The Memphis Grizzlies have waived Fab Melo two weeks after sending forward Donte Greene to the Boston Celtics to acquire the Brazilian center.
Many of us are looking for a back up center. Is this someone that interests you? Or do we want someone with more experience.
I didn't see anything from Melo that impressed me in college. He has ideal size and I was under the impression that Boston took a chance on him because of that. But the fact that Melo was released even though he's on a rookie deal . . . that's a sign that in addition to being bad, he's probably hard to work with. And Melo's D-League stats were bleak. His 6.0 rebounds a game were good for 76th in the league. (Malcolm Thomas led with 16 a game, in his two game sting.) Melo also only put up 9.8 games, good for 140th in a run and gun league. That's downright dreadful considering you have to believe the Red Claws were giving him, as a first rounder, all of the touches he could possibly desire. I'm pretty skeptical that Melo would be a wise signing for a playoff team.
The book on him is that he's dumb. He's also an old rookie. He's not that much younger than Taj when he came into the league. I'd rather roll with Pittman or Thomas. The guy just looks like a bust.
He had pretty unimpressive individual stats in college too no? Syracuse's zone defense was better when he was in, but yeah thus far in the NBA all signs point to him being pretty hopeless.
I get the feeling that Melo was one of those players who was picked because his selection was easy to explain to management. If you're drafting a center with the 22nd pick you're basically hoping for a minutes eater who can guard the rim. It's easy to envision how ownership, who doesn't closely follow all of the prospects, would push for a guy like Melo. He's a perfect sized prospect; from a solid program renowned for zone defense; and went to school in Boston's media market. If you're management that makes for a good, solid, inside the box pick. Except Melo can't play and never could.
