The Massive Melo Speculation Post: Part 3

Okay, so this isn't dead.  I stopped posting when I thought Melo was for sure going to New Jersey, but he's not, or not yet.  We'll see.  Meanwhile, onwards to my pointless (but fun) trade mongering...

Golden State Warriors send Monta Ellis, Andris Biedrins, with the expiring contracts of Vladamir Radmonovic and Dan Gadzuric to Denver for Melo and K-Mart

Okay, so I don't know that Denver wants to save money more than it wants a different super star, I'm also fairly confident that they probably won't consider Monta Ellis that super star.  Another option would've been swapping Vlad Rad and Gadzuric for Brandon Wright and K-Mart for J.R. Smith otherwise waiting until December and using Dorrell Wright.  Either way, it's an interesting concept, but frankly it does leave the Ws a little thin in the frontcourt, forced to once again play David Lee as a center (which he really isn't).  With Louis Amundson injured and missing time, I'm not positive that GSW is willing to pull the trigger in parting with one of its key bigs (Biedrins) even if it means getting a star in return, and frankly, I don't see Melo signing an extension with GSW so they'd be essentially giving away Monta and Biedrins for nothing.  A lot of fans would love to see this though.

New York seems to think it can trade Danilo Gallinari and/or Anthony Randolph for a star of tradeable caliber to Denver.  I'm not entirely convinced that's the case, but speculation puts me with either a Gilbert Arenas trade or a recreation of the 2004 Detroit Pistons.  I'm pretty sure neither Gilbert nor Rip Hamilton are answers.  Additionally, I don't think Gallinari and/or Randolph are super appealing to the Wiz who have Blatche, Thornton, Yi, and Howard nor the Pistons who are sitting on T-Mac, Jerebko, Austin Daye, Jason Maxiell, and Charlie Villanueva.  Not a fan of either, but I'm just throwing it out there for thought.

Now I don't know that they're looking, but a trade that makes sense to me is this:


Charlotte Bobcats send Boris Diaw, Gerald Wallace, and Nazr Mohammed to Denver for Melo and J.R. Smith

Why? Bobcats need a scorer and Melo can score (so can J.R. Smith when he's on).  This trade also makes sense too.  In fact I like it better.  Essentially Bobcats still get Melo and Denver still gets Wallace and Mohammed, but we loop in Toronto, getting Boris Diaw from Charlotte and Kenyon Martin from Denver and sending Reggie Evans to Denver and Jose Calderon with Chris Bosh's trade exception to Charlotte.  Why does this work?  Jerry Colangelo loves those saavy European vets like Boris Diaw and Leandro Barbosa, they had originally wanted essentially Diaw for Calderon, but were balked by Jordan for wanting Tyson Chandler too (who he later gave away for Erick Dampier who he waived so nothing?), and Calderon is precisely the type of point guard that works well with Larry Brown (runs sets, doesn't push the game, takes carefully selected shots) and therefore precisely the kind of PG that the Bobcats want.  The main question is whether or not Gerald Wallace is a sufficient star in what Denver wants in return.  Certainly Wallace has shown his prowess on the defensive end, and adding eligible big men in Mohammed and Evans while jettisoning K-Mart's contract is on the agenda, will adding Wallace keep the Nuggets competitive?  I'd like to say yes, via also more opportunities for Nene, but I honestly can't say I know their games well enough to say for sure.

I'll keep thinking of these and we'll keep going until Melo is actually traded.

Revisiting Shoe Endorsements

Nike obviously has the most endorsements in the NBA in terms of shoe contracts.  As with all my pointless speculations and hypotheticals, we are coming back to the question of whether or not Nike does in fact have the "best" endorsements.  I know that Jordans technically are Nike sneakers, but I'm counting them as a different brand.  Reebok honestly is so hurting I'm tempted to add "other" to them, nonetheless.  Let's assume it's playoffs and teams are running a typical 10 man rotation.  Have at!

