…we all know he more clutch than Bron ..WHEN HE FEELS LIKE PLAYING …i think Melo is the hardest guy to rank n the league

Y’all might not like this ranking, but Kobe know who he would rather have on his team…

I’ve got Rose at #4 or #5. #6 at worst. Would not rank Melo ahead of him.

It’s heartwarming that your kids still think b roy is number 17

Melo doesn’t do ish on D expect point to his teammates to help out on the guy that just blew by him. He doesn’t move his feet, doesn’t provide help-side D and is always a second late on the rotations. The man is one of the laziest defenders in the entire League. Also “not being as bad as Amare” on the D shouldn’t be something to brag about.

U know wuts so funny melo plays no d, but when goin up against higher cailber players his definsive games goes 2 another level, check the footage on him guarding lebron one on one and kobe

This thread has a lot of idiotic comments. Things to know:
-Melo is an elite scorer and one of the best in the game (if not the best) at making offense for himself.
-His defense is putrid, yet better than Amare’s. Size helps here.
-He’ll probably put up more points and slightly more assists with D’Antoni. 27 and 4.5 sounds about right.
-His rebounding will increase. One of the best rebounders on his team.
-This is a good ranking, if a bit low for me. His defense holds him back, I acknowledge that.
-He’s not better than Rose.
-I don’t wanna hear anything stupid from ORANGE.

effort ^ – 3 inches – range

I’m assuming he’s getting smarter and wants to win more than ever Taylor. The offense was similar as far as “get out and try and run” but other than that quite a bit different. If he looks for the extra pass a couple more times a game I wouldn’t be surprised to see him have a career high in assists. 5 is probably out of reach, I am thinking more of a round up to 5 like 4.7 or so. We haven’t seen what the Knicks will be like, but i’m sure his stats are going to be real nice looking with them next year. He put up over 25 with Ai so I don’t think having another ball dominant player will cause his point total to change much. between 26 and 28 PPG I would think. Maybe he hasn’t grown at all and will onlt toss 3 dimes per game. I’m expecting him to put up some career numbers though. Not across the board, but FG% and dimes per game for sure.

HI SAM.

JTaylor- im not saying D’Antoni made Marion a great player, he just exposed his stats more, and thats what will happen with Melo. His numbers WILL increase. And like i said, he doesnt need defense to put up those stats

when you don’t use it? He shoots over people. That is the definition of using your height. Melo uses his bulk, but not often enough to make up for his lack of effort. Durant uses his height, just not in the traditional sense.

@nbk, you forgot to add the fact KD’s 4 yrs his junior – and still better.

Someone needs to explain to me why y’all think of all of a sudden out of the blue Melo’s going to avg over 4apg? The man was avg. 2.8apg with the Nuggets and 3.0apg with the Knicks, that’s an “increase” of 0.2apg.
So a career 3apg guy is going to jump to 4.5apg next season? Sure….and Bill Clinton didn’t inhale.

JTaylor’s right.
I remember thinking Melo’s assists would jump up to 4 o 5 per playing with AI.
Nope.
Dude just isn’t much of a passer, it’s unrealistic to think that in his, what, 9th year in the L, he’ll suddenly become a better passer to the point where he’ll average 5 per.

Billups, Shumpert and Douglas will be the ones passing to a dunking Amare.
Melo would wave him off so he could iso.

Hahaha
Oh boo hoo to these Prisoner of the moment people. Rose has played only one MVP season i could argue that Melo has played 5. No wander the espn “scholars” ranked Blake Griffin who couldn even lead his team to the playoffs over Amare, as well as the likes of Dirk, Durant and Rose over Kobe. Are u kidding me? Number 9? I really thought u guys knew better. Dirk or Durant dont even play D so dont get me stsrted on that and guess what Newsflash Rose doesnt either. You know who deserves credit for the Bulls d, just like the “men of certain of age” Boston Celtics, its Mr. Tom Thibedeau. Where was Rose’s D the past two years in the playoffs, when he got smoked by Rondo. Are you kidding me? so u guys are telling me that there are 8 players in the NBA better than Melo? Really? U guys need to smoke better weed? Smh. Totally Agree with the advanced stats haters, stats don’t tell the whole story and u can bend stats in your favor for a players strengths or weaknesses. This is not baseball, stats work in baseball, but I’m sorry in basketball they don’t. This is not a what have u done for me lately league, this is a league of Ability. Why do u think LBJ can’t post, he never will. Yes MELO has some bad shot selections, but most of these shots are makable. I watched Dirk and I could also make the argument that he takes the most bad shots in the NBA but he also makes the most. Stats lie. Your stats say MELO can’t play D but the eye test from watching games and melo’s proven ability shows that he can. And when you guys talk about Defense there are so 2 kinds of D people, there is team D where u have switching, p&r d, help d, weakside d, deny ball, pressure passing lanes, off ball defense and there is one on one, iso defense where u can play tight, sag off, have your hands up, get steals, move with agility & quickness and all that. So when u stats guys so “oh MELO doesnt play defense” which kind are u talking about. I know he doesn’t play good team defense but the whole Knicks team don’t either, they are often lost on switches, don’t pressure passing lanes, boxing out, denying the ball on for eg like Ray in the Playoffs n all but MELO can and does play very good on ball one on one D, he is big, quick, agile, great hands and great footwork. You talk about Pierce go and look at him, I’m sorry boys check your stats, pierce never shutdown LBJ or Kobe, unless Direct Tv lied to me. LBJ even still had a triple double on pierce and he couldn’t even get a steal or a tipped pass, gimme a break son. MELO shutdown pierce in the first two games of the playoffs go and watch it. MELO defended LBJ when they played Miami on the last play of the game, and was quick at moving his feet, shading LBJ to his weak hand and enabling Amare to get the block. MELO came up big and came up with a block on Danny Granger on a walk off shot which would have won the game when they played the Pacers in Indiana. He is both clutch on O and on D. LbJ as good as a defender he is will never shut down MELO, no one can but he shut down your so called MVP D Rose in the playoffs. Are u kidding me?