The guy played three games with a broken hand and you say he quit? I am no Lebron fan, and never have been, but that's a silly statement. Sure, he self-inflicted that broken hand by losing his temper, but at least he got out and tried to play. We had guys who quit, and I am not naming names, because we all know who didn't perform even without injuries, and who couldn't stay healthy to perform when we needed them.
One major difference I see from this situation to the Thunder situation is that this is happening early. He has meet with CP3, Mike and Morey. He has had conversations about his role already. If Melo wasn't ready to accept the role the Rockets laid for him then he wouldn't be here. In OKC they traded for him like a day or 2 before training camp started. There was no plan in place to utilize Melo. There were no conversation about how they would use him or how he would like to be used. There was no plan in place for Melo at OKC. They had a plan for Russ/PG duo and Melo was an after thought because he was a last minute addition. Here assume this trade gets official soon and the buyout happens we will have all offseason to develop Melo's role with the team and the offense. So I hope that will be a better situation for us. Melo made the famous comment "WHO ME?" to the media was because they didn't have any conversation about what his role would be before the press conference. Also just because we will have a better situation for Melo doesn't mean Melo will have anything left in the tank to give. And if that is the case then you bench or cut him. Also there is two sides of the court. Everyone is talking about how you can't play Melo against the Warriors because of defense. But on the other end of the court Melo still demands gravity towards him. Maybe they don't help as deep in the paint as they did against Luc or Ariza. It will force them to run the defense different because no way are they going to switch Steph onto Melo in the post he will get killed physically down there. So while there will be some negatives from Melo you hope the positives out shine those.
I'm curious what's going through Carmelo's brain that caused him to sign for the min when the MLE had clearly been carved out for him. It's not even a prospect of "he could get more" ... clearly the Rockets themselves were counting on giving him more. Perhaps he was sold some specific plan on how the savings would be used to bring a ring. No complaints here though! With the current remaining free agents, the best way to use the exception is to hold it for the buyout deadline, which would give us a huge advantage over other contenders in recruiting the ring-chasing veterans who secure their freedom from crappy teams.
I'm making a donation to FACES (www.facesautism.org) a charity local to Houston that helps children diagnosed with autism get treatment they need.
I am also aware of that record but as I mentioned, that was not the Luc we had (at least from eye test) prior to the injury. He was very effective driving and making those 3 ptrs. If he was his old self, would we have won more than 80%, IDK? I am not saying we need him to succeed but to me, he played a huge role in making our defense top notch.
Yep. Honestly WTF do we have to lose here? If we didn't get Melo we weren't beating the warriors. We're probably still not beating the Warriors but at least there is some outside shot that this works. If it doesn't, he's gone, and the Rockets can prepare for a FA that includes better players. Sure, we can't waste these last years with CP3 but we were out of options here.
Very excited for Melo especially at the minimum. Too damn bad we couldn’t flip that $20m in cap space that Ryno is wasting for a comparable wing talent to Gordon. Then we’d be set. Well maybe Morey has another Bev or overseas player worth the MLE. Still kind of thinking Morey is going to flip Capela for a Jimmy Butler level talent and shock everyone.
Hopefully we can use part of the MLE to lock up Melton . And also find another lottery ticket type player
"You get what you pay for" is the probably the worst proverb to describe NBA player transactions. Its especially ironic coming from a Rockets fan. We've been the model organization for finding players who have been able to exceed the value of their contracts, before letting them go for their big payday.
I recall hearing very similar arguments when we signed CP3 last year. Losing Ariza hurts, even if he was declining. Losing LMM also hurt, but I trust the Rockets have much more detailed reports abut his injury and body than any of us. LMM can be easily replaced by Ennis. The problem is Ariza as Melo largely replaces Ryno. Does this mean we move up Ego and stagger his minutes with Melo or does Tucker replace Ariza and try to guard the faster wings that he wasn't too effective for? That said, if Melton develops faster than anticipated we will be in a good place for the season.
Am I the only one psyched to see melo on the block after the other team switches against our pnr? Seems easy to me. BBQ chicken. Didn’t have that with any of our players before.
