I'm glad Melo has turned it around. I always prefer "all-time" guys to go out as contributors rather than has-beens.
Melo seems to have practiced his spot up 3. He is having the second best 3pt shooting season of his career. I guess having been tossed aside for a while made him finally realized that if he wanted to be useful, he needed to adapt to the new reality. He is no longer the ball dominant star scorer. He can help a team as a good role player taking shots created by the real stars. In a way, Dwight has come to the same realization too.
I wish we had kept him but his defense was the worst with the rockets. And I remember him bricking a lot too.
He only played 10 to 13 official games before they axed him. Even I can't say with a straight face that's fair to him. Let's face it, CP3 played like shet too, and guys like MCW were let go after him. That's how they treated him, a scape goat, kept scrubby MCW longer. I wish the organization never signed him, would have spared us this crappy chapter....
You have to consider the context. We got him cheap only because he was bought out, not because he has accepted being a minimum player. He was still viewed by a lot of people a "star" player, only maybe having declined a little. Remember a lot of CF posters dreamed of having him as the third creator when either Harden or CP3 sat? I am pretty sure that's what he thought of himself too. He allegedly was willing to do whatever the team asked of him. Even if that was true, I don't think he was capable of doing what the Rockets really needed him to do. Melo was still the usual Melo, who was an inefficient midrange scorer and a low percentage spot up 3pt shooter. If you look at how he plays now, you can see that he has become a spot up shooting role player, very different from when he was with the Thunder and with us. Kudos to him for finally willing to reinvent himself. He is still a poor defender. But at least he fits well with their offense. And since he was still the usual Melo, the media circus surrounding his play time and off the bench role was so distracting it's not even funny. And the team was losing. They needed Jeff Bzdelik back. All these pointed to stopping the bleeding as quickly as possible or the season would be lost. They shouldn't have signed him in the first place. The temptation of getting him on the cheap was just too great for Morey who had coveted him for a long time.
I am not really mad at the FO, breh. They are a PR nightmare at times. Just at the sentiment that these 'fans' have that Melo bricked his way out of the Rockets stint. That's just wrong to me. He didn't show up in his best shape, so did Chris Paul. Star player expectations? The Rockets didn't pay him much if at all , I think Atlanta did at that time. Media circus? You mean the media circus surrounding Morey after the infamous tweet? Huh. Morey can create it himself. Of course his inefficiency led to teams not signing him, the Rockets gig didn't help him either.
Melo was not a low percentage spot up shooter. He was like 37% at okc before coming here. I cant believe people here still wont admit they were wrong and they got rid of him for jeff bzdelik.
When organizations asked for olympic Melo, it was a nice way saying, will you be willing contribute as a decent 6th / 7th man? At OKC, they tried to fit him in starter or bench, it didn't work out. He was a starter his whole life, He wasn't ready at OKC nor Rockets. Humble Melo didn't come out until after his gap year with the Rockets. Rockets painted a villain because people felt bad, any other team could have picked him up, they didn't until Portland. The body language in the interview at 2:18. About coming off the bench: "(I want to) know that ahead of time. game to game. (Rockets) we may want you to do this tonight. I've a clear understanding of what my role is.". He basically saying he was willing to come off the bench on occasions, for certain opponents, but not permanently. Wanted to be in the line up that finished the game. He shot 32.8% 3pt with us, but 38.5% this year with blazers. If he shot near league average with the Rockets, that could have cemented his case to stay. Rockets went with the performance they had at the time. With an aging star, the upside is lower. Back then the big 3 was still in vogue, Daryl (and OKC) took a gamble. Now it's more the big 2. Portland needed offense when their guys were injured. Portland is 27th best defense in the league in 2019-2020. Not saying it's Melo's fault, because Blazers had other trades, but he didn't elevate them per se. For context, Blazers were 16th in defense in 2018-2019, ironically Rockets was 17th in 2018-2019. Blazers an ISO heavy team, needed scoring and didn't require Melo to play stellar defense or be lights out at 3pt. Gap year Melo / humble Melo, Blazers reaping benefits of a more motivated Melo, after Rockets played the stern parent. Personally I'm happy Melo got his redemption, but the Rockets letting him go was never personal, it was more about the fit with the team.
The ironic thing is they pretended they replaced Melo with Gary Clark. Once Clark started to brick houses, he got tossed as well. No patience, that is a huge stigma. It is nothing personal but sometimes I with they would be more like a big family. The Blazers are just that and Melo got the respect he deserved..... no sour grapes from me here.
Melo being a former franchise star, there was higher expectations. Gary being a young guy, I think can be argued for more patience. For Gary, there's just limited minutes to go around. If Rockets just kept him, he wouldn't have had a chance to shine in Orlando playoffs. He even got a post game interview at the bubble.
MDA last year didn't have WB and small ball, so it was more traditional. It wasn't clear who is a bad fit and who isn't. It took them more than a year and several trades to figure out.
Melo is in better shape and hitting the 3 better than he was with us. That’s his mistake. We would have kept him. Probably cut him after trading Paul though, he’s not better than Green or any of our starters, we would never play him at the end of a game (because any hybrid guard can toast him) and he’d sulk. If we can tolerate that level of defense, I’ll take Ben Mclemore over Melo thank you very much. Ridiculous that LeBron is not toasting him. Harden or Westbrook would and will if the blazers make it. We would drop 140 points a night against the blazers. I don’t think it’s a coincidence he’s part of a crappy defense.
Him leaving NY, all the drama with the coach and Phil Jackson. Exits to OKC with Russ and PG, that didn't work out (after just one year). His league reputation wasn't high. Imagine if you're are his next employer (GM and coaches) and you saw that very public NY breakup. It's nice that a player has self confidence. But respectfully to Melo, I'm not sure, if the 2018 Melo knew any teams who took a chance on him did so with precaution. Also not sure if he was expecting the coach to sit him down before every one or two games, delicately dance around the conversation on minutes. Expectations is important, but it's probably not the white glove treatment he may be used to. Melo is still playing his game. He hasn't evolve per se like a Vince Carter or a Jason Kidd at the end of their career. It is what it. He's loving it in Portland, so good for him.
He might have had it in his mind even then. It's not like we played any taller forwards who didn't end up getting traded off. Maybe Melo was too tall even then for anyone not playing center.
I have said this many times and some people still don't seem to get it. Melo was a star player in many people's eyes, including himself. He was not a Gary Clark or Danuel House, or Ben McClemore, or Austin Rivers, whom you could just cut his minutes when he didn't shoot well or missed defensive assignments. You put a lot of pressure on the coach by having to play a guy when you may not want to. That could be morale killer if not handled with care. If we were playing well, I am sure he wouldn't be cut so soon. But we were losing, not entirely his fault of course. His skill set was not what we needed to fix the problems at the time. And being who Melo was, we couldn't put him in the doghouse. I don't think you can call it scapegoating. It's just eliminating one issue among others. The mistake was in signing him. It was touted as a "low risk" signing because of the cheap contract. But the FO underestimated the intangible issues that came with Carmelo Anthony the star player.
