Not sure this can go anywhere. OKC could have used some Melo buckets, but he shot 38/21. This is a better situation, but it doesn't prevent him from being able to be taken out of a playoff series. Also then you have to butterfly effect the whole thing. Are the Rockets in game 7 with Carmelo? Yes in the same role as Anderson which was 5.7 mpg in 5 games and 2 DNP's, but if going into game 7 he had 2 DNP's and 5.2 mpg, would he really have done much? If he had played more all series, well that changes a lot because that's taking minutes away from guys like Ariza and Tucker who were crucial both offensively (more Tucker) and defensively, and that affects whether the Rockets are even in that position considering how small the margin was in game 4 and 5. So whatever, we'll see how he does this season.
While I agree that Melo is an upgrade over Anderson, they are both crutches on defense. The fault in your reasoning is that Anderson did not play in that series until that point, which is why that series went to game 7 to begin with. Our defense got us there. And we all saw what happened when Anderson finally came on and how Warriors attacked him. Play either Anderson or Melo against the Warriors from the beginning of the series and Warriors finish us off quickly. Their offense targets soft spots.
No, no & no. Melo's defense is bad at times, but he does compete. Anderson's horrific on defense & he doesn't try at all. If we had Melo game 7 we win easily
Faulty reasoning once again. Read my post again....slowly. Jazz exposed Melo's defense to make him unplayable. What makes you think Melo would survive in a seven game series against the Warriors lol.
I don't think that is fair to Anderson, he tries, he just has slow feet, and there's no remedy for slow feet. Also OKC fans will say that Melo did try on defense, it just didn't work because his feet are now slow. Melo is better defensively than Anderson, but he is still below average. Over a season he can help you be marginally better on defense in comparison, but in a series where matchups become very important his ability to be playable against the top teams on defense is still very questionable. Also you totally ignored the reality of what "having Melo in game 7" means, you can't just plug him in to game 7 and ignore what his role is in game 1-6 and if that still allows the Rockets to get to game 7. That's not how reality works.
It was our defense that got us to seven games vs Warriors, not our offense. We played 48 minutes of tough, physical defense against them. You cant out-offense the Warriors. Besides, Melo is not an efficient scorer to begin with. So having him in for offense only, while he shoots a low %, and him being a crutch on defense against the Warriors is not going to get it done. Sorry.
So sick of the arguments about a guy that was released and is on the minimum for the Rockets. He is arguably the 7-9th most important person on the roster. He has a played well enough to make a tangible difference this pre-season. Let’s just leave it at that.
ehh.... it was more he specfically could not guard donovan mitchell, but few can. he is like prime d wade with an outside jumper. anyway, i will maintain that of melo's struggles were due to poor coaching. billy donovan's lineups were absolutely ridiculous a lot of times. he didnt maximize his talent by a long shot. he doesn't think outside of the box. he continued to play paul george as a point forward with the second unit even if was their largest net negative by wide margin. he started the year letting melo play with the 2nd unit and had one of the highest rated bench production during that time. for some reason he changed it and the bottom fell out from under the thunder. PG is not a primary playmaker. also as far as defense, the thunder had one of the top rated defenses before roberson went out, with melo as a starter. good defense is not about having 5 good individual defenders out on the floor. if you have a rim protector, one good wing defender, good communication and discipline you can be a good defensive team. portland was one of the best defensive teams last year even though they have a very small back court that has never been known for defense. james harden is not a good defender. kyrie is not a good defender. its a team game on both ends. the defense is not made or broken on melo anymore than it was on ariza. great offense will beat great defense most of the time. so im excited about the potential with melo here. if you think the rockets don't need any more offense, you're wrong. like it or not the rockets are only a two star team. the rockets go through offensive droughts because of this. i believe melo can definitely help with this. he is a HOF and he wants to win. he has a chip on his shoulder. he also loves big moments. you can't have enough of those type of players. anything that can take some pressure off of james is good.
I agree with your conclusion, but not your reasoning, Ryno did compete, he is just slow to cover faster guard, in some situation Melo doesn't complete, but Melo is much superior offensive player than Ryno, he can still get a bucket in crunch time while Ryno is just s spacer
Perhaps Melo's 'irrational' confidence in his game will be what Ryno could not muster when faced with 'scary' challenges.
irrational? hes like top 20 scorers of all time i think. rhyno couldn't hit a shot if arena had red colors lol
it will... gordon was shooting poorly the entire year excluding one month(march i think) but he remained confident and continued chucking and he was instrumental in us winning games
