The Carmelo affair has been painful. Every week there's a "new" deal being offered, which in reality is only a slight twist on a deal that's been on the table for weeks. Every week one of Denver's two potential trade partners--the Knicks and Nets--announce that they are dropping out of the race, though all parties know such statements are patently false. And every week there's talk of some "mystery" team that may enter the sweepstakes, despite everyone knowing that the talk is dubious at best and is probably being leaked by Denver to make Dolan storm into Walsh's office and order him to offer the Nuggets their choice of the Knicks roster.
This all for a player who is very good, but not in the class of the true NBA superstars. Carmelo is not a top 5 player. He's probably not a top 10 player. He's great at one thing--scoring--and even that he doesn't do with wonderful efficiency (career TS% of 54.4 and TS% of 54.7 this year, while Kevin Durant, another pure scorer, has had a TS% hovering around 60% both of the past two seasons). He's a decent rebounder and passer and a below-average defender.
I'm counting down the days until the trade deadline so that everyone can stop fixating on the latest Carmelo development. Look, if he's not going to agree to an extension in New Jersey, which is too bad for the Nuggets since the Nets are offering WAY too much, then Denver should accept the Knicks deal and let us move on. Zach Lowe, whose blog is great by the way, gives his opinion of the Knicks offer and says it is "actually fair". Lowe's argument does have a hole or two--he too readily ignores Wilson Chandler's importance by assuming that someone will offer him more than the Knicks can match in the off-season--but overall, his analysis as usual is very good. The Nuggets could do far, far worse. And as LeBron pointed out this past weekend, if the Nuggets don't have any chance of re-signing Carmelo, shouldn't they try to get something positive for him? It's not as though they're going to make noise in the playoffs this year anyway.
IMO the Carmelo affair has been more painful than The Decision a.k.a The LeBacle. The latter involved a once in a generation talent, the former a once or twice a draft talent. And we knew LeBron's decision within a few weeks whereas we've been wondering where Carmelo is going for months. I don't blame Carmelo as much as the media for the continuing spotlight on his future. He's under no obligation to sign an extension with a team he doesn't want to play for in the long-term. But once it's all settled and attention can move away from a good, but not great player and the middling teams that are pursuing him, and back to the Celtics, Heat, Magic, Lakers, Spurs and Bulls, it will be a long-awaited and very welcome shift.
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