Is Melo worth Joakim Noah? In the wake of this report suggesting the Bulls are "internally discussing" whether to offer Noah for Melo, this debate on Melo and the worth of Noah is striking closer to home. The way I see it, hell no. Why not? 1. Even though yes, in the abstract Melo is a better player than Noah, and maybe even Noah + Deng, you don't win a title by getting marginal improvements. You take two steps forward and no steps back if you want to get somewhere. Without Noah, our defensive strategy seems to pretty much fall apart. We don't have a good interior defender anymore, and we don't have an array of guys who tend to grab every rebound. Noah+Boozer+Deng or Melo is a great rebounding frontcourt that can control games. ? + Boozer + Melo is losing the best of the bunch. 2. Perhaps even worse, I don't see why we'd have to give up Melo to get Noah. While I'm sure the Nuggets would like him, the best we'd have to do to get him is offer up an offer that's better than anyone else's, not an offer that makes the Nuggets feel good. You don't have to offer Noah to top an offer of Danilo Gallinari and Eddy Curry. Because that offer isn't very good in the first place. Yes, you do have to get the Nuggets to do the trade at all, but it seems to me that's a function of how much of a brat Melo acts like, and how likely he is to leave for nothing. If the Nuggets want to keep Melo and take their chances, then so be it. But what do other folks think? Worth it? Not worth it?
Did you mean to say I don't see why we'd have to give up Noah to get Melo? I'm guessing that's the case. Other than that cross-up I pretty much agree with what you are saying. What we gain in Melo isn't enough of an increased impact to offset the loss of Noah. There is an "on paper" argument that might support a move like that but I don't think the overall team plus is enough to make that a good deal. Really, I can see a benefit to Carmelo Anthony on the Bulls. Dude won me a big payout when he led Syracuse to the NCAA championship because I bet my brackets on him leading his team. BUT he has his flaws in the NBA. He hates playing defense and he is a risk with his off court activities that seem to haunt him. I'd love for him to be that one more scorer we truly need but I think the Bulls -- rightly -- will be standing pat and seeing if they can get him in a lopsided deal whe Denver needs to make a move or know they lose him for nothing.
Unless it's Durant, Dwights, Lebron or a healthy Oden, then no he isn't. Not saying Noah is on that level --cause he obviously isn't--, but trading Noah is like trading away baby Jesus.
I really meant to say both: 1. It's not worth giving up Noah to get Melo. AND 2. I don't see that we'd have to give up Noah to get Melo. I wonder if some of the talk about Noah relates to negotiating his extension. Wonder what he's asking for and what the Bulls are offering? As far as I can tell, he seems to present a pretty significant batch of off-court issues of his own.
What issues, though, really? Joakim smokes the hootch in the south of France with beautiful topless women and Melo smokes with his affidavit signing entourage. Noah looks at bongs in headshops and Melo gets DWI's. Noah has the advantage of smoking in better company because he was a rich boy from the start. Since I'm not Jay Mariotti, I have to say I have a hard time getting worked up about athletes smoking a little weed as long as it doesn't affect their game in the way games got wrecked in the league in the coked up 70's. As long as it doesn't come to that: Whoopty-Doo.
Agreed. So pretty much, Noah has no off-court issues to speak of, and presents no risks, and therefore, neither does Melo.
Is there something to the fact that Noah's a frat boy? He's the type of person who you'll see in hemp shops but never in the police blotter because he has some sense of how not to get caught and, if he does, how to handle the situation so that it doesn't escalate. Many of us, I think, have friends who fit that stereotype -- they go through life from one quasi-acceptable situation to the next without anything ever sticking.
If I am not mistaking the article said Bulls are considering it, nothing said about the Bulls actually offering him at this momen.
I'd almost do it to see the nuts in a drawer thing. That and Melo is one of the top very few players in the league, and still young. Noah brings a lot of intangibles, and it would be tough to see him go.
Heh, I think he didn't wind up majorly in the police blotter because he was "smart" enough to get caught driving with weed and an open container of booze in Gainsville, where he's beloved. And by "smart" I mean lucky. Like I said, I'm not holding it against him, but we should be realistic about it. He gets the "clean bill of health" in this respect because he's an excellent basketball player. No more and no less. Because that's really what matters to the vast majority of us. If he were sucking ass on th court, he would've been pissed away faster than you can say JamesOn Curry. Same thing with Melo. Entertain us with 20 rebounds or 40 points and you can be quite an asshat.
I agree Melo is a talent but this organisation seems too Dudley Do Right for the best talents in the league Don't underestimate this factor as to what is a significant factor ( IMO ) in being able to get elite talent I kind of see Melo 1 or 2 cuts above a prime Jerry Stackhouse. And I'm not sure that's worth it for a guy who is this team's soul , where , we went 0 and 10 in the 10 games in a row he sat last year with PF
I love the fact that you managed to include a pissing reference into a JamesOnCurry analogy. Love your work
The way espn was making it sound, it was Noah instead of Deng. I'm not sure how the bulls pull that one off under the cap. And I'm not sure what they do with Deng unless he becomes a backup PF. It would seem like they would have to move Deng for somebody. They could probably get Tyson Chandler for him. Rose/Brewer/Melo/Boozer/Chandler. Seems like a lot of injury potential.
Yeah, I think Deng has to go or there's simply no way it works under the cap. The only possibility I can think of is if the Bulls found another team that wanted Deng. Like, there was that Deng to Orlando rumor earlier in the summer, so they could do something like: Deng to Orlando Melo, Gortat to Chicago Pietrus, Noah, JJ to Denver but I still don't think that works under the CBA rules
Smoking the cheeba cheeba doesn't necessarily qualify as baggage but fair or unfair compared to Noah I think the company Melo keeps while doing it may qualify as baggage as does the DWI which put himself at risk with the law and his safety. I don't want to paint Anthony as the boogeyman because I don't think he's all that much a character issue but it does go beyond the "plain fact" that he and Noah both toke and therefore the situations are equal.
As I mentioned in the other thread, I think, the only reason Noah didn't get a dwi is he happened to get caught in the place he won two national championships. It's not just the weed smoking where they are basically the same, because they both been cited for mixing drink and drive. So basically, I agree it's best to not go down the off-court road with Melo. He's not a boy scout, but there's nothing about him that gives me any more pause than plenty of other guys we either have or would like to have.
