"Great" Players Teams are Better Off Without

[tinselwolverine]

I started to think of this today when Stephen A. Smith was asked on ESPN what player was under the most pressure to get a ring, Lebron James now having won his first; and Smith mentioned a few names, but ended up decing on Carmelo Anthony.

What sticks out in my mind about Carmelo Anthony is that "Lynn-sanity" happened when he was out, and the Knicks won a bunch of games; then Melo came back, and the Knicks started to lose.

Allen Iverson was another one who I always thought made a team worse, despite putting up significant personal stats.

Who else?

 

[cheeno]

Vince Carter, especially in his Toronto days.

 

[zoombabyzoom]

Dude, Iverson was the only thing Philly had in those days. Seriously that team without Iverson was way worse than the Bobcat team this year. I remember the one year I think their starting lineup had PG Eric Snow, AI, Jumaine Jones, Tyrone Hill and Matt Gieger. But, Iverson was a serious ballhog and if he was on a team that actually had other good players he would kill the team chemistry.

Stephon Marbury could be brought up

 

[everyoneneedsasmil]

@Zoom, Philly constructed their team around him being a ballhog who never saw a bad shot. Pretty much everyone else on the team was a high end defender too, to make up for his complete disregard there.

I think AI still fits the Carmelo mold, a guy that you can win with if you absolutely tailor your team to him (let's not forget that Denver was pretty darn good with Melo), but not a true superstar who could improve any team.

The issue is that a lot of guys are paid and treated as if they are all time greats, but very few are. Denver was very good with Melo, and could have been even better if they put better defensive personnel on the team. Melo shouldn't be your best player when you win a championship anyway, but NY doesn't exactly do favors playing a terrible defensive lineup outside Chandler and continuing to play Amare big minutes with lots of bad shots. Linsanity took place during one of the softest parts of NY's schedule, and ended right as one of the toughest parts began. It wasn't all on Melo, but it's problematic that he has never learned to play as a real teammate.

 

[beez]

AI>>>Melo

AI is one of the greatest scorers I've ever seen given his stature. I think he was targeted because of his sound bites and off court personality as well. He was a guy who took a high volume of shots because that was his job and thats what gave his team the best chance of winning. You can't say AI couldn't play with-in the "team constraints" because in his prime he never had one. Lebrons cavs and AI's sixers are the worst teams to ever make a finals..that dude didn't hurt his team. He shot A LOT but the guys was a scorer, thats what he was there for. He averaged a nice amount of assists in Denver when he had a decent squad. Maybe not an "unselfish" player but I don't think he was detremental to success.

I agree on Melo though. One of the most overrated players in history to me. He's a better version of Luol Deng.

 

[beez]

I guess I shouldn't say they're better without Melo but he's overrated. If I'm getting a 7 game series Knicks vs Heat I want Melo 10 out of 10 times ..now if you're asking me to replace him with a "same level star" thats a different story.

 

[jmakula87]

Soft part of the schedule was a big part of Linsanity, but I watched a few Knicks games before, during and after Linsanity, and one thing I noticed was that the other Knicks players seemed to have more energy on the court. It is tough to go back and play defense when your team has a possession where you iso Melo and nobody else touches the ball. Everybody was involved when Lin was playing and I think that really boosted other Knicks' attitudes.

I know that when I played ball, not that I would take defensive possessions off, but when one of my teammates would go into ball hog mode for multiple possessions, it would get harder and harder to go down and play all out D, but even when the ball would just get worked around, it was a lot easier to keep my head in the game.

 

[beez]

Soft part of the schedule was a big part of Linsanity, but I watched a few Knicks games before, during and after Linsanity, and one thing I noticed was that the other Knicks players seemed to have more energy on the court. It is tough to go back and play defense when your team has a possession where you iso Melo and nobody else touches the ball. Everybody was involved when Lin was playing and I think that really boosted other Knicks' attitudes.

I know that when I played ball, not that I would take defensive possessions off, but when one of my teammates would go into ball hog mode for multiple possessions, it would get harder and harder to go down and play all out D, but even when the ball would just get worked around, it was a lot easier to keep my head in the game.

spot on..