RonRon wrote:NardDogNation wrote:SJUknicksfan wrote:NardDogNation wrote:SJUknicksfan wrote:NardDogNation wrote:SJUknicksfan wrote:I'm 22. Was a Melo supporter right up until a few weeks ago. I thought last season if he had a little more help on offense, we would've beat Indiana. This year it's clear, you just can't win with Melo as your best player.
How can you reconcile that thinking? Last season, Melo could have headed a Conference Finals team but this year "you can't win with Melo as your best player"? How does that work?
I said I "thought" as in past tense. Obviously I was wrong after what I'm seeing this year. Melo has more help on offense with Bargs and we are 3-13.
But his supporting cast isn't exactly carrying their fair share of the responsibility. I mean, dudes are shooting in the 30% range.
I just am starting to think Melo's style of play is not good for team chemistry. He doesn't make his supporting cast better like other super stars do. I will admit this game he looks like the player I hope he can be.
Guys "making other guys better" is nonsense that the media and non-basketball types created. At the end of the day, Melo can't make shots for his teammates or make them better defenders or rebounders.
NOT attacking you NardDogNation
We are entitled to different opinions and I can accept and respect that if it goes both ways....
You can make your team mates better with many different ways, from creating mismatches to causing double/triple teams constantly
Almost all good PG's do it and many good C's as well, and that is why they are the 2 most important positions in the NBA to fill when building a team
OFFENSE
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basically you have to be able to create high % shots and/or hit high % shots, sometimes great players can do both, usually dominant double/triple threat players
Examples....
from penetrating/finishing, especially if you are willing and capapable of passing
Dominant Post up games, especially if you can pass
Overall SKILLs/Talents/Size/Athleticisim/LENGTH
pushing TEMPO, before defense can recover....
Mentally, BB IQ, ability understand how to break a team down on DEF/ receive and demand respect/ LEADERSHIP, *this was what Kidd" did for us last season despite all his horrible numbers
Sometimes a combination of size, versatility, unique skills for size *like Mark Jackson for PG, Dirk for PF, or Lebron as a SF/PF*, speed, athleticism, and deep range...
Sometimes it is the ability to get inside an opponents head, thus the trash talk back in the days, able to make the opponents lose FOCUS, to get them out of it and let anger take over
DEF/REBOUNDING
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by locking down certain opponents
or/and
giving great help DEF and still be able to defend their own man,
Examples of players in their in their primes, leaving out players like Oscar Robertson, try to do more late 80s/90s and later....
Shaq
Duncan
Hakeem
David Robinson
Ewing
KG
Chris Webber
Magic Johnson
Pippen
Jordan
Barkley
Rasheed Wallace
Juwan Howard
Kidd
Nash
Stockton
Gary Payton
Mark Jackson
Mark Price
to a lower extent
Divac
Sabonis
Lamar Odom
Ben Wallace
Rodman
AK47
Current players in the league
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Lebron
Cp3
Paul George
Durant
The above are players that are very smart/HIGH IQ/ physically very talented besides Cp3, but his mental makes up for it as he is the best PG in the league by far now
D12
Westbrook
Harden
Westbrook/Harden do it differently, Harden is just a tough cover for any team with his ability to penetrate/finish, get fouled, collapse DEF by forcing double triple teams with ease
Westbrook, can do it with his defensive presence and with his ability to penetrate/finish, and both players have to learn how to play OFF the ball, but their games make's their team mates better
Lower extents with current players
Curry
Rubio
Wall
Lilliard
Lin even did it during Linsanity, while Melo, Amare, Chandler, could not do it together
Iggy
Battum
Marion *despite not being in his prime, still does it as what I call a glue player or/and fill up whatever is needed*
Aldridge
Kevin Love
Dirk
Pau Gasol
Roy Hibbert *DEFENSIVE/Shot BLocking BEAST and tough to defend with deep post position*
Marc Gasol
Noah
Tyson Chandler *his first 2 years as a Knick, especially when he had Jeffries to compliment him along with, Lin/Fields/Iman
Melo can be that type in here somewhere, but only for moments as he typically reverts back to his bad habits, poor decisions, and poor shot selection, forcing the issue, especially in the play offs where he wants to be the HERO
I respect your opinion as well but fundamentally disagree with it. It ties into a larger, nonsensical narrative (which extends beyond basketball) that individuals are responsible for the success of the whole e.g. "Jordan won 6 championships" despite the inconvenient fact that he had 2 HOF players (Pippen and Rodman) and a couple more quasi all-star teammates (Kukoc, Horace Grant,Ron Harper before he became a Bull) that won 54 games when he went to play baseball. I suppose you could note the fact that they didn't win a title that year but would they have won their previous titles if Scottie wasn't there? Kerr? Cartwright? And did those guys contribute nothing to Jordan's game? Were they just there to occupy space? If not, I would imagine that the combined net effect of their influence on his game, outweights the singular effect of his game on their's. Because at the end of the day,no matter how well MJ got Rodman open for a 20ft jump shot, Rodman was not going to hit it unless he had the prerequisite skills to do so. The "making teammates better" argument just seems like a lazy and superficial way to interrupt much more complex and intricate events.
12/9/2013 9:44 AM
