Educate me if we were to lose Anderson for Melo, who would be playing 4 start of next season and 5? Not saying I am enamored by Anderson, but we only have Nene and Capela, both of them are not 4s, and definitely not going to stretch us.
Carmelo has been fantastic at PF in his career. Skillset-wise, there is nothing we lose from going to Anderson to Carmelo at PF.
There is literally no move that can be made that makes us a favorite against the Warriors. If you are holding out hope for that you should give up and save your eyes from screen watching and your fingers from typing.
I don't know who will have what title, but Ariza will be guarding the perimeter and Melo will be guarding 4s. Melo can't guard the perimeter. If he isn't willing to play 4 we should have zero interest in trading for him. Melo on the perimeter is a worse defensive liability than Ryan Anderson at this point.
Even if that's the case, what's rotation on 4. I see small ball work to some extent. Put Ariza or Melo on Aldridge, Draymond and even Zebo ... But, I am up for some changes nevertheless ... WHYnot
Melo will be at the 4. 1. James Harden 2. Chris Paul (interchangeable with Harden) 3. Ariza 4. Melo 5. Capela And then our bench of Nene, Qi, Gordon, Oliver, and fillers (D-Mo)
Doubt Melo's going to take a back seat, sprint back and forth not having the ball in his hands and take a load out of opposing 4, grab a rebound ... That's just not who is. Even if he says he will do it, not seeing him actually does it consistently. Melo at 4 is a gimmick lineup that will only work maybe for 5 minutes in a few playoff games.
Obviously most don't agree with you on this nor would the type of 4 he'd be asked to play the type you are laying out above. He'll be asked to be the stretch 4 who can also create his own offense. He has to guard 4s though. He can't guard the wings and any lineup that has him guarding the perimeter is a disaster. He's a worse defender than James Harden on the perimeter. Edit: Melo also said last year he was comfortable with the move to PF
Melo is almost a prototypical 4 at this point in the NBA. He played PF for two seasons from 2012 to 2014 and had two of his best seasons of his career putting 24.8 and 24.4 PER respectively. It is no gimmick.
Melo at 4 and capela at 5. Either way we have no 4 off the bench in that scenario so dantoni will go small with the bench unit. Melo thrives as a starting power forward
