The super Melo to Portland thread + The Big Blockbuster

I personally think its cool we are watching a guy strive to make top ten scoring all time on our roster. Im not saying we should cater to that agenda, but as a minimum salery player who knows his 15-20 minutes per game role when the team is healthy, ill take that.
his iso game will be much more valuable in the playoffs.

 

I actually don't mind Melo as a third or forth option scorer with any lineup we put out there, I just don't think he sees himself that way. The worst part about Melo isn't Melo, it's Stotts saying shit like, "I think his career has earned him the right to play." That shows you who our coach is and how flawed his approach to winning is.

 

Unfortunately when we constantly feed the ball to a washed up player with Melo's level of inefficiency so he can iso and mostly settle for challenged mid-range turn around jumpers. We are most definitely catering to him. Under a different coach, Melo might be useful and his climb up the all-time scoring leader board would be great to watch but we don't live in that reality so his time on the court is painful to watch and detrimental to the team.

 

We have actually seen Stotts pull Melo and not put him back in recently. Melo did not play much in the fourth over the last road trip except when they had nobody else.
I'm hoping we continue to see this trend. Put Melo in with the second unit and then see what matchups are working best. If it isn't melo then he can sit for a bit.

 

This really screams "This guy is unplayable", but I think we all know he'll still be here at the end of the season and still getting 20 minutes or more a game.

 

pretty damning, although I'd really like to know how he derives those winning percentage paces he talks about

as for the defensive ratings, it's not like Melo is alone in his suckitude (last column is defensive rating):




to me, these are not surprising results. Nurkic, Jones, and RoCo are the best defenders. And what has been the standard rotation for Stotts is to go with the last half of the 1st and 3rd quarters with Melo & Kanter on the floor, till Nurkic got hurt. Dame has the burden of playing a lot of time with Melo.

one thing to look at is the on/off net differential between offense and defense ratings:

Jones +11.5
Roco +11.3
Dame +9.9
CJ +9.8
Nurkic +5.9
Kanter +4.7
Trent -1.8
Hood -8.3
Melo -11.0
Simons -21.4

again, there is going to be rotational skew and we've seen enough of RoCo and Jones on offense to know they aren't the ones responsible for their stellar offensive on/off

my take is these on/off numbers are interesting, and confirm some things. But there is also quite a bit of noise in the numbers.

 

I didn't do the calculations myself to verify, but I'd guess he took the Melo on/off scoring margins for the team and converted those into full season records.

 

You're right that has been happening and it is an improvement but the improvement I'm looking for from Stotts is him telling Melo that his role is to play bully ball all the way down to where he can get a high percentage shot or hit open spot up jumpers because during Melo's decline the league realized that long, contested twos and especially those that are turnarounds are the least efficient way to score. Melo still takes a lot of those shots.

I don't understand why Stotts can't give players roles based on what they can do and what makes sense, then make them fulfill those roles through playing time. Dame is the only player who should be able to speak up and have a say in his role because he is an indispensable superstar. The coach should have a vision for everyone else that fits around Dame and should be able to convince those players to play that role, exceed or not play.

On a note that has nothing to do with Melo. If DJJ can't hit threes and Stotts can't imagine this team having off the ball movement, then Stotts should ask Olshey to move Jones for whatever Olshey can get that fits into Stotts's narrow vision. According to DJJ there were other teams that were offering him the MLE well let one of those teams give us someone who doesn't hit around 60% of their shots when used correctly but can hit some wide open threes and play half the defense DJJ offers because Stotts is so goddamn narrow minded that he can't make things work with anyone other than guys who shoot the three.

 

Congrats Melo! Surpassed the “Big O” and now 12th on the all time scoring list!

putting on a clinic in tonight’s game!

 

What a shame.

I mean...awesome, what a great moment of Portland Trail Blazers history.

 

You know @THE HCP ain't all that good with the book learning', numbers and what not.
Can one of you smart types tell him how many games until he moves into 11th and then 10th if he keeps scoring 12 points a game like he is.
Hope he can get it THIS season.

