Jake S.: I’m not laying this all on Melo, so cool it with the venom. My point, from the beginning (of time, it feels like these days), is essentially the same as yours: they don’t have enough basketball players. That’s really what made the Melo trade so hard to swallow, not his individual flaws.

If you think this is my “venom”, you don’t know me very well.

Owen: Ruruland – It doesn’t matter who the Knicks have playing point guard. That’s not the problem. Take a look at Kobe Bryant’s TS% numbers. Do they look like they fluctuate wildly depending on what guard he was playing with? Smush Parker anyone?

Uh, Kobe IS a guard.

hoolahoop: If he was as great as you think he is he would use his talent to get his teammates easy baskets (not 3?s). But i guess it’s not so much fun for him if he’s not one of the scoring leaders. That’s what I think it’s about for him. Not winning, but being a scoring leader.

I don’t think it’s quite that bad, I just don’t think Melo has really been in this position before and doesn’t quite understand what is going on, which isn’t his fault because people have probably been gassing him up since he was 10 years old. Until now his talent was enough; he probably won a ton in high school, won a title at Syracuse and his Nuggets teams were pretty good(though they were probably more talented than he realized)

Now, as a 28 year old man, doing what he has always done(isolations, going one on four, etc.) isn’t getting it done. We think we can see why, but we don’t have 18 years of conditioning telling us that his talent is good enough to win out at the end of the day like he does. I think he’s going through something similar(but still very different) to what Lebron went through in Cleveland when he fell short those last two years. Lebron swallowed his pride and sought help like a grown man should in that situation, I hope Melo can swallow his pride/break his conditioning and do the same. The numbers make it pretty clear that his teammates can help him get better looks if he uses them properly.

ruruland: Chandler is an offensive option?

haven’t you heard??? he is the world’s champion of ORtg!

ruruland: So you believe that Melo’s mindset should be to just keep passing, not worrying about the results because we all know Douglas, Fields, Shumpert, Jorts are going to start making shots– I mean their career numbers are far too overwhelming to believe otherwise.

And we all know that Melo, being the career 40% shooter that he is, isn’t going to improve much either.

So, the thought process should be clear: defer to the time-tested supporting cast and get out of the way of the offense so it can function properly.

If he was as great as you think he is he would use his talent to get his teammates easy baskets (not 3′s). But i guess it’s not so much fun for him if he’s not one of the scoring leaders. That’s what I think it’s about for him. Not winning, but being a scoring leader.

And it’s not about “deferring to his teammates”. That means that there are two kinds of players: ones who dominate and ones who are subservient to the dominant player. Why can’t they all just play together, and have whoever gets the best shot be the one who takes it? Anyone who has played basketball probably realizes that this ends up being the best player anyway.

Melo waves off screeners or calls for the ball on the wing so he can take his defender one on one. He does this all the time and it’s a huge part of the reason the Knicks offense is so bad, this is an inarguable fact. Melo produces 0.9 points per possession; when he takes a shot out of an iso, he produces 0.68 points per possession and only makes the shot 29% of the time. The Knicks as a whole produce 0.86 points per possession(right on par with Melo) but as a team they produce 0.67 points per possession in isolation(again, right on par with Melo) See, this is the whole problem: what he chooses to do often is not something he does well. It drags down his efficiency and ruins the rhythm of the team because they are not involved in the play on any level.

http://knickerblogger.net/quick-reaction-bucks-100-knicks-far-less-than-that/