James ennis is just not starting material. Second unit is fine with EG and GG as spark. Pringles needs to act quick or risk getting Mchale'd.
Dude........... Melo looked like the worst player on the floor. 3/10 from the floor. 1/5 from 3. -20 in +/- Passed up open shots, made other poor decisions.
Melo said he needs to start...It's happening...after 1 game " But Anthony, who had never before been held to single digits in a season opener, missed his final six shots from the floor. He said his new role as a reserve isn't an excuse for not getting in a rhythm, but Anthony acknowledged that it's a challenging transition. "It's challenging mentally more so than anything, having to prepare for the game differently," Anthony said. "Other than that, it's a challenge all the way around. It's just a matter of how I'm going to react to that challenge and accepting that challenge, which I am, which I will do. "For me, at this point, it's more about what I have to do for the sake of the team instead of trying to just go out there and do whatever or trying to have a specific role. Every night will be different, but for the most part, it is a challenge, but it's something that I'll get used to quick."
For me Ennis is barely NBA level player, yet alone starter on a conteder. His defense isn't as advertised as of now, and his offense is absent. The guy just runs and jumps
I do think he should start Melo but that may not be the way it is all season. Ennis just isn't ready to play with the starters yet and he has very little timing and chemistry with Harden and Paul. The other issue is Gordon and Melo are coming off the bench at the same time trying to do the same thing, score. We had this same problem when we had both Gordon and Williams coming in at the same time. They both cut into each other's shots and rhythm enough to make them both worse. This gets even more noticeable as a problem when Green comes in too especially if Harden is in because then everyone is standing around waiting for Harden to pass to them and Harden shoots less trying to set them up all while very little defense is being played. Also, when the starters are all in, the Pels just focused on Paul, Harden, and Capela, leaving Ennis and Tucker open. Tucker hit shots but this strategy took the ball out of our stars' hands and made the game PJ vs Davis. Meanwhile, PJ was also having to run around trying to cover Davis, Randall, and Mirotic all at the same time. Honestly though, couldn't have asked for a worse first opponent I think as the Pels size creates real problems with our switching defense. I wouldn't blow this loss too out of proportion but I do think Melo should start over Ennis until he can outplay him with some kind of consistency.
What happened to Lou Williams after he couldn't co-exist with Gordon off the bench? Did they make him a starter?
Hell no, he wasn't exactly good yesterday, in fact i didn't like the idea of finishing the second quarter with him and Capela on the bench. I also don't like that at some point in the first half he was starting to launch long 2s and having the ball more than Gordon, EG is better than him and he should get/handle the ball more than Melo. I just hope Mike has some sort of (good) idea of what a defensive rotation should be and doesn't go with the offensive lineup every ****ing time we need to make a comeback or in crunch time...
MDA NEEDS TO START! Start pulling his head out of his ass with these smallball lineups that can't (or won't) defend or grab rebounds. And I love PJ but he doesn't have the lift to finish over length at the 5. They have 17 centers on the roster and we're playing a 6'5 backup center. MDA is going to to have to learn to trust one of these other bigs on the roster or the Rox are going to have an issue all year vs long athletic teams who pound them inside.
Melo is a streaky dude, he has some miraculous shooting nights and then he has those mediocre and bad shooting nights.