No....I’m making it seem as if Melo wasn’t the Rockets only problem. That was the initial (erroneous) premise I challenged. I also asked the person who posted that to show me how Melo was the Rockets ONLY problem early on. He has yet to respond and others are changing the subject.
He was the biggest problem - chemistry was screwed, the defensive coach quit because he hated Melo (allegedly) - yeah, he was a problem. DD
Reasonable fans acknowledge this. I’m challenging the notion that Melo was the ONLY problem. I think it’s arguable that he was even the biggest (that’s still the Anderson signing for me as it’s killed the cap space in the Paul/Harden) era but that’s another argument.
You are being pedantic - for what reason exactly? Who cares if there were other factors when he was clearly one of them and possibly the biggest one? DD
I care because I’m not a fan of revisionist history. 1) Injuries played a high role in the teams slow start. 2) Roster turnover played a role 3) Lack of cap space played a HUGE role (we can thank Anderson for that) 4) The West improved You are known for your less than Stellar takes and I usually ignore them. But your assertion that the minimum signing of Carmelo probably cost the Rockets the #1 seed is just asinine.
Melo simply wasn't very good since about four years ago. People thinking he could be the "Olympic Melo" here was just wishful thinking with no factual basis. And thinking somehow CP3 and Harden would resurrect his career was also wishful thinking. The guy was not a young player still learning to get better. He had formed his playing habit for more than a decade. He was not going to be suddenly transformed. Melo being a good fit here was a long shot to begin with. He has never been a great 3pt shooter. His game has never been catch and shoot so that he could just wait behind the arc for Harden or Paul to feed him the ball. He was basically an ISO player his whole career. But he was not efficient toward the last few seasons. The only thing I hoped for was that he would be a little more useful than Ryno for us. I suspect that Morey knew that it was a long shot. But if he didn't sign him, he ran the risk of see Melo thrive with another team and he would be forever blamed. In that sense, signing him was pretty much a no-brainer. The fact that Morey stopped the experiment so soon shows that he knew it was likely coming from the beginning. That's why he did not hesitate. The thing is, Melo's problem wasn't just on court. When he was benched, the media circus was such a distraction it might have cost us a few game during that stretch.
Actually I am known for honesty, and sometimes people don't want to hear that - my takes are like any fans, some right some wrong. DD
