The decline in his effectiveness is based on a number of things, like him not being the kind of guy who's invested heavily in keeping his body in optimum shape, like LeBron and Kobe, for example. He's in good shape and obviously spends hours hooping, but at his age and at this elite level of competition, that's not good enough. Most of all, though, the game has changed drastically over the last few years, coinciding with Melo becoming a slower, more plodding player. The league is way too quick for him now.
So leaders aren’t accountable? Superstars aren’t accountable? I’m just talking about Melo. He gets all the hype on his offensive prowess but yet the man can’t make shots. The dude lost his legs. He don’t make his teammates better. He not about the TEAM at 34 yrs old. He just want to be iso Melo but that game left him long ago and never got him anywhere to legitimize his run as a legit Superstar imo. There’s always excuses to be made. MOF.
This was Mike D’Antoni power play by using young Clark as a pawn in his chess game. He saw a chance to finally get his payback by saying to Melo sorry Clark will be getting the bulk of you’re minutes so if you don’t like it kick rocks
Or the Rockets have been better in Clark's minutes vs Melo's minutes, and Clark is more likely to improve since he doesn't have 15+ NBA seasons of experience.
Not disagreeing with the logic but I feel mike saw the chance to stick it to Melo with this opportunistic chance that he got and he went for the kill.
No need at all. Maybe he considers it good karma. But Clark is the one who outworked Melo out of this job. No one f'ed Melo but Melo.
I fully believe they knew about Melo, his D and his decline, and wanted to milk out 16-18 ppg from him off the pine. They could have never imagined CP3's wrist problem and his suspension, JH's hammy causing so much problem early on. Did not work. To the next one.
Exactly. Why would MDA want anything other than for Melo to be a net positive player on this team? MDA is close to calling it a career imo, he doesn't have a whole season to waste on spite, nor would Morey allow it. Been saying since day 1. If Melo doesn't stop taking that mid range shot while his defense leaks, then Melo fans are going to be out here blaming everyone else but Melo. All he had/has to do is take more of the shots that he gets more points out of or inversely, cut out his least efficient shot. This is not anyone screwing anyone.
It's a gamble on a vet minimum contract. It sounds like that. Yeah, Melo's situation further deepens the FA situation for the Rockets, it wasn't a rosy one without CP3 and Harden recruiting. But this is a make or break situation for washed Melo, if he can get another contract in the NBA. It looks like Melo is the losing one. Another short stint, retirement and China are the options. As for MDA, I am not a fan of his, it's all on Bzdelik or bust IMHO.
Nobody thinks he's still a superstar. But if they were only gonna give him 10 games to prove himself, then they should've never signed him
After cooling myself off a bit, I wouldn't mind seeing Melo back off the bench. I think now that we are rolling, he would be able to soak some minutes from Ennis, Clark and Hartenstein. Maybe around 20-25 minutes a night. I'd like to see him in place of Hartenstein for a couple weeks, so we can see more of that Paul-Harden-Tucker-Melo-Clark lineup that looked so good in limited minutes. The drama is already in full effect, but who cares other than ESPN nut jugglers? 10 games full of injuries just isn't enough to evaluate If Carmelo can be of any help in the playoffs. Now that we are rolling, I think we should give him 5 more games off the bench with a fully healthy squad. Also, I am super worried about PJ Tucker's absurdly high minutes. We need to work his down too to avoid that disastrous injury. Chris Paul (34 minutes) James Harden (36 minutes) James Ennis (24 minutes) PJ Tucker (32 minutes) Clint Capela (32 minutes) -------------------- Eric Gordon (32 minutes) Carmelo Anthony (25 minutes) Gary Clark (25 minutes) -------------------- Hartenstein (Situational) Green (Situational)
The Pelicans, Trail Blazers and Lakers have expressed interest in Carmelo Anthony should he be waived by the Rockets. "I heard three teams that I think could be for Melo," Kevin O’Connor said. "And this could change, he’s still with Houston. I heard New Orleans, Portland and LA Lakers. Those are the three teams I heard." While Melo does have a strong connection with LeBron James, the Lakers seem like the least likely team out of this group to sign him, as he'd be a very awkward fit on that roster. We don't anticipate his non-existent value changing much based on the name of the jersey across his chest.
