For most of the year Tyson was doing his job, but Melo wasn't. As soon as we found a PG in Lin, without STAT or Melo the team was able to win games. It's not saying you don't need a star player, but it did underscore just how good the team can be with Tyson at the heart of it. Lin, Tyson, Jared, Shump and Novak was a good combo and whatever periods of good play the team had all year were with those guys playing and it all went to hell whenever STAT and Melo were playing. Then thank God Melo decided to start playing hard and the team as a whole has benefited from that, but a few good overall games does not a season make. People are talking like Melo has this huge record of good play here and he doesn't. You can count on one hand the number of complete games he's had where he played well on both ends. Tyson has been a far more consistent performer.
Furthermore this team currently wins with defense and that is really all about our role players!!! For most of the year Melo wasn't providing the one thing the role players don't do well, which is score, however they showed they could in fact win games anyway.