So offensively over the last six games, they scored the ball at the same rate. So Kobe simply shot the ball more to score more points. He did, but not to the degree Melo did Melo battling Marc Gasol for rebounds is playing out of position. Melo was also the leading scorer for the 2007 team, but took a smaller role in 2008 for the good of the team. Kobe scored more than Melo, but he didn't shoot it better than Melo. For example, Kobe took 16 more threes but only made 2 more of them than Melo did. As far as the number of jumpers, you are missing the point. Of the smaller amount of shots Melo took, a greater percentage of those shots than Kobe's FGA's were jumpers. He battled much larger players every game and didn't shy away from contact. As for it being impressive, lets see what Kobe and the coaches have to say: Melo simply played good man defense game in and game out. The type of defense that doesn't produce flashy stats for people to overanalyze.
Well empirically speaking, Kobe was actually 5.65% more efficient per minute (16.5 PPG/ 23.928 MPG, compared to 12.83 PPG/ 19.6578 MPG) scoring, and a fewer amount of his shots were assisted. Melo's rebounding is even less impressive, and Kobe continues to be a better facilitator of course. Yup I beat you to the 2007 Melo comment. He also got one rebound in that Gold Medal game. Well, Kobe was actually the better shooter down the stretch, and when it most counted. He shot 16/38 compared to Melo's 13/33 (where he had better looks too as the designated role player). I'm not sure this is true. I know he shot a slightly greater percentage of three pointers but Kobe was almost right there with him. The nature of Melo's game in the NBA is to normally take 60% Jumpers, 30% Close shots, and the rest are either Dunks or layups (Compared to Kobe's 75% jumpers); see 82games. Well Dirk still had a decent game though. He had 14 points (40% FG shooting, but he countered that by going to the line and getting a 57.377 TS%, 8 rebounds, in 23.4 minutes. You could say Melo was solid at times, but I wouldn't go past that.
I thought Kobe was money, but he was outplayed by Wade at some times. I can't think of a guy off the bench who was as effective as Melo for his position.
