Melo actually had a good game against GS last season and I see no one addressed my point that Melo has been one of the best ISO players in the NBA after saying that he was a bad ISO player. Even last year he was comparable to Westbrook in ISO situations (on less ISOs too) and previous years, as in literally the year right before that, he was one of the best ISO players each year in the NBA. Of course if you judge him by 3 point shooting only he's going to look like a bad player. Of course, he's always been average at that. If you judge him on what he's actually good at then you could see how he'd be useful here and there aren't any stats that show he's regressed in ISO situations. Doing this and saying "See, he's a bad player" is like judging Giannis on his 3 point %. You know it's not the main part of his game so why judge him so harshly on that? These are the ISO stats per game, him compared to Westbrook This is from the 16-17 season... Ignore percentile because it takes into account everyone that has played and would put Marshon Brooks in the 99% because of small sample size... So really, did he really regress or is it just that he was forced to play spot up shooter (like Oladipo) and probably played out of rhythm the entire game? I'm not really sure that is regression when he was a better ISO player than Westbrook last season...he was the most efficient ISO player on his team last year and got the less ISO attempts... If your argument is that "Well, he can only play spot up shooter here therefore the fit is bad." Then you are right. If your argument is that he's a bad player and no matter what the fit is bad, I can't go with that. He's not a 3 and D guy, he gets buckets in ISO situations. Let him do that and he's going to be pretty efficient, at least more effective than a stretch four that is too scared to shoot. In my mind Harden and CP3 have too large of a workload, therefore, Carmelo could get plenty of ISO work here. Playing with the 2nd unit (He can start, that is irrelevant for a good coach, just stagger the minutes) and he'd be good for that. When Harden and CP3 play with him he'll still get shots, more spot up shots, (which he's again...AVERAGE at...) but we know both Harden and CP3 have no issue with passing it off to the hot hand and letting them go. As for his defense he is again an improvement over Ryno. To be fair to Ryno, he was caught on Curry multiple times and when Curry is hot no one can guard him so meh... At the end of the day, I trust MDA, I trust CP3, and I trust Harden to let him thrive on ISO ball as they have. This is a team after all that lets Gerald Green have the green light. At the end of the day, it comes down to coaching and the leadership of the team. I don't think the team loses anything from him ISOing... I guess less shots from streaky 3 point shooters...but that...more than anything outside of CP3 being hurt...is why we lost in the WCFs...because we depended on streaky 3 point shooters and they went cold. Truth is. Melo is not a streaky ISO player, he's still good at that, and going by one year of playing with Westbrook? He could still be very good at that. If your argument is age, well when comparing to his own teammates he has them beat at it despite his old age.
The problem is, to be an efficient iso player, you have to be really really REALLY good at it. Only Paul and Harden can really produce efficient offense from it. Saying Melo is comparable to Westbrook in iso situations isnt exactly a good thing. I dont think he's worse defensively than Anderson, its just not possible. I'm only really entertaining this idea cause really it might be all we have to work with.
Yes, Westbrook is not an elite ISO player despite how people feel about it. He chucks up stupid shots. Melo's shots are actually just a masterpiece in the triple threat. He doesn't take bad shots. Fadeaway jumpers are not bad shots when you are shooting over people as Durant, LMA, and Dirk have shown (Westbrook often is not...). Westbrook just uses his speed to score in most situations, Melo is a technician in how he scores much like Harden. This is why as long as he plays he's going to have these flashback games because athleticism when he was in his prime elevated him to a HOF player but he's super skilled up, he can occasionally explode for big games if his body is feeling well etc etc Harden is historically one of the best ISO players ever. So it's not fair to even compare Melo to him either but previous seasons (before playing with Westbrook) he has been one of the best ISO players and one of the more efficient ones. Also yeah, I've always said that I'm for the Melo deal because I expect to strike out on Lebron and PG13. I guess another sneaky good move to get outside of Melo is Tyreke...but again...we don't have the cap space for that unless we deal with the Rhino in the room.
I understand, I get where you are coming from. But overall our offense takes a hit when he takes those shots. For him to be effective he has to hit over 50% from mid range. The only players that I know of capable of doing that are Paul, Durant, Aldridge(maybe...maybe idk how i feel about him) and Chris Middleton. Still I think at this point as sad as it might be, getting rid of Anderson for him might be the only way. Only thing is, I dont want our situations to be reversed with Okc next year. That would suck.
