People forget that Carmelo did lead Syracuse to a National Championship as a Freshman, so at some point he had leadership skills.
A lot of people don’t like the way he is going about getting out of Denver, but this is a common theme, that Melo doesn’t have the “it” factor to be a championship player.
Here is what Bill Walton had to say:
Carmelo, to me, does not have what it takes to be the great player. He puts up nice numbers, he makes a great salary, the media, publicity all likes him, but does he win the games? Does he make the squad better? Does he pull guys together?
It hasn’t happened in Denver at all. I’m a big Amare Stoudemire fan, I will hold my tongue on Carmelo.
I would say that is “professional ether” from Walton.
Here is what I think the problem is. I think people blur the line between good, great and legendary players. You can win titles with a lot of great players.
The Celtics are a team filled with great players.
You can win a title with a legendary player, a great player and good role players.
See the Lakers with Kobe, Gasol and the rest of the cast of characters.
You can win a title if a great player gets on a Legendary roll.
See the Heat when D Wade went off to be the Mavericks.
Carmelo is a very good to great player, so he will need other great players around him to build a championship team. Can he be the unquestioned leader of a championship team? I think that would be asking too much from him. Lebron James is on his way to being a legendary player and he could not push an average supporting cast to a title, so I don’t think Anthony could do it alone.
That could be the reason why Anthony is so desperate to team up with some of his SuperFriends. I think Melo can be a great player, but only in a Celtics type situation where he is surrounded by two or three more great players.
We know one thing, that place won’t be in Denver.