I don't think there was ever any doubt about Melo's "talent". The problem has been his willingness to do what is needed to play winning BB and IMO he's only recently been doing that. This version of Melo we haven't seen until recently. He hasn't played like this his entire career. We all know he can score and make tough shots. What is different now is EVERYTHING ELSE. He's giving much more effort and is actually playing smarter and more in a team oriented fashion.
Early in the Bulls game we saw Melo actually executing catch and shoot within the flow of the offense. Most importantly is that he's defending for the entire games now and he was never doing that. There's no way on Earth that this team isn't in 1st place comfortably if he was playing this way all year. This has been the crux of the Anti Melo statements all year.
It seems that he was clearly not in Elite shape to start the year and his game was rusty, i'll give him that. Then he had some nagging injuries that may also have slowed him down. However, the thing that hurt his game the most was his mental attitude. He's played himself into game shape tho. he was clearly not in this kind of shape to play this hard on both ends. I think we've actually watched Melo grow during this season!!! I think he has learned some things about the game and himself this year.
Considering all we gave up for Melo this is welcome news! It totally changes the future prospects for this franchise with Melo playing winning BB and learning how to be a leader. He didn't accept it from MDA, but under Woody he's learning more about trusting his teammates and leading by example. He's learned that if he plays harder it will help his teammates follow his lead and play harder. He's learning how to be the REASON his team wins by his actions and attitude on the floor. It's no coincidence that since he's been giving a supreme effort the team as a whole has played harder. People wanna say it's Woody, but it started before Woody even had one practice. It's started in game one when Melo played harder than he's played all year. The coach can say it, but the teams best player has to make it happen on the floor and lead the way. That has helped Woody so that he can focus on the team rather than one player. Woody can succeed cuz he has the support of the teams best player. Everyone else will fall in line when that happens.
4/9/2012 1:49 PM
