[Charlie SheenParticipant]

I honestly feel like after tonights game Carmelo Anthony has proved he is and Elite Player in the NBA and not just an All Star scorer.

He completely excelled at every aspect tonight, scoring, passing, rebounding, defense and just pure effort.

He is the leader of the Knicks team and if put with the right pieces around him and Amar’e they will win at least 1 NBA Championship.

Carmelo Anthony is a top 5 player in the NBA along with Kobe, LeBron, Wade and KD pick the order you want but he’s in their company

And y’all cant tell me nothing

[M-DYMESParticipant]

I’ve personally thought he was an elite player for a while now and not just an allstar scorer.  His D has improved, he always has been a solid rebounder, and is arguably the most complete scorer in the game (either him or Kobe IMO, Durant doesn’t have the same post game or driving ability).  I think many people have looked at him as an elite player for a while now so I don’t see much of a reason people will fight with you over this.  This isn’t new news.

[Charlie SheenParticipant]

many people feel his game is just scoring and early on it has been but he is where he wants to be and I feel a new fire about him I mean he had nobody tonight and I mean nobody and almost beat Boston I just feel like he has taken a large step forward tonight I mean his post game comments were that of a leader somethin we havent seen from M7

[JoeWolf1]

 He had a monster line tonight, but to be honest, he’s on a worse team than he’s ever been in Denver.  IMO, without Amare and Billups, he put a Kevin Love stat line tonight.  He’s still a very good player, but I wouldn’t read too much into this.

[esperanzafleet69Participant]

you should have known this last febuary when carmelo played lebron… they didnt need any other player on the court.. i think melo and lebron went for like 40 or so back to back points in the 3rd/4th quarter.. one of the best games ive ever seen..

[Charlie SheenParticipant]

you got a great b-ball mind and I know its 1 game but its a playoff game a trap game for Boston missing 2/3 of their big 3 against 4 legit All Stars and solid role guys(O’Neal, Green, Davis and West) he completely dominated their defense(the NBA’s best) his teammate tonight was Ronnie Turiaf tbh, Jeffries played good but Williams hit 1 3, Walker missed 11 shots 11 and Douglas got his a$$ handed to him by Rondo. This game told a story and read it clearly

[Charlie SheenParticipant]

that was a battle of the titans I mean they could not hold eachother and they had equal supporting cast but said take a back seat Ima drive all night

[JoeWolf1]

 Sheen, he was amazing tonight.  No doubt, and I honestly think he can turn the corner to become an elite player in this league; however, I need to see more from him to be convinced.  It’s hard not to see his game tonight, and think he can’t be that player, but to me Carmelo’s weakness as a player has always been his ability to operate within an offense.  With no Amare and Billups he is the man and will no doubt fill up a stat card, but until he proves he is the type of elite scorer who can not only dominate, but operate within his team’s offense and lead them to meaningfull victories, then i’ll remain a little skeptic of him as an elite player, not a scorer.  I feel he’s elite in that aspect.

[STATnMeloParticipant]

I think next year he truly takes it to another level though 29-9-4 are the numbers Im projecting with Melo for 2011-12

[TeamShowtimeLakersParticipant]

carmelo anthony is sheting all the critics up!

[chaParticipant]

I think Carmelo was supposedly the "Elite" player he was in game 2 against Boston on the first half of last season. He played great. Scoring-wise, he took it to a whole new level. Plus, the man put the Nuggets on his back. You could see he wanted to achieve something special that particular. I remember one of the guys on NBA TV predicted he’d gone on to be top 3 player in the league that season (take note Kevin Durant hasn’t won any scoring title just yet). The only thing that derailed Anthony from getting the MVP was ’cause of injuries. He played great most of the nights but nothing we’ve seen from him. It’s like a do or die kind of guy. I think the 43 17 6 stat sheet would be occasional for him that season. But thank God, he got to a team that has potential and the city he loves. ‘Melo man for top 3 in the league next season! PS Just ’cause I know 1. Kobe 2 Lebron won’t be going away for some time. Durant and Wade on that ranking looks a lot easier to leapfrog from compared to Kobe and LeBron. PEACE. 

