[SI] Melo is still shaken by his short Houston stint

Yeah, Moreyball was never the great communicator with players. He could have at least told Melo and then the media, "This isn't about Carmelo Anthony's ability to play. It's about the fit with this roster. I apologized to Melo. This one's on me." Or whatever.

 

lol

 

Melo is actually one of my favorite players of all time but his fit here and the timing was bad.

I’ll always be grateful for the Melo Rockets bobble head though.

 

Never liked Melo, so don't care

 

Every snowflake is special and unique.

 

he should have let J Lin keep the jersey

 

summer of melo was a disaster from the start. the beginning of the downfall after a historic 17-18 season. called it from the beginning. The MELOOF's were full of stupidity

 

I mostly blame Morey. It was when I realized Morey's MO had completely underestimated the human factor in basketball. Melo was a great basketball talent and he came cheap after he was waived. But it was clear as daylight that (1) Melo would not change his playing style to fit the team's need, despite whatever he said in public; (2) MDA and Jeff Bz (especially Jeff) didn't like him; (3) Melo would be a huge distraction to the team if he was not happy; and (4) he and his fans would blame the Rockets of mistreating him if it didn't work out. But Morey ignored all these likely issues and made that infamous "the key to a championship formula" mural. SMH.

 

My understanding was that there was a Bizdelik ultimatum: him or Melo. Can anyone confirm?

 

I don’t think Morey is blameless but when you are tasked to improve the team but do so while not spending more money, risks have to be taken. There’s only so many things you can realistically do.

Melo isn’t a risk I wanted to take. Probably most people wouldn’t have wanted to take that risk, but desperate times…

 

Melo in 2014 at 29 with that free agency mural, wasn't even close to the fat scrub he was in 2018 at 34. you make it seem like that mural was made that summer of 18' when the rockets for forced to scrape the bottom of the barrel for rotational help on a perennial contender due to cheapness

 

it was a great value pricing pickup - but too many intangibles were ignored - or at least not sufficiently addressed...
idk what went down behind the scenes... but it sure as hell looked like Bzdelik quit on account of Melo - and only returned after he had been banished... which based on the fact that Melo got him fired prior - doesnt seem like a stretch... lol
Seemed obvious to me that MDA didnt really want to acclimate him...
and then Melo seemed clueless throughout the process...
i can acceptable 'basketball reasons - ie fit'... but i dont think thats what this was...
regardless of whatever stats and breakdowns folks wanna point to... lol

Morey ignoring the 'human factor'... imo

 

Sorry . . you don't get to sh*t on someone's dream
then expect them to celebrate and help you continue yours
BZdelik NEVER got another Head Coaching job after Melo torpedo'd his career
So yea
I'd be a whole bucket of "F*CK THAT GUY!"

Rocket River

 

Carmelo is in denial. Dude was straight awful when he was here. A complete disaster on both ends of the court. There's no way to know if there were reasons other than basketball that contributed to it, however, it was easily defensible from a purely basketball standpoint. He was absolutely killing the team and was unplayable.

 

he really should try to get over it ...

 

So, what I learned from that whole fiasco is that you have to avoid signing these old former stars unless you plan on giving them significant playing time the whole year no matter what their impact is.

Melo didn't play well in his role in Houston and they wanted to play other guys who performed better in the role they had (3 and D). They looked for trades but nothing transpired. They then waived him for his benefit. I'm sure the reason they didn't give him an explanation is because they thought the explanation would sound worse than saying nothing.

But, I will say while Melo underperformed in the role they gave him, he could have performed better if we had a more creative and flexible coach. Melo was a rhythm shooter and had a post game. They could have weaved in more actions for him to take advantage of mismatches. The team desperately needed some variation to the game plan.

 

Yeah, my bad for making it like the mural was in '18.

People thought since it was cheap, it would be a low risk high reward deal. I'm pretty sure Morey thought the same. But the risk was much higher than they thought because of who Melo was. That's the "human factor" I am talking about. Basketball success is not just about talent and money.

 

lol at this. offense was never the problem. They were the #2 rated offense that year. The actual problem was they went from the #7 defense in the league in 17-18 to a shitty #21 with Melo. After they dumped him, they rose to #17 by seasons end but still nothing to be highlighting after being one of the elites just months prior.

You're over here talking about offense like that was the true issue. who gives af about that. the role the rockets needed and was clearly missing was the 3&D wing void that ariza left. and they spent years trying the worst scrubs to replace it. Not even close. It had nothing to do with coach, creativity, game plan or any of that nonsense you're trying to throw out there. nobody is changing a sorry ass defensive player into a good one. he completely catapulted the rockets on that end of the floor and it was just commons sense what was going on for anyone who knew wtf they were watching

he was so pitiful that he embarrassingly couldn't even hit 1 shot in 11 attempts vs his old team that dumped him. that last bucket was at the end of the game in a blow out when they let him score.

 

it would have been different if melo was coming into replace some offensive spark off the bench. He wasn't. With Ariza gone a true 3 and D void was left. Ariza out and Melo in, its not exactly rocket science what suffers and the massive drop off on the defensive side of the floor. The defensive identify immediately was destroyed. And that was the results we all saw on the floor. The rockets were a true elite team in 17-18 when on both ends of the floor they were elite. That was the last time we ever saw that, which is a damn shame when the foundation was already in place that only at most needed some tweaks and additions with the right transactions

it's a low risk high reward only in the situation that he comes in not having to fill a huge void. Asking him to be some full time 3 and D player was just flat out stupid from the beginning because they were too cheap to sign a real 3 and D wing or make a move for one that was relevant