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[QUOTE="Knicks411, post: 4667910, member: 767"]
They did have pretty similar numbers as rookies, Melo was ever so slightly more efficient  (50.9 true shooting with a 12.7% TO on 28.5% usage vs 48.8 with 13.9% TO on 28.2% usage)

The one thing I will say about Denver improving, and I know because I've looked this up before, is that Denver really turned over their team from 03 to 04.  Here are the top 8 players in minutes on the 2003 team that was horrible

1) Juwan Howard
2) Nene
3) Junior Harrington
4) Donnell Harvey
5) Rodney White
6) Vincent Yarborough
7) Nikoloz Tskitishvili
8) Ryan Bowen

I promise you I didn't make up even one of those names.  Here are the top 8 in minutes in 2004
1) Melo (duh)
2) Andre Miller
3) Nene
4) Voshon Leonard
5) Marcus Camby
6) Earl Boykins
7) Jon Barry
8) Chris Andersen

The only guy in the top 8 in minutes from the 03 team who was on the 04 team was Nene, who was a 20 year old rookie in 2003.  My point being was they almost totally overhauled their roster in addition to adding Melo, which helped them go from 17 to 43 wins.

Here is the top 8 in minutes for the Cavs in 04
1) Lebron 
2) Carlos Boozer
3) Big Z
4) Kevin Ollie (gross)
5) Eric Williams
6) Ira Newble
7) Jeff McInnis
8) Tony Battie

That cavs team improved by 17 to 35 wins, granted there are some differences in the strengths of the two conferences, but the rosters after Bron/Melo in 2004 werent even a contest.

For whatever this is worth (meh, I don't know how much stock I am putting into it), the Cavs were -2.6 per 100 with Lebron in 04 and -4.7 per 100 when he was out while the Nuggets were +.8 when Melo played and actually a little better at +1.6 when he sat.

This is all a long way of me saying I do think there's a reasonable case either way in 03 but I would've voted for Lebron
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