Originally posted by shockwaves
You have no idea what Darko is or isn\'t right now. You haven\'t seen him play more than a couple of minutes at a time. It takes a bit to get into a game, and more importantly, to get used to playing big time games. Darko is coming from a completely different world. Don\'t forget, this is an 18 year old kid who knew nothing but Serbia until a year ago. He wasn\'t conditioned the same way a kid from America who knew the NBA was in his future might be. He had serious issues with strength. He was far too weak to be truly effective in the post. He has been putting on a lot of muscle, Ben Wallace has been helping him train. The Pistons will tell you he has made a ton of progress in practice this year, playing against the likes of the Wallaces. That is where you would really get a sense of how his skills are, NOT from a couple minutes at a time in a game.
There are many things wrong with your assumptions that Melo would automatically make them better. No team in the NBA is based more on team chemistry than the Pistons. They are tough, gritty players, all of them, from Ben Wallace down low to Rip Hamilton, the "best conditioned man in the NBA". Carmelo would not have fit into that image as well. And besides, the chain of what if\'s continues...if they had Anthony, would they have traded for Wallace? And once again, Carmelo would have averaged if you ask me MAYBE 12 ppg on Detroit, if that. He is fed the ball in Denver and the offense goes through him. Even if Carmelo did start in Detroit, which I honestly do not think he would, the offense would definitely not work through him.
Carmelo would not start because Larry Brown is the coach of the Pistons, plain and simple. Larry Brown almost never starts rookies, especially at the beginning of the season. That doesn\'t have to do with talent level, it has to do with developing the kid fully and doing things the right way. Brown also really likes Prince, and Prince fits in well with the team. Melo may have started near the end of the year, but surely not for the whole year.
As for Melo taking Denver single handedly from no where and making them something, that\'s garbage. There are 5 starters on Denver, four of which were not playing for them last year. The only one that was, Nene, was a rookie last year, and has developed a lot more. Andre Miller, a great team PG was signed in the offseason. Voshon Leonard was added as well. Camby came back from injury. There is no way you can say it was Melo and Melo alone. The entire team was transformed. Unlike in LeBron\'s case, this was an entirely new team, not just a new player.
Well you make it seem like melo is some type of michael jordan ball hog. You don\'t think he could score and share the ball with the pistons?
I don\'t think melo is a ball hog. And I think in the pistons system he would fit. They need a guy who is not afraid to score points. You saw what happen in the indiana series.
And as for him not making denver something. Shocky you know better than that. This team was not getting national games on tv last year. Nobody was even mentioning this team last year. Now they are selling out arena\'s.
And there core group of guys have always been there. With out melo on denver nobody would even bother discussing them. Anyways like you said we can debate the what if\'s all day.
Now as for the pistons we are going crazy over here in detroit. 1 more game and showtime is over. They refuse to give the pistons any type of credit and complain about there not getting foul calls.
The Lakers are bunch of cry babies. I know they want this to go back to hollywood on the grand stage.
I have sick feeling that this will be forced back to LA.
