Can he not? He's only 29. Did he have an injury that affected his athleticism? I always assumed his star had faded more because he was an under-sized power forward that cannot shoot the 3 and power forwards that can't shoot the 3 are all but extinct now. But I'm not pretending to know one way or the other. All I know is I remember enjoying his energy and hustle once upon a time.
He has had injuries. He still has some explosion in his legs but not as much as in his earlier years in Denver. He will still hustle hard though without taking a break.
The rockets are a bunch of hippies poorly shaven and with bad hair cuts. Harden hasn't gotten a decent hair cut with clean shave in years. They make Rasheed Wallace look ivy league with their bad looks. Harden travels like some drunk hippie, he reminds me of uncle Drew from the Kyrie Irving commercial.
I'm concerned about inconsistency, despite his high energy. Will he foul out too quickly, by not playing smart enough? He played through back pain after missing games in Denver. I hope he won't get hurt again.
That’s not a problem. He hasn’t been good. But having someone like him on a vet minimum is not a problem.
The truth is he's an excellent rebounder who can PnR, but he is among the worst in the league at his position for defense, shotblocking and turnovers. Specifically about his defense, he is terrible with positioning, worse than Ennis. Still, for an alternate backup C at the minimum, you can't ask for more than 2 great skills. Helps a little.
At this point there were very few players who were realistic alternative options. And Faried was the best one.
The Rockets wouldn't be in position to acquire Faried, if he wasn't bought out. Rivers was waived by the Suns too. Morey deserves credit for acquiring them, but he was lucky.
Melo could also rebound and roll to the basket at times, yeah, I know, Manimal is prolly better at it.
Its not luck. He planned for that, like every year. Thats why he kept the MLE and didnt lock the roster by overpaying roleplayers. Im assuming were not done with that.
Rivers has a market, Manimal is different. He has been one dimensional and has not gotten better at his weaknesses. Memphis almost signed Rivers as I remembered. Rivers is IMO 2x or 3x the signing Faried will be but I think the latter will be useful.
I think our definition of "rebound" is vastly different. Carmelo's best mark ever per 100 possessions (in 15+ seasons) is 11.3 rebounds. Faried's worst mark ever per 100 possessions (in 7 seasons) is 15.4 rebounds. His best mark is 18.2 (this season). These two are not comparable rebounders. I'd love to see how these two are comparable at rolling to the basket.
Yeah but you wouldn't disagree if I said Melo could get more minutes than Faried has the last 2 years. Look, both are liabilities defensively. I am not even sure how much they will play him. If you take his best seasons of course Faried's rebounding would look much better. The thing is both of their careers are downward spiralling. One is a true Power forward with no jump shot (at least he plays like one on one end) and the other is a Stretch 3/4.
