rururuland2: Melo was a .575 TS last year in this system and a .600 + TS this year pre-injury.

The last time he played with a good passing point guard in an uptempo system he was a 600TS player over a 7 month stretch.

Right now 30 percent of his makes are assisted. Watching the games Melo has played tells me most of his shots are difficult, the stats do too.

We know the reasons for that.

I can see at least 30-40 percent of Melo’s shots in THIS offense will be clean (or much cleaner).

If you don’t think that won’t make a huge difference in efficiency come back and talk to in April when Melo will have set his career high in TS.

This may be as good a time as any to note that Melo’s career FG% is roughly 46% on 19 shots per game, and Durant’s is about 47% on 19 shots per. Durant is the more efficient scorer, but let’s not pretend Melo is some inefficient chucker and Durant is god’s gift to shotmaking.

James: If Melo was taking 10 shots a game, a point guard or playmaker could make a big difference in his efficiency. But when you’re taking 18 or more shots a game, there’s only so many standstill jumpers and open cuts you’ll get. The efficiency of a high possession scorer is up to him.

Melo was a .575 TS last year in this system and a .600 + TS this year pre-injury.

The last time he played with a good passing point guard in an uptempo system he was a 600TS player over a 7 month stretch.

Right now 30 percent of his makes are assisted. Watching the games Melo has played tells me most of his shots are difficult, the stats do too.

We know the reasons for that.

I can see at least 30-40 percent of Melo’s shots in THIS offense will be clean (or much cleaner).

If you don’t think that won’t make a huge difference in efficiency come back and talk to in April when Melo will have set his career high in TS.

James: .I like Lin a lot but you’re also overrating how good of a playmaker Lin is. You’re making him out to be a transcendent passer like Nash or Stockton or Paul. He’s not suddenly going to create dozens of wide open shots for Carmelo. It’s just not going to happen with the opposition’s top defender marking him. NBA defenses are much more difficult than that. For Melo to be efficient, he has to work out of the post more, use more picks, eschew the long-2s and improve his three point shot. That’s mostly independent of Lin or any point guard.

“Neither have most of the top scorers in the league who have also managed to be above average to excellent in terms of efficiency.”

Would you like to provide some evidence of this claim?

I can think of plenty of top scorers who were greatly aided by penetrating point guards (not great point guards mind you) and more still who were aided by the floor spacing created by good post men.

Melo’s played with neither.

Melo is a good post player. Shumpert and Douglas struggled mightily simply getting entry passes to Melo from a few feet away.

Melo can and will pin his defender if he knows a point guard can get him the ball.

How many open looks has Melo gotten this year? How many open looks are created by penetration and rotation?

I don’t have the empirical evidence at hand but I can assure these basic things are almost always essential to most any great perimeter/wing scorer.

Durant gets plenty of great looks out of Westbrook or Harden penetration.

Your assertion seems to be that great wings scorers only rely on their ability to create their own shots to be great– frankly that’s ignorant.

rururuland2: Again, Melo’s never played with a point guard who consistently gets into the lane nad has the prescence of mind and skills to make accurate passes out of it.

Neither have most of the top scorers in the league who have also managed to be above average to excellent in terms of efficiency.

rururuland2: Having a pg like Lin not only gives Melo a chance to take less contested shots without the dribble, but it opens up the entirety of his toolbox as a scorer.
In that sense, there really is no reference point for the efficiency Melo will eventually score with when you have the elements of floor spacing, probing guard, multiple motion and strong-wise PnR dominance of Amar’e/Lin.

I like Lin a lot but you’re also overrating how good of a playmaker Lin is. You’re making him out to be a transcendent passer like Nash or Stockton or Paul. He’s not suddenly going to create dozens of wide open shots for Carmelo. It’s just not going to happen with the opposition’s top defender marking him. NBA defenses are much more difficult than that.

For Melo to be efficient, he has to work out of the post more, use more picks, eschew the long-2s and improve his three point shot. That’s mostly independent of Lin or any point guard.

nicos: Not to belabor the point- because I’d agree that the pnr is probably Shumpert’s weakest point- but both Miami and especially Boston have bigs who blitz the pnr to get the ball out of the guards hands. Jeffries is the only Knick big who really does this. Miami and Boston don’t let Rose turn the corner- once he does that it’s over.

Sure, alot of its success is Boston blitzing and great hedging by bigs.

But I want to see a lot more aggressiveness in attacking the PnR before I annoit Shump as an all-world defender.

I have little doubt he will take his mentality on the ball and use it in those scenrarios. Some of it may be coaching as well.

James: You’ve repeated this constantly but I think you’re grossly overestimating how much a difference a point guard makes in the shooting efficiency of a high possession perimeter player. A good point guard or any playmaker at all can make bigs or role players efficient because they get set shots for both or catch them on rolls or cuts to the rim. But the top scorers in the league are efficient regardless of the point guards they play with. You can put Durant next to anyone and he’ll be efficient because of his shooting stroke, shot selection and ability to get to the line. Same with Lebron, Wade or anyone else in history.Melo is often compared to Pierce but the three years before Garnett and Ray became his teammates, Pierce’s TS% was 58.3, 58.2 and 57.1 and he was playing with the likes of Marcus Banks, Orien Greene, Sebastian Telfair and a rookie Rajon Rondo. Melo’s has only been average efficiently, not because he’s played next to non playmaking point guards, but because he loves the long-2, the most inefficient shot in basketball, because he loves to iso (the most inefficient way to create shots in basketball) and because he’s not very good from deep. He has the ability to be efficient but it’s going to take him playing smarter more than the fairy dust of a point guard.

Having a pg like Lin not only gives Melo a chance to take less contested shots without the dribble, but it opens up the entirety of his toolbox as a scorer.

In that sense, there really is no reference point for the efficiency Melo will eventually score with when you have the elements of floor spacing, probing guard, multiple motion and strong-wise PnR dominance of Amar’e/Lin.

Again, Melo’s never played with a point guard who consistently gets into the lane nad has the prescence of mind and skills to make accurate passes out of it.

rururuland2: Not sure about this: “No one, and I mean no one can stay in front of Rose in the pnr”

Miami did. Boston does.

“I’d also note that Shumpert has done a much better job at getting over screens in the last couple of weeks, hopefully that will continue.”

Agree, need to see a lot more of that.

Not to belabor the point- because I’d agree that the pnr is probably Shumpert’s weakest point- but both Miami and especially Boston have bigs who blitz the pnr to get the ball out of the guards hands. Jeffries is the only Knick big who really does this. Miami and Boston don’t let Rose turn the corner- once he does that it’s over.