I think its beyond repair. Even if they work it out, its only a temporary band aid. By temporary I mean may be 10 games. Morey and Mike D knew what they were getting with Melo. He may not be a superstar but he is a HOFer and still has that superstar mentality so no way you relegate him to the bench playing behind undrafted rookies and scrubs
You can't let him start if he has a superstar mentality. In the 10 games he was here he was the same old Melo. Ball stopper when he gets the ball, poor defense (not an effort issue) and refusing to stop taking those long mid range shots. So you want him to get MORE minutes and take possessions away from our best players? Every possession that ends in Melo's hands instead of Harden, Paul or Capela is a worse outcome.
And you didn't know that before he came here? How long you been watching Melo play ball? What made you think he be any different? This is mostly on the organization, less so on Melo
No I agree with you there. I DID know it before he came here. I don't know why the organization was convinced it would be different, nor do I get why so many Rocket fans were convinced it would be different. "Olympic Melo"
It may very well be beyond repair. If it is, I've already stated, this one is on MDA. You don't bring in Melo to park him on the bench because he doesn't defend well. You bring in Melo to score the ball. The hypocrisy here is obvious. MDA has never cared about defense. He's never coached defense. He's an offensive coach. And it's beyond obvious what he pulled here with Melo. Why would Melo have come here without some assurances that he would get minutes and scoring opportunities? Everybody is losing here if they don't work it out. We lose. We've now got Hartenstein out there for 10-15 minutes, we're straining Capela at 35-36 minutes, and Clark and Ennis are being overplayed. None of those guys, with the possible exception of Capela, are as good a basketball player as Melo is right now. They're significantly below him over the course of an 82-game season and even the playoffs. Hartenstein shouldn't be playing. And Ennis and Clark should be playing situational spot minutes. None of those three guys would even make the Warriors roster for crying out loud. Anybody that believes the narrative that Melo is now a worse player than those guys...is a basketball idiot. We're losing here if Melo leaves. And I'm afraid Melo is going to lose too. They need to work it out. This is the stubborn side of MDA that I can't stand. It's these kinds of decisions that are the reason MDA hasn't won a championship. He's as flawed as Melo is. Two stubborn flawed basketball geniuses that are both too proud to make it work.
Pro: Hartenstein works really hard. Con: This is how well Hartenstein plays when he's working really hard.
Dude plays like he did a bump of coke at the scorers table before checking in. Funniest **** to see him play.
I think it's mainly because we don't really have a great option at backup center. I think Nene played that role well last year and it went underappreciated I think. I do like the fact that IH is only 20 years old and plays hard. He's not hard to root for. I think he'll look much better once(if?) he can learn to defend without fouling - something that many rookies aren't good at (something Capela also had to learn I think). IH does seem to have great attitude so here's hoping that he can reach his potential
Hartenstein is actually improving before our eyes. Still a lot of head scratching sequences, but seems to get it on defense. He always plays really hard, going for every offensive rebound and loose ball
