Winning team leaders in the NBA are pit bulls, German shepherds, Jack Russells. 

Melo is a Lab. Labs are sweet dogs, they always want to play, have fun. Labs are pets, not leaders. Melo should be a #2 on a team that has a super focused goal-oriented single-minded lead dog to be the alpha. Then Melo can be Melo. 

He was mis-cast on the Knicks. Even Jeremy Lin is a tougher competitive leader than Melo.