Starters:	Nike	Jordan	Adidas	Reebok	Other
PG	Deron Williams	Chris Paul	Derrick Rose	Jameer Nelson	Jason Kidd - Peak Shoes
SG	Kobe Bryant	Dwayne Wade	Chauncey Billups	Jason Terry	Stephen Jackson - Protégé
SF	LeBron James	Gerald Wallace	Josh Smith	Rasual Butler	Ron Artest - Peak Shoes
PF	Amar'e Stoudemire	Carmelo Anthony	Tim Duncan	Danilo Gallinari	Kevin Garnett - ANTA Sports Products
C	Pau Gasol	Juwan Howard	Dwight Howard	Yao Ming	Shaquille O'Neal - Li-Ning
Bench	Rajon Rondo Brandon Roy Andre Iguodala Dirk Nowitzki Chris Bosh	Joe Johnson Ray Allen Richard Hamilton Kevin Martin Jared Jeffries	Devin Harris John Salmons Hedo Turkoglu Nene Hilario Brook Lopez	John Wall Eddie House Jamal Crawford Morris Peterson Jason Smith	Baron Davis - Li-Ning Monta Ellis - And 1 Shane Battier - Peak Shoes Al Harrington - Protégé Ben Wallace - Starbury

Team Nike
Strength: Depth, versatility, scoring
Weakness: Chemistry, no true center

I don't see how Nike can't be the favorites to take this one.  I mean, Nike could probably field like 5 other fairly legit teams, I mean, seriously, I'm cutting the likes of Steve Nash, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Rudy Gay from this roster.  Seriously.  The only flaw I see in this team is possibly how everyone except for Pau Gasol kind of need the ball in his hands to be effective.  It would be interesting to see how Roy and Bryant come off of catch-and-shoot situations.  The fact that they don't really have a low-post presence also kind of bothers me, but not immensely as Amar'e and Gasol are both fairly versatile in the paint, tack on the unique skillsets of Bosh and Dirk and suddenly we have here a very unorthodox and potent froncourt.  However, the defensive tenacity of said frontcourt does come into question.  You'd need a coach who is able to handle all the personalities.
Recommended Coach: Phil Jackson


Team Jordan
Strength: Shooting, mismatches
Weakness: Lack of size

Jordan seems only to really endorse wing players, maybe it's because Jordan himself was a wing player.  With the likes of Ray Allen, Richard Hamilton, Joe Johnson, and Kevin Martin though, the lights will get shot out.  The amount of perimeter defense that the opposition would have to deal with frankly ends up being is frankly quite ridiculous.  The issue though is the fact that the team is extraordinarily small and thin up front.  Juwan Howard and Jared Jeffries are by no means going to be any menace in the post, this forces Melo and Wallace to log a number of minutes as a big forward, so while the shooting is there, there might just not be enough easy baskets to make this team entirely viable.  That being said, Wallace is a fairly underrated rebounder, so these guys could do a lot better than I can imagine right now.
Recommended Coach: Mike D'Antoni



Team Adidas
Strength: Size, interior defense
Weakness: Perimeter shooting, defense

With his improved mid-range shot, I think Dwight Howard and Tim Duncan would be the second coming of the Twin Towers.  While I don't necessarily think that Howard is as versatile as David Robinson was, I think that he can make up for it.  Add in the fact that both are ridiculous interior defenders, then I think it works itself out.  I'm not confident in anybody's outside shot other than Billups's and possibly John Salmons's, so it's hard to see there not being a potential bottleneck in the paint.  However, I can see a smart system working that out.  This team is tremendously balanced and deceptively deep.  While Billups may not be an ideal off-guard, they tried it in FIBA this year and it seemed to work.  Additionally, knowing the likes of Howard and Duncan are in the paint may help bolster everyone's confidence defending perimeters knowing that Howard and Duncan (and even Smith) can help cover up a lot of defensive miscues.
Recommended Coach: Gregg Popovich


Team Reebok
Strength: Shooting
Weakness: Depth, lack of size

This really needs to be one of those "whole is greater than the sum of the parts" kind of teams.  There's no one on this team that really makes this team stand out in any way besides a healthy Yao Ming.  However, with that, this team could start to catch people off guard with smart shot selections and effective screen-and-roll plays they could really keep themselves in the game.  While I don't savor a Jameer Nelson/Jason Terry backcourt, especially on the defensive end, it could be worse.  How effectively this team manages the intangibles and plays together will determine its success or failure.
Recommended Coach: Rick Adelman

Team Other
Strength: Defensive tenacity
Weakness: Scoring

Between Stephen Jackson, Ron Artest, Shane Battier, and Ben Wallace, this hodgepodge of non-mainstream company endorsed players have most of their defensive bases covered.  However, that being said, it's more of a question of who can put the ball in the bucket.  Monta Ellis is probably the one player that can be relied on to most consistently put the ball in the bucket, but I don't see him being the Allen Iverson type scorer that such a team would need to carry the load.  Of course, this could be a very even-keeled well-distributed scoring balance between everybody.  That would work too.
Recommended Coach: Larry Brown

That's my take.  What's yours?