BigSm00th wrote:

Uptown wrote:

MarburyAnd1Crossover wrote:

Uptown wrote:Here we go with the quarter/quarter game to game analysis again. Where was this htread when Melo made two potential game winners vs the Celts only to lose because our coach was asleep at the wheel. Some of you guys are amazing. We bashed Amare for about a month, now he has one good game and we turn out attention to Melo. Always looking for someone to blame.

Anyone had this game in Dallas checked off as a win pre-season?

That's the enabling.

We had an 8-1 run and tasted the sweet strawberries, now we have the stale sour apples.

Melo's behavior was inexcusable last night. Several displays of sourpus attitude were already noted in other threads.

No excuses.

You keep going back to this 8-1 record. Be honest with yourself and assess the team for what it is since the streak. Coaches are game-planing for Lin now, he its on him and th coach to make adjustments. With or without Anthony in the lineup, we lose at Miami, Boston and Dallas. These are 3 of the top defensive teams in the league and they were prepared to shut Lin down.

Our entire offense right now is either pick and roll and drive and kick. Thats IT! Teams are now Trapping the pick and clogging the lane, forcing Lin to miss a difficult shots when he tries to force his way into the paint or kick. When he kicks the ball out, teams (esp Boston) had a defensive floater/free safety on the weak side to intercept the kick passes.

Now its up to our coach to adjust. Our coach is know to be stubborn but hopefully he see's what we/some of us are seeing.

"with or without anthony we lose at miami, boston, and dallas."

to be fair, we beat dallas without anthony. we were beating them last night before bringing melo the grouch back in the game and promptly losing all of the momentum.

We beat Dallas at home and it was a good win. However, to not expect the the world Champs and a terrific coach like Carlise not to make adjustments, at home no less, is not being fair.

What the hell did Melo have to do with Dirk hitting off-balance jumper after off balance jumper? BTW, the grouch hit two big baskets against the Celts down the strecth that should have sealed the deal but our coach let the Celts off the hook.

Bonn1997 wrote:

Uptown wrote:Here we go with the quarter/quarter game to game analysis again. Where was this htread when Melo made two potential game winners vs the Celts only to lose because our coach was asleep at the wheel. Some of you guys are amazing. We bashed Amare for about a month, now he has one good game and we turn out attention to Melo. Always looking for someone to blame.

Anyone had this game in Dallas checked off as a win pre-season?

Can you at least admit that he's having a nightmare season?

He's definitely having a down year compared to previous seasons he's had in the league. I think injuries have played a part and I think MDA is not doing a good job of adjusting his "equal opportunity system to play to Melo's strengths.

Bonn1997 wrote:

Uptown wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

Uptown wrote:Here we go with the quarter/quarter game to game analysis again. Where was this htread when Melo made two potential game winners vs the Celts only to lose because our coach was asleep at the wheel. Some of you guys are amazing. We bashed Amare for about a month, now he has one good game and we turn out attention to Melo. Always looking for someone to blame.

Anyone had this game in Dallas checked off as a win pre-season?

Can you at least admit that he's having a nightmare season?

He's definitely having a down year compared to previous seasons he's had in the league. I think injuries have played a part and I think MDA is not doing a good job of adjusting his "equal opportunity system to play to Melo's strengths.

Injuries may have played a role but he was healthy enough to play in the all-star game. So I assume he doesn't have any major injuries right now. MDA can't make Melo make layups.

It's true. I don't think the injury excuse can be made. He's in a big slump. Even still he almost won the Boston game for us in the 4th. I'm not ready to blame him for everything. MDA is too slow to make adjustments and is too slow to figure out how to best use his players. But Melo needs to play like the start he says he is. If his shots aren't falling he HAS to start doing other things. One thing about STAT that really impressed me last night is how he asked to guard Dirk. He knows he's had a bad year but he's still showing effort and passion. And I think his good effort on Dirk propelled him to a nice offensive game.

eViL wrote:melo just comes off like he thinks he's too good to let the system create for him. there's an ego thing happening here. i refuse to believe a dude with his skill can't just catch and shoot. why must he ALWAYS pound the rock? even when he gets it at point blank range, instead of just going up, he HAS to pound it. his ISO skills would be helpful in the right context, but he needs to compliment that with a team oriented approach and save the 1-on-1 for the right situations.

