Knicks move to 5-0 w/o Melo
Melo is a scorer! Dantoni retarded a$$ had him playing point basically which is not his job! Once he gets back to his roots of scoring and remembers to move they ball he'll be back hitting fade away jumper on the likes of Rudy gay, iggy and lebron in No time Ugh
the problem for him is steve novak is doing melo's job very well right now. if melo can come back and (degrading as this is) play a steve novak role than they are going to be better with him. he need to play D, hit open shots, and only create his own shot on broken plays. i dont see this happening but that is how he would successfully fit into the 5-0 offense
Works on Trade Machine and doubt Orlando will get a better offer. That front line for NY would be scary with lots of movable pieces and depth. Three bigs to run pick and roll with Lin and shooters around them. Scary team and Orlando has an All-Star to rebuild around.
Melo is a "scorer" who is shooting 39% from the field and 29% from three. And he's taking almost 19 shots a game about 4 of which are threes. That's incredibly inefficient scoring. A large part is that he relying on taking people one on one which is not his biggest weapon. He is a shooter in the purest sense and the lack of open looks (most of the time this year he's spent fading away) is really not helping. With Lin playing the point and Melo moving off the ball we could really see him come into his own. I feel like relatively Melo's stock is low right now (for a perenial all star), they couldn't get what they should for a player of his caliber right now..
D'Antoni trying to make Melo the point forward was his way of accomodating for Melo's ball-dominant/stopping tendencies without going to Melo isolations every play. If Melo can be a scorer who plays off the ball more often and saves his isolations for the end of the shot clock and the fourth quarter then the Knicks will be able to make it work.
Melo played well with Andre Miller as a pass first PG during his early Denver career so he can play off the ball and with Lin doing ball carrying they can spread the floor and allow Melo to get quality shots.
If I was the NY coaches, I'd try to drill into Melo look for quality shots, spread the floor, draw double-teams as they have to defend you as you are MELO. Tell him that the team looked good without him, fire him up and hope he drops 30 points per night which he can easily do.
the fact that the Knicks are winning with Lin and minus Melo/Stat is more of an indication that D'Antoni is not a good coach as far as meshing talent.
at this level, you have to formulate a winning system and although some may not be 100% happy with their roles, they have to buy in to that system. if they dont, then the team should look at making adjustments. if they do and the team wins, then everyone wins.
Melo must be getting pretty frustrated, he made a sarcastic response to a tweet by a fan which said "I wonder if Melo knows how terrified Knicks fans are of him returning." The fact that he made a point of responding is an indication that he doesn't like this whole Linsanity at all.
I think Melo is going to surprise people when he returns. He's watched this team's success without him while he's been out and I think he'll adapt his game to fit in.
I think we'll see more ball movement, movement without the ball, catching and shooting, and more quick decisions like one/two dribble pull-ups.
And then when the game is on the line, we'll see him be the closer he's supposed to be.
There is something going on in Madison Garden besides Jeremy Lin. In fact Jeremy Lin is just the face of it. Because when all the hoopla is over with the Knicks are 5-0 in their last 5 games. And the Knick fans are the most desperate fans on earth. To me the streak can continue with Amare's return no problem. Even when B.Diddy is ready he can play the 2 guard or be a spark off the bench no problem. But there's an elephant in the room. He's 6-8 roundish shape and you can find him courtside with a bow tie looking very overpaid. His name is Carmelo Anthony but can he find his place in this reinvigorated offense? If he doesn't he'll be gone before D'antonio...