Good. Let him go to the Lakers, that will be one less team in our path to the playoffs.. Melo is a hindrance to a team now. If he goes to Lakers, he will eventually find his way to the bench and find everything much less accommodating than here.
The only person stifling Carmelo's game is Father Time and there's no offensive system in the NBA that can fix that. If Anthony wants to be the star focal point of a team he'll have to go to China.
Yes, I've watched Toronto and Milwaukee. I agree that they're both very good teams. Toronto is probably the second-best team in the league. We have a lot of holes and are committed to an aging PG past the age where guys at that position usually fall off of a cliff. And here is the crux of the issue. Melo is an insult to himself at this point. He hasn't evolved his game as his athleticism has waned. He's old and incapable of adequately defending the wing. He is going to Allen Iverson route; a blaze of delusional glory. I don't pretend that D'Antoni doesn't share some of the blame here. This is his second stop in a row where he hasn't adequately managed star personalities. He clearly doesn't have the same touch that guys like Kerr and Spoelstra do. This is also his second failed stint with Carmelo. Clearly there is something between the two that isn't easily fixed.
While I hate to do it, and it will not agree with most on here, I have to AGREE with Bholic somewhat here...mostly that this is on MDA. Sure, Melo isn't the Melo of his prime, but Morey knew what he was getting when he brought him here. I'm sure they watched enough film and did enough analytics on Melo to know what needed to be done to make this work. To me this speaks of MDA and maybe a grudge against Melo no matter what MDA says that is politically correct. Melo didn't get a chance to start really even during training camp. MDA was basically already starting Ennis over Melo because he ran like a chicken with his head cut off like Brewer did. While I applaud that type of hustle and effort, I said it then and I will say it now, THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL THAT ENNIS SHOULD BE STARTING OVER MELO. I mean if we had gotten Butler and him and TuckWagon started over Melo, I think Melo could handle that. But if I was him, a 10 time All-Star, ex scoring champ, future Hall of Famer, and can still play the game even if not at the level of my prime, there is no way in hell I would be cool with Ennis (who hasn't done crap in this league) and Gary Clark (an undrafted rookie) starting over me or getting more playing time. It's just disrespectful for a player like Melo to choose to come play for the Rockets for the minimum and the coach doesn't really give him a chance to start after he has started his entire career since damn middle school or something. We already have a bonafide 6th man in Ego, so Melo should have been giving those minutes with the starters ALL OF TRAINING CAMP to try to learn how to play this switching defense. Even if Ennis and Clark play better defense than Melo, Melo deserved the right to have a full training camp with the starters to learn this defense and try to do better in it, based on his history and his potential on offense. MDA is basically saying that Melo is washed, just like a good majority of clutchfans are. I don't agree though because I don't think that you will get one 30 point game this season from either Ennis or Clark. I believe if Melo started, we could get several of those this season and that can ultimately mean winning a few more games and a high seed for the playoffs. Melo should have started and basically been on the same game time log as CP3, which should be somewhere around 32 minutes per game for both, although for different reasons. Melo and Tucker can both play together as wings with Capela at center as well, because Tucker can guard SFs and we switch every damn thing anyway. And if there is ANY TRUTH to what Bholic said about MDA running off coach bigly, then that says a lot also. I like MDA, but he is not incapable of making mistakes. And to me, I said from the preseason and game 1 of the regularly season that he shouldn't have started Ennis over Melo. Would that have solved all of our problems, HECK no. But there wouldn't be this drama about it either, and maybe we would have won another game or two. I guarantee you Morey and Tilman are not happy about MDA's decisions on this, and that's why they are saying what they are to the media and trying to convince Melo to stay. I do believe this is all about Melo wanting to leave. If it was the Rockets, Melo would be released already. Morey, Tilman and CP3 are all probably trying to convince Melo to stay, but I bet the problem is that MDA doesn't really want to play him and definitely not start him. And Morey and Tilman love MDA. So this to me is why everything including that press conference seems and feels so awkward. Just my 2 cents.
Code: https://stats.nba.com/players/playtype-post-up/?Season=2017-18&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&sort=Percentile&dir=-1&CF=GP*GE*60:PossG*GE*1 Last year he was 43.1 percentile. 0.84 PPP. I realize "elite" is just a junk word thrown around for argument's sake ("Is Schaub elite?") but if Melo, in the bottom half of the league at post ups, is "elite", then what does that make the quartile above him? "Super Elite"? Then the top quartile is "Super Duper Elite"?
Appreciate your take. But... 1. The idea of a grudge is speculation. 2. That he didn't get a chance to start is true. But that could really be based on his recent history and what the coaches saw in practice. 3. I think the eye test and statistics show Melo is washed. Not just MDA or clutchfans. He is not an NBA level defender anymore, and that makes the situation of playing time very difficult. His go-to offense is a sort of Bernard King 1980's sort of thing, TBH. He was one of the best ever at it, and more durable than King, with greater range to boot. But other than spot duty, is that relevant to modern offenses? His last three teams say: well, no. Cheers. Sad situation. He'd really have to have swallowed his pride and become a hyper-energetic player on defense to have made this work well.
So basically in a nutshell Holic is saying, " its MDA vs Melo again. Bwhahaha I'm pretty sure we all knew this was going to go down like this. MDA sure we can bring him here, but I'm going to do what's best for thos team. And that's to bring him off the bench, then slowly start cutting his minutes. Melo man I will do whatever but did I just go off for 28 and 24 when Harden went down coach. I still got it and now you're cutting my minutes for a rookie and Green light bricks. The writing was on the wall way before the season started.
So you're trying to tell us that Melo isn't happy coming off the bench and having to play an unfamiliar style? Where on Earth do you come up with these insane one-of-a-kind takes? Why is nobody else reporting this stuff?!?
