Thank you for labeling the Top 5-10 NBA player for Carmelo..Getting sick of people saying he's a Top 5 player..He's not. Top 10 though..definitely.
Top 5 IMO are
Kobe
Wade
Lebron
Durant
At that point around #5 it gets odd and different people put differnt guys at #5 if people put Melo there I don't fight it much if they don't "meh" as well.
I have good reasons for not wanting to trade Noah. Its harder to acquire a center of his magnitude than it is to find a good wing player. Anthony is a great wing player,
That's the thing. Saying Noah is a center of "his magnitude" is implying he is much better than he is. Noah is a good center. He's a nice player, and a nice complimentary player to have. But in all actuality he's at best the 3rd best center in the Eastern Conference and is really just an energy player who plays defense and rebounds. Melo is a guy who is on the cusp of being a Top 5 player in the league and a franchise/game changing player. Those guys are not as easy to find and MUCH tougher to come by than a defensive/rebounding minded center.
Noah turned out to be a nice pick and develop into a nice player. And right now he's a tremendous asset in the trade market. If you can use that asset to help acquire a Top 5-10 NBA player you do it. I don't care how much he hustles, how much he rebounds or how much energy he brings. If you have a chance to help bring in a Top 5-10 NBA player in part because you have to give up a hustling defensive minded center then you do it....and you don't think twice.
It's obvious that the Bulls front line would be thin but if you can team up Rose, Melo, and Boozer you deal with the fact that your starting center position will be(more than likely) weak this year. On a night in night out basis I'd be willing to deal with Thomas/Asik/Richard etc rotating through at center would be managble if you had Rose, Melo, Boozer, Brewer, Korver, Gibson, Watson etc picking up the slack.
Plus if you are the Bulls you look at patch working something together at center after you trade Noah. Throw together a trade for a guy like Reggie Evans or some other defensive player. Give up a 1st rounder or whatever needs to be done since you feel that you will be having later 1st round draft picks over the next few years. Is it a perfect plan? No. But I'd rather be trying to patch in a rebounding big and have Melo on the team than not have Melo on the team at all.
but he's not a guy who will suddenly put us over the top
I don't think he puts us "over the top" in terms of making us a lock for the NBA Finals seeing as we have to deal with the Heat in the East for the next "x" amount of years but IMO he makes us a perennial lock to be in at least the ECF for the next "x" amount of seasons in the EC seeing as New York isn't going anywhere in a hurry. Boston is getting old and Orlando seems to be regressing a tad as well. Adding Anthony makes the Bulls a perennial 1 or 2 seed in the East rather than a team that IMO is right now that will be hovering between the 3 and 5 spots over the next few seasons.
Not saying Noah is either and most of my not wanting to trade Noah is based on what I think Noah can become..and he may ver well never become that....
That's a very dangerous,and as Bull fans have seen with Deng, Hinrich, etc, it's a stupid one as well. Noah will never be more than a 15-15 guy. That's going to be his peak. He's never going to develop an offensive game and will be an energy guy. And that's great. The kid is going to have a very long and solid NBA career...but he's not Carmelo Anthony and no matter what Noah would realistically turn into I don't think he will ever be as good as Anthony is right now or will continue to be through his prime years.