 

Melo's average right now is 12.5 ppg. We have 49 games left. If he plays every game and keeps his ppg where its at that would give Melo 612 more points giving him a total of 27334 which puts him ahead of Elvin Hayes for tenth all time in total points scored.

 

We don’t need Melo anymore. He’s actually hurting us on both ends. I’d rather give his shots to Hood and let someone like Elleby (Nas when healthy) develop.

 

I get the dissatisfaction with Melo up to a point. No, he’s not a particularly good defender (unless he makes a real effort). He’s getting up there in age (who isn’t) and no, he’s not the most efficient player in the league. But he came to us when we needed him (and he needed us). He’s done what has been asked and he fit in well with the culture. He’s made it clear he was NOT the problem in OKC and Houston. Along with his “baggage”, he brought us national attention (and even credibility). He made it clear that big name free agents won’t get “lost” here. He is highly respected throughout the league. He’s moving up the ladder in league statistics while wearing a Portland Trailblazer’s uniform. One of the all time NBA greats is taking an active role in mentoring our younger players (so many of whom were barely out of diapers when he started his career. Imagine how those kids must respond to having a guy like that around them every day.

I wasn’t any kind of Melo fan and cast a rather jaundiced eye when we signed him. But after watching the guy and seeing how his presence has been drama free, and how he interacts with his teammates (especially the younger ones) I have become a fan. I choose to focus on the good shit he brings to our team. If I chose to focus on the negative aspects of a player’s game (like so many posters do) I’d advocate for dumping this year’s entire team based on what I’ve seen so far (Elleby gets a pass as a rookie). Some folks just gotta bitch to be bitching, but what Carmelo has brought to Portland the past two seasons far, far, far outweighs his shortcomings. At least he didn’t come to us (like too many formerly great players) broken down and a shell of his former self). It’s good to have him in a Trailblazer uniform.......so sue me.

 

Melo is taking Giles and Nas’ minutes. We are not a better team with either of them on the court in the 4th quarter in a tight game. I know who Dame wants out there with him to help try to win a game.

 

Melo at #12. But Dame is moving up the charts quickly too. I wonder how many more games before Dame catches Melo...

 

I have no problem with your opinions on this. I don't like Melo getting playing time but that's not mostly because of Melo. It's because of what I highlighted, "He's done what has been asked..." The question I have is what has Stotts asked of him? What does Stotts ask of anyone but to do whatever they want when they get the ball? Which happens to be what Melo has done his whole career despite a rapidly declining game for several years which found him out of the league. Melo is also not being held accountable on defense. As you alluded to, he picks and chooses when he gives effort on that side of the ball. If it weren't for Stotts, I bet Melo would be great to have coming off the bench in a role suited to what he can now do but Stotts is the coach. Stotts does give a perpetual green light, Stotts doesn't seem to let players know in any certain way that he cares about defensive intensity and Stotts has literally said that because of what Melo has done in his career he deserves PT with that perpetual green light, no matter how he performs.

The issues I have are not with Melo, I guess. They are with the coach that is giving him carte blanche. I don't give a shit about someone moving up the record boards as a Blazer who scored 25,651 points on other NBA teams before coming here and scoring 1,071 not so efficient points. That's 4% of his points scored here. That is nothing nothing I get excited about as a fan of this team. A historically unsuccessful all-time great (33% career winning percentage) scorer getting serious playing time on a team that I hope is trying to win, does not excite me as a fan of this team. If he was coached correctly and told that iso ball that used to work for him to put up big numbers (not wins) but no longer works, is not an option and that he just needs to hit open shots when he gets them then I'd be excited that he is on the team. I am happy for the guy that he is closing in on the top ten in scoring all-time, despite the fact that his career should be over because his lack of ability to understand how to evolve... I really am happy for him. I just don't give a shit about it as a Blazers fan and don't know why any of you do in that context.

 

Unfortunately, Dame entered the league a bit too old to reach that high on the all time point list