Alright, I know he doesn't.  He is a pretty good ball player.  What I'd like to talk about though, is Zach Lowe's ranking of the 100 top NBA players in the league and specifically Melo's place on that list.

Lowe has Melo listed at 20, which I think is probably fairly accurate.  You might think this is pretty low on the list.  Apparently many NY fans and Melo fans in general thought the same way and wrote in to complain.

Lowe basically says it is because Melo is one dimensional.  He can only score (and give the occasional rebound outburst that shocks many).  He isn't a team player, he doesn't play defense and more important, he doesn't even try to do anything BUT score.  I agree.

Lowe actually lambastes the guy pretty badly, saying:

Anthony is a subpar defender, a master of lazy switches and emphatic pointing, through which he indicates that one of his teammates should very kindly guard the guy Carmelo was just guarding. It's fine if you want to ignore this, delete the latest Knicks defensive atrocity from your memory and revel in the 25 points Anthony scored that night.

I try to be as objective as I can when talking about sports, athletes and teams.  Obviously I am a little biased when it comes to my favorite teams and players, but even then I try to be honest.  For example, I hate Lebron James.  I can easily concede though, that he is the best basketball player on the planet.  I may not want him on the floor for game 7 of the Finals (for reasons I won't get into here), but for the most part, LBJ can dominate like no other.  I still hate him.

So love or hate aside, Melo just isn't that good of an all around baller.  Henry Abbott of ESPN sums up my feelings just as well as Lowe does.

A player focused on scoring knows no such thing as a bad shot. Stephon Marbury and Allen Iverson won huge contracts playing dazzling basketball which satisfied this measure but -- riddled with misses -- was unlikely to ever lead to a title. Ineffective defense, inefficient scoring, and underutilized teammates condemned those squads to the middle of the pack.

As you can guess, he goes on to lump Melo into this group of players.

Here is an interesting article that came out just before the Melo trade fest featuring the Nets and Knicks.  It basically blasts Melo even worse than Lowe, Abbott and myself do... COMBINED.

http://wagesofwins.net/2011/01/13/why-is-lebron-james-a-more-productive-player-than-carmelo-anthony/

I would never trade for Melo and I wouldn't draft the guy, knowing what I know now.  I say 20th in the NBA is about right, given what he can give a team and what he can also limit a team from doing.  There are a lot of people below the rank of 20 that I would have on my team ahead of Anthony, but that's because I believe in the unity of a team and that if everyone gives me 100% then we have a better chance of winning than a team full of superstars only trying enough to get by.