Fuck Billups. How can we get Melo, should be the question we ask.
I haven't read the rest of the thread yet, and I assume it has been mentioned already, but:
1) Melo is raising a stink to get out of Denver. Denver has a good roster, and owner who will spend up to the lux tax limit and has even gone over.
2) How is Portland's setup significantly better than Denver from Melo's perspective? Smaller city. More remote. Good young roster, but one with an establised star on the perimeter. Slow paced coach.
3) Melo is from New York
4) Melo, I think, doesn't want OUT of Denver, as much as he want to go TO New York. He wants to go home, to the biggest market, to the media center, to the lifestyle, to play for D'Antoni in a fast paced system.
Besides all that, I don't really want Melo anywho. We lose our glue player, Batum, in the starting lineup, which would require in addition, replacing Miller with a glue player at the point guard position, no easy task, and Melo and Brandon overlap enough that they don't maximize each other.