[mj23mj23besteverParticipant]

id rather sit the bench in win then have a great game and lose so why is everyone on his sack when he lost be alot different if he lead his team too a w

[OhCanada-Participant]

Melo is an elite player. He is one of the best players in the league…

[SteroidParticipant]

Melo usually steps up when the stakes are high. He might not do the little things too much during the season, but he goes into another gear during the playoffs.

[OhCanada-Participant]

The only reason why he lost is because that retard Dantoni put jared jeffries on the floor in the last possession. Melo got doubled, he made the right pass passing out of the double to a wide open Jeffries right next to the rim in a position for a strong layup, Jeffries went to pass turned it over and that was game. I bet Amare wouldve dunked it, Sheldon Williams even wouldve layed it up, anyone other then Jeffries that wouldve been a play for the win instead of a turnover.

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

 Awesome game for Melo. He really put a weak Knicks team on his back and made it close. But Sheen and everyone this doesn’t change anything. This doesn’t make Melo a top three guy in the league. First, we’ve always known he can score. The knock is that he can’t score with elite efficiency and his D is only average at best. He did nothing different in this game. We’ve seen him do this before. Yes he got 42 points, yes some of it was amazing and he had to do it himself. But . . . he shot 14 for 30, so under 50%. Not terrible shooting, but you and the announcers are acting like this is one of the best performances of all time. On the same night, Howard beasted for a stat line actually better than Melo. Second, the knicks lost by 3 points and . . . wait for it . . . Melo’s plus/minus was -5. Yep, the game in which you crown Melo as one of the NBA’s best; in that very game his team does better when Melo isn’t on the floor. They "win" the portion of the game when Melo is on the bench and they lose the part of the game where he is playing.

I’m not saying Melo wasn’t awesome, just let’s not get carried away.

By the way, couldn’t we at least have kept Mozgov with the trade. Then we might have had a center who isn’t afraid of KG and can actually dunk that last ball.  Can Denver just loan us that guy for the playoffs?

[yaboymalParticipant]

Melo is hands down and elite player to me he is the most effortless scorer in th league..Can take you inside outside and in between he can obviously rebound and play great D when he puts his mind to it. Idk why some ppl are not convinced he’s an elite level player. If he comes into next season in good shape theres a possibility of him putting up mvp numbers, he’s loves new york hes happy, and you always get the best out of melo when he’s out there having fun

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

 Oh, and when you talk about Melo being top 5 in the league that means you have to cut two of these guys: Lebron, Wade, Kobe, Howard, Rose, Nowitzki, and Durrant. Also, you can’t have any of these guys in your top 5: D. Will, Rondo, CP3, Pau Gasol, Blake Griffen or Westbrook.

Is there anyone of the thirteen guys on this list who you would trade to add Melo to your team?  

[NYCrealdealParticipant]

is better then nowitzki,dwill, pau,griffen,westbrook, rondo. Wade, lebron howard rose cp3are all better then him. i think durant and melo are equal.

 melo played great. knicks should be up 2-0 right now. jeffries is a bum. dantoni is a bum. we dont have the players to fit his style. we need a coach that can get dfense out of our stars and have offense come because of the D. Mike D was never a great fit for NY. we dont like running and gunning system. i like our team to be hardoworking, defensive minded blue collor type of players.

but as for this series amare has to play game three. if he doesnt play i can see melo trying to carry then losing agauin in the last 2 minutes. billups will probly not play so douglass and walker have to step it up big time.

Doc. is just shittttin on Dantoni with his play calls. hes outcoaching him like theres not tomarrow. makes me sick.

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

 Knicks would be at least tied 1 – 1 if Melo hadn’t shot 1 for 11 in the second half of game one. But hey, how much can we expect from the guy who you have as the 7th best player in the league. 

But I do agree that there are very few players in the league who you can just ride all game for their scoring the way the Knicks rode Melo. You can make a case for great glue guys like Manu or Iggy, but those guys can’t carry a team’s offense like Melo. That is a special skill but it mainly just seems to allow Melo to make a bad team good. It doesn’t seem to be enough for him to make a good team great. 

