I hear you and definitely respect that perspective. But I feel like we’re always chasing that elusive “next guy” in the lottery. I don’t remember if it was Baron or PG who said it, but bringing more young talent into a losing culture doesn’t really work. We’ve hit in the lottery with Lamelo and Brandon. We’ve got a good base of young talent. What we should be aiming for IMO is not another rookie, but a stabilizing vet who can help us turn the corner towards winning.
Two seasons ago, Houston, Detroit and us had 3 of the 4 worst records in the league. Two years later, both Det and Hou were playoff teams who played competitive 7-game series. What’s the difference? They both went out and found the right culture setting vet (Harris and Van Fleet) to compliment their young talent. I think that should be the next step for us. It’s like what we tried to do with Hayward, and I think that was the right move then, he just couldn’t stay healthy enough to make it work. I think Lamelo can be our best player, but I don’t think he should be the guy to set the culture, nor can we expect another super young player, no matter how talented, to do that.
Likewise, I respect your view and can absolutely see the rational. If it wasn’t for the fact the ‘26 is very strong at the top, also looks as though the ‘27 draft will be weak, I’d be right there with you.
It makes so much sense to develop our plethora of young guys, and trade the likes of Miles & Sexton at the deadline for more picks. It’s less about draft ‘the one’ in ‘26 and more about taking advantage of a strong draft with our developing roster, filled with young players.
Now, this roster might click. LaMelo might play 70 games and Miller might take a big step. Mann, Kon & McNeeley might be strong bench/complementary players. In this scenario, I wouldn’t tank, and shut players down. I want them to go full throttle. But I also want to maximise Sexton at the deadline and get Miles off this roster.
K0202 I try not to endorse everything you say to avoid creepy internet stalker vibes but I am with you 90% of the time. Things are different this time because of the urgency.
Granted the rest of this is for the dudes up here who say “Melo hasn’t lead us to the playoffs” while simultaneously ignoring the fact that Melo has never had any help outside of Brandon.
We are good on young upside guys and lottery picks. In fact we should get Melo some real help by way of some of those picks.
We should probably trade TWO first round picks for either:
Nic Claxton
Onyeka Okongwu
Bam Adebayo
Overpay? Okay but that is what we need to do at some point - ie Houston and OKC.
For those of you who want to trade Melo please for the love of all things good NAME the best free agent we have signed since November 2020 when this very thread was started.
Gordon Hayward
Kelly Oubre
Dennis Smith Jr.
Frank Ntilikina
DDCat pointed out the most TERRIBLE BUT TRUE thing from Paul G. Coming to Charlotte is career suicide. That is how the entire d@mn league views us. If we dump Melo then our reputation goes further into the gutter because everyone in the league will see that Melo took the fall for half @ss ownership.
Look at that list of free agents and tell me: (1) We didn’t set our young super nova up for failure and (2) players are unaware of the fact that Melo is getting railroaded and then thrown under the bus.
We have a bad reputation for some obvious reasons and now we have folks actively looking to add to that reputation by wasting generational talent?
I am trying NOT to get kicked off of this board but I gotta call malarkey when I see it.
Personally (and I know others are more critical) my only real issue with Melo is his health and his up to this point seeming lack of seriousness about building strength. At the very least he seems to need to make more effort to help himself. I have said seem twice because that’s how it has come across to us fans who don’t know but we’ve not seen or heard any evidence otherwise.
In his defense I find it hard to judge him for his lack of seriousness, on a franchise that has shown a similar lack of seriousness since he was drafted.
Clearly the new ownership are trying to change the culture and the wider perception of the franchise, and so my hope is he’ll match that this coming year.
The trick with Melo is going to get him to play “serious,” championship caliber basketball while also maintaining the joy and enthusiasm he has for the game. Like Magic, he’s going to bring some razzle dazzle moments and needs to have that engaged creativity to be successful. But can he bring discipline to that style?
And honestly, the most important question for me is simply can he stay on the court? It doesn’t matter if he’s the greatest player to every step foot in the arena and it would be impossible to find a player of 70% of his quality. If he doesn’t play consistently, he’s not useful.
When you combine these two issues, it can be frustrating for some to see him act so silly and speak like he’s playing pickup games on a reality show. If Kobe were alive, he would have already killed Melo with his glare.
Yes. I’m with you. People doubt Melo’s dedication all the time, which is absolutely false and misguided. In fact, he’s always working and focused on basketball. Unfortunately, to your point, I’d like his dedication to be a bit more focused on strength training, mobility, and improving his body.
Melo puts a ton of time into shooting, working on his handles, and the strengths of his game. And that’s great, but like you said-I want to see him redirect some of that energy into other areas to sustain himself.
Not just putting up shots. You always hear about Melo playing basketball all the time. Always at the gym shooting. I want him in the weight room. And taking the ankle brace stuff seriously, for example.
I think my only disagreement with you and @DemonDeaCat is that I want one more year before putting a pile of chips on the table and going for it. I think there’s a season of shaking out this roster to be done before going in for a multiple pick trade. And I want a shot at one of the tier one prospects in the '26 draft.
Bam would be amazing on this roster. However, he’s earning a lot of money. In the 26/27 season, he’ll be paid 30% of the cap. LaMelo will earn about 25% of the cap. Even my maths (yes it’s maths because I’m English) tells me that’s 55% of the salary cap on two players. Not sure if it’s then practical/viable to extend Brandon Miller.
To expand on my earlier, roster shake up point, I like all our top four Guards, but there’s not a defensive menace amongst them. That’s not necessarily the end of the world, but when you don’t have a plus defender at SF either (certainly while Green is injured), it’s a stretch for me to think we have a roster to ‘go for it’ with. I’d have thought one needs to get moved at the deadline and a fit again Green, who isn’t frightened to take open corner 3s, or ideally a developing Sion, step into the rotation.
Still too many questions and unknowns for me, and a strong '26 draft, to make that big/Big move.
Pretty dumb article because outside of his base of die hard fans who are mainly pre-teens and teenagers he’s probably one of the most criticized players in the league,
Yeah, I would say Melo is almost becoming underrated to the rest of the league (especially the media). He played way too free and selfishly last year for me, and I was hoping Lee would’ve reined that in at some point. But the talent level is top notch, and if it can be integrated into a good system where he learns to trust the constituent parts, it can quell a lot of these critiques. I’m cautiously optimistic the coaches will use the OKC/Pacers runs, especially how Shai and Hali used their talents to uplift the team, as the model for Melo to embrace.
For better or worse, we shall see, but I’m still giving a chance to see it out.
Jordan was notorious for not trusting his “supporting cast”. Yeah that’s right he called his teammates a supporting cast and then they got Scottie and the rest is history. But it was ugly and messed up early on.
What is see from some folks is A LOT of knee jerk short sightedness. Coupled with a not so clear reflection recent history (ie 18 months ago) and you end up with a ridiculous discussion on the best way to waste a generational talent.
Jordan, LBJ, Steph, Tracy McGrady, all struggle early in the league. Hell I distinctly remember wondering if Tracy was a bust.
Short sightedness invites a lifetime of mistakes and misery. Mistakes and misery have been lamented on this board for at least a decade.*
*I think that I may have been posting for 10 years! I convey special gratitude to the board owner for such a good thing.
with you. People doubt Melo’s dedication all the time, which is absolutely false and misguided. In fact, he’s always working and focused on basketball. Unfortunately, to your point, I’d like his dedication to be a bit more focused on strength training, mobility, and improving his body.