This is me also. If they played well, then Carmelo comes in and they sucked, I could see it. Problem is the layup drill on the switches and the entire team sucking offensively compared to last season.
It's all about role, that's what this whole issue is about. Gary just fits the system very well. Melo, he tried playing within the system but he would still have moments that he would leave the system. He would still call for posts ups and take some mid-range shots. It wasn't that many but it was disruptive enough for our rhythm. Defensively, it was obvious he was never going to play hard enough. His close outs were mediocre, he never wanted to put a hand up, he let players score layups rather than attempting to take a charge or at least give a hard foul attempting to block a shot. It's the little things, that disrupted the system enough to make Gary a better option. I'm sure his role was going to be limited and he wasn't going to get a lot of minutes. You could see it happening the last two games Melo played.
I think that’s the idea. Wait until Dec 15th so that he’ll be eligible for a trade and see if something can happen there
Melo wasn't the problem at the start but he was part of it. He didn't help. His offense wasn't the problem I think, sure he had bad shooting nights but when your team mentality is to chuck then that's whatever. I think Melo could still make a career off just posting up and hitting the occasional three... The issue is Melo's defense is not tolerable. It just isn't tolerable. In his prime, it was because he was a top 5 scorer in the NBA and he was just naturally quicker. But like MCW, he just can't be played, and unlike MCW you can't just sit him at the end of the bench for emergency situations. They are doing him a solid by releasing him I think at the end of the day, they just couldn't play him. He's not worth the offensive spurts. I used to think he would be worth the random 20 point games...but his defense is really really that bad.
If he gave you elite offense you'd find a way to make it work. He doesn't though so it's not worth it.
His offense right now is probably around 12-15 ppg mark right now. I think if he got the touches he could still produce that. Probably half of it in the low post where he still can succeed and the occasional jumpers he nails...but yeah, his defense is REALLY REALLY bad. I'm not even sure if its because of a lack of effort anymore either. I didn't see low effort out of him, it looked like he was trying to play defense but he's just so slow and doesn't have any defensive instinct anymore. He never had the instinct but he had the athleticism to make up for it to occasionally be a good defensive player. Now it's just not going to happen and teams really do go after him almost every time on the court...which is made worse because we switch so much. If we didn't switch we could hide him on the others team worse offensive players, but since we do it was just really bad. Kind of crazy, Lebron doesn't get enough credit for what he's been able to do...well he does get a lot of credit but it's pretty amazing when you think about it. Look at his draft class, it produced multiple all-stars... Melo - Washed Bosh - Retired Wade - Last Year Kaman - Retired D.West - Retired last season Josh Howard - Retired Mo Williams - Retired Kyle Korver - Eh, still has some value... Meanwhile Lebron over here signing long-term max deals and still competing for MVP awards. I agree with Max that if Melo loves playing ball he should go overseas and enjoy his celebrity.
So for those who still believe Melo was the one wanting out...... he sought out John Lucas and others for advice. He still wanted to make it work. Was curious why people said he wanted out while he had a few of his best friends playing here and he obviously wanted to stay. Why he signed in the 1st place. Till the San Antonio game. He was let go. https://theundefeated.com/features/is-this-it-for-carmelo-anthony-houston-rockets/
Seemed like all the years of slacking on D got to him. His defensive fundamentals and instincts are borderline shet.
Right. Some people are still implying that the Rockets are scapegoating Melo for our early season problems. I don't see this is scapegoating. Nobody (maybe except a few Melo haters) is saying that Melo WAS the reason why we struggled. But he was not helping. Anderson wasn't helping on offense, so he was unplayable. Melo is a bit better than Ryno in some ways and a bit worse in other ways. But he is not helping on offense and so is not worth the deficiency on defense. In all indications, he was about to be relegated to Ryno's post-injury status and it just wouldn't sit well with his ego.
I dun think ego was the problem here. He is just a robot programmed to score or to shoot long jumpers. He can't do anything else. One of those robots whose chip is stuck and you can't get it out unless you detonate him. No reprogramming function.
So it was Morey's decision after the OKC game. And the "professionalism" Morey and MDA referred to was how Melo did not act negatively in public?
