meh I dont agree, Ryno the 3 point only shooter can't seem to find a shot anymore when teams figured out he wont/cant take any shots that's not a 3. Melo just needs to score and diversify our offense, it got extremely predictable towards the end of the season.
exactly, we shouldn't depend on the 3 ball so much that we can't win games if we have an off night from 3
midrange in rhythm might be a more efficient shot than 3 when you are not feeling it or a turnover or a layup that results in a pulled hamstring or a dunk that results in a shoulder dislocation
Yes, our offense was so disappointing on the way to: 4-1 against Thibs 4-1 against Jazz/Gobert - probably the best defensive team in the regular season 3-2 against Warriors - probably the best defensive team in the playoffs The difference between Ryno and Melo is the threat of a drive to the basket. That's what Ryno was lacking. He wasn't lacking a midrange game. The threat of Carmelo hitting 40% of his midrange shots is stand up comedy material in the Warriors locker room.
I don't care how he shoots it. If he's hitting them as efficiently as a layup, by all means go for it. Truth: he is never ever ever ever going to be that good from midrange, and he never was. It took CHRIS PAUL for MDA/Morey to say "fine take it". Chris Paul is a midrange god you would put up against any player in history from that territory. We're talking top 10 all time, if not top 3. The only thing we need from Melo is to be able to hit 3's, drive to the basket on aggressive close outs and in the event that he is left completely open for 3+ seconds in midrange then he needs to bury that shot. What we don't need: jostle left to right and right to left only to marginally rise up and take a midrange jumper with a defender's hand in his face.
the melo semen cloud will dissipate. Dude hasn't changed idk why people think he will all of a sudden now
Harden looked to be in midseason form …. Melo looked like he was Grandpa , no elevation just getting by playing the old man game.
how many of these wins where we looked like the guns blazing Rockets at their best in the regular season?
In the regular season we play bad teams, not so much in the playoffs, teams also give WAY more effort on defense in the postseason, yet we were still top of the NBA in playoff differential after the first two rounds.
Why would we look like the guns blazing best Rockets against the best defenses in the league? We looked like a team who's offense is so potent that the best defensive teams in the league couldn't contain it. To put that in perspective, the Jazz shut down the Thunder and the Warriors absolutely suffocated San Antonio, New Orleans and Cleveland. They weren't able to do that with us till Paul went down. When healthy, our offense and defense were tremendous. But it was our defense that could have used a bit of help, not our offense. If you make your argument from any perspective other than: "we didn't look historically incredible against 2 of the best defensive teams in the NBA", you would see that everything else points to how we are doing everything so damn right offensively. We are FAR outperforming our talent in that regard. Other teams dream about reaching our efficiency. We went toe to toe with a team starting Durant/Curry/Thompson and 2 excellent passers in Iggy and Draymond. We were starting 3 offensively limited players. Offensively, MDA and Morey CRUSHED it with the hand they were given. To now go back on that would be kind of insane. By your logic, Warriors are not good enough offensively either since they didn't look guns blazing against us. That's not how you measure things. You measure this kind of thing by seeing how our scoring compares to others scoring on the playoff Warriors or the Jazz. Paul takes midrange. Harden will take a few sometimes. To now throw in some more for Melo would be disastrous. To have his defender standing there to contest him while also being able to disrupt Harden/Paul is even more disastrous. Frankly, I can't believe I even have to defend something so basic: Melo taking contested 3's is a nightmare. You can qualify it how you want like "if he's open" or "if he's in rhythm". Whatever it is, a contested mid range shot by anyone but an elite mid range shooter is a bad shot in comparison to the shots we got in the first 5 games against the Warriors.
1) Ariza is in Phoenix. We are talking about shots that could potentially go to Harden, Gordon, Paul and Capela. 2) The game is offense and defense. When you compare players, compare their net value. I have 0 interest in exchanging 6 cherry picked positives thrown back and forth. Melo is not going to be able to render Jimmy Butler and Donovan Mitchell meaningless the way Ariza did, and his offense is where he needs to make up the difference. 3) The best thing to do is not dig your heels in and just be team-oriented and see that it is better for Melo to shoot 3's and drive to the basket. He is more efficient there. Why wouldn't he want to be more efficient? Why should he take a mid range jumper that is not cutting it vs our team efficiency?
Hey... this guy gets it! It's not about not taking mid-range shots. It's about taking effective and efficient mid range shots. Which CP3 did. And which Melo hasn't shown he can do in years. Nevermind the fact that Melo maybe could get to be a decent enough mid-range shooter... IF he was a capable enough three point shooter. But he was horrible in that area last year. He's not going to have a GREAT pump fake three... because he doesn't have a great three, plain and simple. I wish he would practice threes if only to make his mid range game more effective. Also they basically never pass to each other in this video. Also, Melo looked even better in his offseason videos last year. Also, I just wanted to say also again.