[MkadozaParticipant]

 With the lost of Billups and Amare, Carmelo became teh best player at everything. The best ball handler, passer, shooter, rebounder, defender, scorer…. and he responded, in a way that very few players could. Given the Knicks lack of scoring and size, escpecially with Amare was injured (Another top 20 player in the league), Melo did work… 

[Charlie SheenParticipant]

We’re debating his performance and you talk about his plus minus come on Bill Walker shot 0-11 and was like +8 does that mean he out performed Melo

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

 Plus / Minus

I wasn’t trying to say that plus/minus means that much. I noticed that all of the Knicks bench were plus for the game, while Knick starters were all minus. Plus/Minus isn’t very accurate when you look at it in just one game. Of course Melo played great. I watched the game he was a beast. But to say that this one game somehow makes him top five in the league, when he lost a playoff game for the Knicks the game before, is to have a very short memory. This was an impressive game, but it was just Melo being Melo, which is being a good player but not a top ten player. You can run your offense through him even if your team is bad, he can carry you, but all you get is good production on average, you don’t get great production. So at the end of the game (and this has been the case now for his entire 7 year career) you have Melo with a lot of points and his team having a decent chance of winning the game. That is enough to make him a star, but there are other players that give you more than a decent chance of winning. See CP3 taking down the Lakers basically by himself in game one for an example of a top player in the league.  If CP3 is healthy again, then he is way better than Melo. 

[OhCanada-Participant]

Oh, and when you talk about Melo being top 5 in the league that means you have to cut two of these guys: Lebron, Wade, Kobe, Howard, Rose, Nowitzki, and Durrant. Also, you can’t have any of these guys in your top 5: D. Will, Rondo, CP3, Pau Gasol, Blake Griffen or Westbrook.

Melo is on level with all those players and better then most. Official lists of whos the best are silly. Imo the best player is the player who plays for the best team. The best team is whoever wins it all. If one of these elite players arent on the best team you go for 2nd best team, and 3rd until you find an elite player.

Blake shoudlnt even be in this conversation.

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

 Well I throw Blake in there based on the "Would you trade him straight up?" theory. There is not a chance that the Clippers would trade Blake straight up for Melo. Zero. That doesn’t make Blake better, but that is how I got him on the list. The guys I listed are all guys that if the Knicks called up the GM and said I will give you Melo for your guy, the GM would just laugh in their face (setting aside, for this example that Melo is locked up for a few years and a bunch these guys can become free agents). Setting aside salary cap issues, age issues and length of contracts, I bet I could name ten more guys that you could get for Melo in a straight up trade.  

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

 Sorry, that should have been "ten more guys that you COULDN’T get for Melo in a straight up trade." Kind of changes the meaning, but I think you all know what I meant. 

[KayjayParticipant]

Most people wish they had the kind jump shot that this guy has. He can get any kind of shot he wants to. And yeah he has improved on his defense, all the crticism did him some good. His playoff performance mos def gets an A+. However again when talking about being a top 5 player, you’d have to look at how he’s hurting teams. Is it just scoring? Is it getting to the line? Is he hitting from the perimeter at such a high volume? I don’t know I just think top 5 players are players that are hurting teams in more than one way. Whether it be splitting defenses, being a triple double threat, hell even being an unstoppable force in the paint. I think when you talk about top 5, you’d have to break down performances that way too.

[rtbtParticipant]

I’m with Joe Wolf on this issue, stop jumping on the bandwagon after one game. Do you remember the first game of the series when he shot one for eleven in the 2nd half against a Boston Celtics team that is nothing like the squad that won an NBA Championship. Hmmmmmmmm, memories are pretty short, aren’t they?

Anyone who understand basketball realizes Anthony is an elite offensive player. That was never the issue. What was open for debate was whether or not the Knicks destroyed their team chemistry and gave up far too many young, promising players in the trade.

Everyone has their own opinion on the trade and I expressed mine in previous threads. But whatever your opinion is, please don’t go overboard after only one game. And let’s not forget the Celtics are nothing more than a shell of what they used to be.

[goneParticipant]

Everyone seems to be on the Melo wagon now. He constantly plays great vs the good teams, he even went to work on Durant this year because people were saying he was better than him

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