That was Melos most redeeming moment as a Rocket right there imo. Let coach be pissed. Melo was like it’s giod bro, let’s high five a bit, it happens. Cause Melo knows everything was just going a little fast for the kid still. Almost anyone who’s played organized or pickup sports has probably had a wtf moment like that at some point. It was horrible in the moment. It probably says absolutely nothing about his potential long term. If he can hit some threes, stretch the floor a bit, limit mistakes going forward, etc I think he has a shot at a multi-year role player. Kids so so young still. At the same age Clint spent most of the year in the d league.
I projected him as backup center ahead of Nene prior to preseason. I still believe he will do well. Some growing pains expected. Gives us some center with height that can hit 3-pointers. It will payoff by season’s end.
Melo also was guarding Tobias Harris twice when he saw Hartenstein's guy coming to set a pick and shuffled back like an offensive lineman in pass protect before the guy got within 5 feet of him leaving Hartenstein on an island with Harris. Thanks for the high five tho.
The kid's got size. That used to be a good thing in the old NBA. In today's league though he maybe just too slow. It's not like you need a true center that much any more. Teams go small. If Hartenstein can give us 10 min a night against teams with true bigs that maybe good enough.
Right now he's got a rebounding issue. That along with his defense has to drastically improve. Gotta quit dancing around when the ball goes up, get his butt down and start banging on somebody and creating space under the rim.
I was at this game. Dude was pretty flustered by the end of the 3rd quarter flub. Head was down, tail between his legs. Poor guy. He's got potential just needs some burn -- Melo actually showed himself to be a bit of a leader after this happened. He came over and gave the rook a nice pep talk when he really needed one.
