'Worst Newcomer of the Year' goes to ... http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/24334115/nba-best-worst-offseason-additions-espn-summer-forecast 1. Carmelo Anthony Total points: 61 First-place votes: 27.2 percent Can the 34-year-old Anthony accept the role of being a complementary player? With his lowest usage rate in his career (23.2 percent), Anthony was ineffective when he did not have the ball in his hands in Oklahoma City. Although the forward has seen a decline in his play, all eyes will also be focused on the relationship between him and head coach Mike D'Antoni after a rocky ending in New York. However, Anthony and D'Antoni built a relationship through Team USA during the 2016 Olympics when D'Antoni was an assistant coach. If both sides can coexist, then Anthony on the $2.4 million minimum exception is a bargain. -- Marks Spoiler
What is amazing about this, is Carmelo got 15 more votes that Dwight Howard in Washington. Washington has a crap culture lead by "bad body language" John Wall and it is clearly on the edge of disaster if that team can't start playing for one another. This ESPN poll tells you ALL you need to know about how the Rockets are being framed. And why people are down on the Rockets. They view Carmelo as a boat anchor cancer negative to the team. I don't know how things will shake out with Carmelo. But I bet at worst he will just be "ok." And at best he will be "solid." (Eric Gordon level). I think people are looking at Carmelo and taking too many EXTREME positions.
Would’ve loved to have seen articles had Melo gone to LA. “How Carmelo was Marginalized in OKC” “Why Olympic Melo Is Going To Help Lebron”
If someone wants to argue that the addition of Melo and the loss of Ariza and Moute will hurt against GSW.....that's fine. There are 2 things to consider with the Melo addition. 1) How will the Rockets play in the regular season and in the playoffs leading up to the WCF 2) How the rockets will play against GSW in the WCF I think the Rockets will be just fine on the 1st. And TBD on the second.
From what I see, there are 2 areas in which the media believes the loss of Ariza and Luc negatively affects our next season's outcome: Worse chances against GSW in WCF (poll-worthy) A significantly worse regular season record leading us to drop 2 spots I can understand that Luc was very good for us in the regular season compared to the postseason, but I don't get how many of them believe we're THAT much worse to drop 2 spots. There was one that projected us to be 5th(!!) behind Utah, OKC, and one other. There's a valid argument that having both of those defenders helped make winning sustainable throughout last year, but this prediction makes me wonder if they're assuming we won't have fillers ala MCW and Ennis and 1 other defender who can effectively do the same. It's almost like we're being evaluated as if we're OKC of 2018 where we gave up significant role players for Melo. If that's the case, then that's lazy. My personal prediction for this year is that we'll be significantly better than Utah again. Them getting Rubio back and us replacing Ariza/Luc with Ennis/MCW/+1 shouldn't equate to us sliding 2 spots.
Dead Ryno is our banana boat anchor. Consecutive back-to-back winner of the annual ESPN Insider+ "WTF is he still on the team?!?" Top 10 listing.
That Utah **** is disgusting..... Cp3>RR Harden> D. Mitchell Capela= gobert at worst... I don't get it...
Clutch is right. If the rockets fail with the melo experiment then it will be because of the rockets' system..if he succeeds, it's because he changed and learned from his past mistakes.
Summer 2017: "Rockets trade for CP3, setting up clash of ego-driven point guards and disappointing season" Summer 2017: "Thunder trade for Melo, with MVP Westbrook and PG13 should challenge the Warriors for the WC title" Summer 2018: "Rockets sign Melo, with MVP Harden and CP3 will be lucky to finish in top 4 in WC" Spring 2019: "Rockets leading league in wins, but Harden doesn't deserve MVP because he had Melo's help"
This is the biggest and shocking narrative to me. When tha FACK Ariza turn in to ALL NBA for godsakes?!?! I DID NOT see the severely overrating Ariza narrative coming. It's mind boggling to me. I mean did I watch the same Ariza (run very hot/cold, no handles, no passing, etc...) that everyone else did?!? Did I watch Lick My Booty basically miss the entire playoffs and the Rox not skip a beat?!?! I mean damn son... We lost two aging, journeyman, specialists and replaced them with younger, cheaper, and I say better versions of themselves. Last I checked we got HOF playmaking for 48 min every night and until that changes nothing changes.
