Melo is actually a good fit on the current Clippers team, and if this was baseball, where NY could trade him to LAC for prospects without having to match salary, it would make a ton of sense all around.
I have said for years and years that he is best suited to be the third best player on a title contender as opposed to the franchise player he has always slotted himself in as/been slotted in as. 3rd best guy on a title team is still usually an All-Star: Ray Allen, Chris Bosh, Klay Thompson, Kevin Love. I think Melo is potentially more adaptable to this kind of role than his detractors think, but he ideally needed to be in this situation at least a couple of years ago.
As it is, I think Crawford/Rivers for him is probably close to a lateral move, especially factoring in the chemistry LAC would be giving up. On the other hand, Melo hasn't played with a competent PG since Billups in DEN (Kidd was great for a half season in NY before he hit a wall, which ended his career soon after), and that could really help him.