Melo has looked his absolute best when he backs guys down. Mark Jackson used to be able to play that free flowing style but he also backed players down, or take them hard of the dribble (he's gotten his easiest baskets doing that). I don't see why anyone would want Melo just to ignore a pretty dominating skillset. What I don't like is when Melo gets the ball facing the basket and then goes into dribble, dribble, CHUCK!! mode--or pretty much what the entire team did last night.

Uptown wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

Uptown wrote:Here we go with the quarter/quarter game to game analysis again. Where was this htread when Melo made two potential game winners vs the Celts only to lose because our coach was asleep at the wheel. Some of you guys are amazing. We bashed Amare for about a month, now he has one good game and we turn out attention to Melo. Always looking for someone to blame.

Anyone had this game in Dallas checked off as a win pre-season?

Can you at least admit that he's having a nightmare season?

He's definitely having a down year compared to previous seasons he's had in the league. I think injuries have played a part and I think MDA is not doing a good job of adjusting his "equal opportunity system to play to Melo's strengths.

I agree with this. Everyone loves the idea of team ball but just look at other teams how much team balling do they really do? Last year the Mavs won the championship everyone says they won with team ball that is all good and all but they ran isolations for Dirk a lot.

The bulls are Rose when they need something they call on Rose for making plays and score. Heat steady diet of isolations for LeBron, Wade and Bosh. Thunder, Durant and Westbrook show they take majority of the shots with a lot of isolations. Celtics KG and Pierce they get majority of the touches.

The Knicks are to much pick and roll oriented, teams can take it away and when they do they have no other play to fall back on. PnR and kick out offense you need isolation. Melo is probably one of the better players in isolations Besides he is the only post player the Knicks have on the team. The big problem here is that everyone is over reacting with team ball thing. One thing I know is that in basketball you need aggressiveness and someone has to be a little selfish that's basketball.

You can't just run PnR there is other facets of offense that need to be run. I don't think the Knicks have a good mix of plays. The Knicks don't create mismatches they don't do any of these things, last I looked that is part of basketball too. How come the Knicks can't get a mismatch where a guard ends up on Melo. How many times did the Celtic exploit the Knicks when a guard ended up on Pierce during the Celtics game?

Knicks fans are paint Melo in a bad corner we are putting him In a situation where he can't win and if he can't win than we are making sure we don't win. He may not be the best player but he is a good player and I think the Knicks are better off having him on their team. Isolation is part of the game you need a steady diet of isolation to keep opponents honest. It's not like Melo doesn't pass out of an isolation situation he is averaging about 4 assists a game.

SupremeCommander wrote:

eViL wrote:melo just comes off like he thinks he's too good to let the system create for him. there's an ego thing happening here. i refuse to believe a dude with his skill can't just catch and shoot. why must he ALWAYS pound the rock? even when he gets it at point blank range, instead of just going up, he HAS to pound it. his ISO skills would be helpful in the right context, but he needs to compliment that with a team oriented approach and save the 1-on-1 for the right situations.

Melo has looked his absolute best when he backs guys down. Mark Jackson used to be able to play that free flowing style but he also backed players down, or take them hard of the dribble (he's gotten his easiest baskets doing that). I don't see why anyone would want Melo just to ignore a pretty dominating skillset. What I don't like is when Melo gets the ball facing the basket and then goes into dribble, dribble, CHUCK!! mode--or pretty much what the entire team did last night.

It's all about how it goes down. Look at how Dallas set up Dirk's post-game. There is always some sort of team action that proceeds it. Usually a pick. By contrast, Melo stubbornly camps out and demands the ball while violently flailing around in a low post wrestling match vs. his opponent.

