ruruland:
Maybe I’m out of the loop here, but are we supposed to take THCJ seriously?

Are we supposed to take a guy who switched from a Nuggets fan to a Knicks fan because he got bashed on Nuggets blogs for his melo love seriously?

The Honorable Cock Jowles: You’re wrong. Rose was amazing this year and last. Not LeBron good, but definitely top 10 in the league.

Then I apologize. There was a lot of Rose bashing on here as an inefficient chucker, and since you’re such a numbers guy I incorrectly assumed you were one of the bashers.

max fisher-cohen: On Phoenix:

Shaq: 30 MPG 08/09
Shaq: 29 MPG in 07/08

Amar’e was fine then. The reason Amar’e has struggled this season statistically is because he was playing without a point guard and with 3 wing players who were shooting threes at the time about as well as I do. Even Smith struggled mightily from deep before Amar’e got hurt.

The only guy who shot WELL when Amar’e was healthy was Novak, and what do you know, Amar’e’s FG% is 59% with Novak on the floor compared to 47% with Novak off the court: http://www.nba.com/advancedstats/player-vs-player.html#Amar%27e-Stoudemire-vs-Steve-Novak|2405,200779;year=201112;season=r

His per 36 minute numbers with Novak on the floor with him: 23.5 points, 9.4 FTAs, +5.8 points.

I am confident that if the health situations of Amar’e and Stoudemire had been reversed, if Melo missed the last month of hte season when all our shooters came to life, we would be having this exact conversation about Melo struggling… He did, after all, struggle just as badly as STAT early in the season.

The problem is with Stoudemire and Melo at 3 and 4, there is no floor spacing. You can talk about how Stoudemire and Melo COULD be good off the ball or HAVE been good off the ball in past lives, but the bottom line is that the team struggles when they’re together.

I’ll get to this later.

daJudge: Your prediction of the disk injury was sheer brilliance.

One plus one is two all day long, bro. That’s factorial. When am I wrong?

2FOR18: I think you are also one of the people who think D Rose is overrated, an that the Bulls aren’t losing much without him.If I’m wrong I apologize.

You’re wrong. Rose was amazing this year and last. Not LeBron good, but definitely top 10 in the league.

ruruland: Max, the system where he is most effective and becomes a very valuable player overall is one where team defense is sacrificed.

The two things are mutually exclusive. You cannot maximize Amar’e’s talents when you have a paint-oriented big man, the kind of player you have to have to be effective on defense with Amar’e.

That’s the key to this whole argument.

It’s a catch-22. Moreover, moving Melo to the 4 and adding versatile wings improves both the offense and defense from what it is now.

On Phoenix:

Shaq: 30 MPG 08/09
Shaq: 29 MPG in 07/08

Amar’e was fine then. The reason Amar’e has struggled this season statistically is because he was playing without a point guard and with 3 wing players who were shooting threes at the time about as well as I do. Even Smith struggled mightily from deep before Amar’e got hurt.

The only guy who shot WELL when Amar’e was healthy was Novak, and what do you know, Amar’e's FG% is 59% with Novak on the floor compared to 47% with Novak off the court: http://www.nba.com/advancedstats/player-vs-player.html#Amar%27e-Stoudemire-vs-Steve-Novak|2405,200779;year=201112;season=r

His per 36 minute numbers with Novak on the floor with him: 23.5 points, 9.4 FTAs, +5.8 points.

I am confident that if the health situations of Amar’e and Stoudemire had been reversed, if Melo missed the last month of hte season when all our shooters came to life, we would be having this exact conversation about Melo struggling… He did, after all, struggle just as badly as STAT early in the season.

The problem is with Stoudemire and Melo at 3 and 4, there is no floor spacing. You can talk about how Stoudemire and Melo COULD be good off the ball or HAVE been good off the ball in past lives, but the bottom line is that the team struggles when they’re together.

ruruland:
Do you think that’s because these players are selfish, forcing the offense and going away from what should work? Or do you think that it’s in fact the opposite, that the intended offense isn’t working and so the shot-creators are often left to create shots late in the clock?

I think it’s a bit of both- Melo had to take some bailout shots but he also settled for a few too many 17 footers. Part of the issue is the Knicks (esp. Bibby but Melo and Davis a few times as well) have been way too content to walk the ball up- barely beating the 8 second count on a couple of occasions- and have been late getting into their sets. Two, they’ve got three perimeter guys in Fields, Smith, and Novak, who are incredibly slow getting the ball out of their hands when the ball gets kicked back out to them. Novak especially has been horrible in this series- if he doesn’t shoot it you can pretty much count on 3-5 seconds running off of the clock before he can move the ball and even then he’s just getting to the next guy on the perimeter.
As for Melo- I thought the Heat just took him out of the first game but last night I thought he held the ball and waited for a double that never came and then settled for jumpers on a number of occasions. I think there were more opportunities for him to take one or two dribbles to force some defensive movement and then swing the ball back to Davis to get something going towards the basket. It happened a couple of times but it should be a steady part of the offense if they’re not going to double Melo on the catch. He’s also got to get more comfortable in the pnr- he’s really good at it so I’m puzzled that he hasn’t embraced it more. Just be a little bit more diverse and I think it could really pay dividends.

ruruland:
Owen, what’s going on with Denver’s GREAT offense???

Denver has scored 2 points in the half court so far. It’s honestly pretty funny watching how lopsided this series is, as soon as Bynum touches the ball they double without thought. Luckily Bynum’s biggest weakness is passing out of double teams, hasn’t had enough reps doing it across his career.