He was less of the problem than the overall problem created by the owner and management to add more star power. The wrong kind of star power based on the Olympic Melo concept. A concept based on couple games in a tournament where he was just one guy among many. So in all he was troubling, also it seemed CP3 was genuinely concerned about him, also probably messing with his head a little bit in the first 10 games. Even if they say he wasn't a distraction, his demise became a minor one.
I also think it got nothing to do with him what happened afterwards, Harden having his 30-50 pt run, Morey making the necessary, lucky moves.
For Melo he seemed pretty chill with the Rockets -- he worked out hard and kept himself fit, when it was clear early on it wasn't going to work I don't recall him causing problems or really saying much of anything unlike his final days with OKC. I am surprised no one has picked him up, but it may have Lakers or retirement. The main problem for the Rockets early was injuries and lack of depth -- regardless I'm just happy everything is falling into place.
His defense is a liability so going into the playoffs nobody is picking him up. They pick up 3 and D players for their benches. And he is picky, he won't go to a bottom seed team. Latter will play younger players over him anyway.
Hope he can find a niche. It seems he hasn't made peace with a role that suits him. I would particularly toss the Offense aside and concentrate on boxing out, what he does best, rebounding. Getting possessions for others. Furthermore work and refine his passing game. Maybe he can even work on his defensive positioning. Parking outside the 3pt line or just ISO post play are not enough.
The problem in the past was who was to blame. Every one of those guys acted with best intentions. Morey wanted to add another threat on Offense for cheap. Melo wanted to play ball, revamp his image. His former Team US teammates rooted for him to succeed. .....no idea what Fertitta at that specific time thought though. The record was horrific at the start of the season.
Not at all, he is only a role player now. Without him we probably would have had the same start to the season, we were not ready to go and no one were hitting shots at all. That was our problem early, we couldn't hit any open shots
definitely plenty. grab someone who didn't fit in a ton of aspects. its no wonder he had a hand in the rockets terrible start. once he was subtracted, it only made the rockets better
I get the feeling that Riley is still pissed the Rockets tried to steal Bosh and FORCED him to give Bosh a 5 year deal instead of a 4 year deal. Riley lost LeBron and his hubris was not going to let himself lose Bosh as well. F*cked up his cap situation.
