mreinman wrote:30 points on 13-20
7 rebounds
9 assists

He may have had better games number wise but he played an absolute perfect game tonight and LEAD this team to a much needed victory

KP is a ways away from being a goto player. Being under DaddyMelo's wing is perfect for him right now.

Btw, Melo played great defense again tonight.

I would not trade lebron straight up for him right now.

Phenomenal numbers

mreinman wrote:30 points on 13-20
7 rebounds
9 assists

He may have had better games number wise but he played an absolute perfect game tonight and LEAD this team to a much needed victory

KP is a ways away from being a goto player. Being under DaddyMelo's wing is perfect for him right now.

Btw, Melo played great defense again tonight.

I would not trade lebron straight up for him right now.

I agree. Melo was great last night. He was doing everything to from his shooting to his passing to his rebounding to his STRONG drives to the basket with big dunks which is something we haven't seen from Melo in a long time. He would usually just lay those in or if he dunked he wouldn't really do it strong and grab the rim but he was a monster last night.

wargames wrote:

nyknickzingis wrote:I made the comparison a few weeks ago. I said he's playing like a LBJ lite, or like a near Lebron James. Melo's playing like 80-90% of Lebron. He's rebounding, defending with energy, passing the ball, handling the ball like a point AND scoring 20+ points. Only one other guy in the league does all of that with the same type of size - it's Lebron. Obviously Lebron is better, but Melo has clearly shown me to be wrong. I thought he had hit physical decline, and while he has slowed down a bit, he had a huge development mentally. It's rare you see a guy at 31 have this, but here it is. It's as if he just realized that he should play like Lebron instead of Glen Robinson or Barkley. And it's worked wonders. Major props to Melo. George Karl for years tried to get him to play this way.

"Triangle culture".

Also he is a better shooter and post up player overall. Arguably he might be able to keep this level of play up longer than Lebron just because his offense isn't as based on his athleticism as Lebron's is. If he stays healthy we might look at this season as the beginning of "2nd part of his career Melo" or "Leaving his prime Melo" because he could keep this up well past his current contract.

newyorker4ever wrote:

wargames wrote:

nyknickzingis wrote:I made the comparison a few weeks ago. I said he's playing like a LBJ lite, or like a near Lebron James. Melo's playing like 80-90% of Lebron. He's rebounding, defending with energy, passing the ball, handling the ball like a point AND scoring 20+ points. Only one other guy in the league does all of that with the same type of size - it's Lebron. Obviously Lebron is better, but Melo has clearly shown me to be wrong. I thought he had hit physical decline, and while he has slowed down a bit, he had a huge development mentally. It's rare you see a guy at 31 have this, but here it is. It's as if he just realized that he should play like Lebron instead of Glen Robinson or Barkley. And it's worked wonders. Major props to Melo. George Karl for years tried to get him to play this way.

"Triangle culture".

Also he is a better shooter and post up player overall. Arguably he might be able to keep this level of play up longer than Lebron just because his offense isn't as based on his athleticism as Lebron's is. If he stays healthy we might look at this season as the beginning of "2nd part of his career Melo" or "Leaving his prime Melo" because he could keep this up well past his current contract.

I actually think the only part of his game that has slipped is his shooting. He's usually hitting way more 3 pointers than he has been this year.

That will improve as his legs get stronger. You questioned everything else about his game earlier too::))))

crzymdups wrote:Melo's January numbers are great:

21ppg 8rpg 5.6apg 47%fg plus great defense

only thing missing right now is his 3pt shot - but I wonder if he's not shooting that as well because his legs get tired from playing D much more than he ever has before.

I see Melo working a lot harder on D than a lot of guys in this league right now. He's truly turning into a leader. When KP came up limping a little last night, Melo ran over to him and asked if he was alright. He did the same thing at the end of the Sixers game where KP sprained his foot.

It's kind of amazing to see the maturation of Melo here. It's like the exact opposite of what happened to Marbury.

That is the Phill Jackson impact.....different from MDA and Brown

I give Melo credit, but I don't believe for a second that Melo would be doing this without Fisher and the Triangle culture that's trying to be enforced on the team. It's about teamwork, ball movement, player movement. Melo has jumped on the wagon. As season's start he wasn't sure what he could do outside of scoring. Now he knows he can be great even without scoring, and he's doing it again and again.

The point forward, higher defensive/boards version of Melo can average 20 points, and I'd call him a MVP caliber player vs the 27-28 points a night Melo who doesn't play as much defense or pass who I would call more of a top 20 player. He's playing at a level even an all time great like Kobe would be proud of. I'm not saying he's reached that level, but he's playing in a balanced all around way that some of the great wings in the Triangle have. If he can keep this up for 2-3 years, he will cement his legacy much higher than he would have had he kept playing the other way.

I'll take 21/8/5 Melo over 28/7/3 Melo any day of the week.