Uptown wrote:

SupremeCommander wrote:

eViL wrote:melo just comes off like he thinks he's too good to let the system create for him. there's an ego thing happening here. i refuse to believe a dude with his skill can't just catch and shoot. why must he ALWAYS pound the rock? even when he gets it at point blank range, instead of just going up, he HAS to pound it. his ISO skills would be helpful in the right context, but he needs to compliment that with a team oriented approach and save the 1-on-1 for the right situations.

Melo has looked his absolute best when he backs guys down. Mark Jackson used to be able to play that free flowing style but he also backed players down, or take them hard of the dribble (he's gotten his easiest baskets doing that). I don't see why anyone would want Melo just to ignore a pretty dominating skillset. What I don't like is when Melo gets the ball facing the basket and then goes into dribble, dribble, CHUCK!! mode--or pretty much what the entire team did last night.

Melo is not a catch and shoot guy. He can do it, but he's more of a rhythm shooter. Notice he always has to bounce the ball at least once before he puts it up.

WHY?!?!?!

How has he developed all of his skills and yet one of the most basic skills in basketball has eluded him? What is a "catch and shoot" guy? You mean "a basketball player." I can understand saying Novak is not a "dribble and create for himself" guy because he's lacking the advanced skills necessary but I'm puzzled by how you can develop a game like Melo's and not be able to perform basic skills.

eViL wrote:

Vmart wrote:

eViL wrote:

SupremeCommander wrote:

eViL wrote:melo just comes off like he thinks he's too good to let the system create for him. there's an ego thing happening here. i refuse to believe a dude with his skill can't just catch and shoot. why must he ALWAYS pound the rock? even when he gets it at point blank range, instead of just going up, he HAS to pound it. his ISO skills would be helpful in the right context, but he needs to compliment that with a team oriented approach and save the 1-on-1 for the right situations.

Melo has looked his absolute best when he backs guys down. Mark Jackson used to be able to play that free flowing style but he also backed players down, or take them hard of the dribble (he's gotten his easiest baskets doing that). I don't see why anyone would want Melo just to ignore a pretty dominating skillset. What I don't like is when Melo gets the ball facing the basket and then goes into dribble, dribble, CHUCK!! mode--or pretty much what the entire team did last night.

It's all about how it goes down. Look at how Dallas set up Dirk's post-game. There is always some sort of team action that proceeds it. Usually a pick. By contrast, Melo stubbornly camps out and demands the ball while violently flailing around in a low post wrestling match vs. his opponent.

That maeans there is lack of play calling and lack of set up for Melo to get the ball in optimal condition. That is on MDA.

We're both Knicks fans and we're both entitled to our opinions so I'm just going to decline a dicussion on this line of reasoning because I don't think it will produce anything constructive. I respectfully disagree without further elaboration.

I'm also going to decline to elaborate for the same reasons, but I'm somewhere inbetween these stances. I think it's unhealthy when a franchise makes operations decisions to accomodate their personnel. But I also think the most successful franchises maximize each individual's talent and put personnel in a position to do so.

Remember earlier in the year, STAT and Chandler both saying that everyone needs to buy in. Those were messages to Melo. Both of those buys have seen that the system works. Melo has seen it work but not for him and he has an issue with it, apparently.

earthmansurfer wrote:Anji - Let's say we can agree to disagree, but that said, I do see your point. Their are always two, or more, perspectives to the same thing. We agree Melo has heaps of talent, I'm just saying, basically, he has little BBIQ (and I really don't mean that in a sarcastic way, I see next to no adjustment from him when his shooting is off. He is trying, but who isn't?)

A little Stat - Melo is now shooting under (just) 40% on the year. Rubio is now down to 36%. This is an interesting perspective and it shouldn't be this close. I bring up Rubio because he is so talked about but everyone admits he can't hit the side of a barn. (His shooting has actually been getting worse lately, which is hard to believe.) Melo has toooooo much talent to not be able to adjust over such a long period of time.

The guy is having a bad year, nobody can argue that.

Why the team is trending down right now is the what all us fans want to figure out.