Carmelo Anthony is playing the
best basketball of his career and the Knicks are the hottest team in the NBA.
That being said; This a perfect time to blog about him being overrated.
Unlike most lame sports “analyst”, I’d rather not just say someone is "clutch" when they win and "can’t close" when they lose.I could have posted this when the Knicks stunk in the playoffs last year but I
prefer to go after players when they have the opportunity to prove me wrong.
But this never happens. When I
write about overrated players it isn’t because I want them to be. It is just an undeniable truth.
See my previous posts:
*While you can make a sound
argument that Carmelo is one of the most talented players in the NBA, you can also make an argument that he's not one of the best:
In
2011 before the Nuggets traded Carmelo their record was 32-25 and allowing
105.2 ppg.
After
the trade they were 18-7 allowing 97.1 ppg.
Since
the trade the Knicks have won 57% of their games and the Nuggets have won 63%
while being in a tougher conference.
Denver
is tied for the fifth-most wins of any NBA team (not including playoffs) since
trading Anthony 25 months ago. By comparison, the Nuggets ranked seventh in
wins during Melo's full seven seasons.
There
is one truth in the NBA. If you are an elite player your team will suffer when
you leave. Just ask Orlando, Cleveland or New Orleans who saw their teams go
from perennial 45-60+ win seasons to 20-25 win seasons.
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| That guy kind of looks like Ja Rule. |
Which brings me back to my
point. Carmelo is overrated. The reason he is overrated is because every idiot
that says, “Defense wins championships” still thinks he's a top 5-10 player even though he doesn't play defense. I did the math and concluded that defense is 50% of the game.
So when you have a great scorer who refuses to play defense then he’s not much
better than a great defensive player that can’t shoot. If you take a look at
the last 25 years of NBA champions you will notice that they had the best
defensive player in the league and/or several of the league’s top defenders.
There’s a reason why the NBA
scoring champion hasn't won a title in the last 12 years. The Carmelo
Anthony’s and T-Macs of the NBA will never win a championship as long as they
are just scorers.
If a Chinese factory were to
build the perfect basketball player with tremendous size and skill he, or she,
would look like Lebron James. Carmelo Anthony is the only person that comes close to Lebron in that context. He has no one to blame but himself for his lack of
defense. He has the body and talent to be a first team All-NBA defender every year. Until Carmelo
realizes he needs to be a defensive stopper ,and pass the ball now and again, there will be many more early playoff exits to come.
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| FaLaLaLaLa |
The defense of the Knicks
improves by 1.5 points per 100 possessions when Carmelo is not playing. On the
flip side, Miami’s defense gets worse by 5 points when Lebron is off the
court. That’s a 6.5 point difference. I wonder how many games in the playoffs
the Knicks will lose by that margin?
All that being said, could be wrong. Carmelo has been playing his best basketball ever since Kevin Garnett told him his wife LaLa tastes good. Maybe the Knicks will win the championship this year. But then again .…… Carmelo led teams have won 2 playoff series in 9
years. He has the worst individual postseason record in decades, 17-38.
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| Consider yourself lucky Carmelo. I didn't even delve deep into passing the ball |
This video is a little off topic but it just reminded of the her, or she, comment I made earlier. It's about Deacon Jones the famous NFL football player that used to whack his opponents on the side of the head to get them out of the way. This is probably one of the funniest clips your will ever see.
*some stats where before the start of this season
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