But in this series, the Heat have relied on their athleticism to avoid having to double Melo in a way that leaves teammates open. And, with this depleted roster, who exactly, really, was he supposed to pass to? Chandler was out of it in the first two games with the flu, and failed to finish even when he was fed the ball near the rim. Novak can’t get open by himself to save his life. Now and then Fields does a great cut in the lane, but he’s a non-threat on the perimeter with his shitty shot and even more useless pump fake. Baron and Bibby, god help us. With the depleted roster against the Heat, only Melo and JR are offensive threats.

I fault Melo for his inconsistency and just plain shooting poorly in this series, but the idea that he does not pass or cannot pass conveniently ignores games that prove otherwise and extrapolates from just 3 games with a depleted roster.

max fisher-cohen: Melo is not the point guard — this is true — but offenses that are built around isolation play mean that isolation player has to be able to counter with smart passing when he gets doubled.

Exactly. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

2FOR18: So we’re saying that without 2 of our lowest paid players, basically 2 rookies who came out of nowhere, we can’t compete? What does that say about how this team was constructed? Doesn’t this result justify everything the anti-melo trade people have said all along?

It was a very bad trade. Beyond the obvious chemistry issues are the hits to the franchise: the Knicks now have no cap space and no draft picks for years to come. Improving the team will be extremely difficult — so we are stuck, like a dinosaur in a tar pit.

Ruruland, of course, is delighted. Melo has now extricated himself out of Toxic Situation #1, and it will be years before Toxic Situation #2 becomes obvious to the general population of Knicks fans.

ruruland

Bison: That may well be true, if he refuses to improve his passing.However, it’s a fair question whether Oklahoma is dominated by Durant or by Westbrook.If the latter, then the swingman rule does not apply.

lmao

I’m serious. Westbrook’s usage rate in the playoffs is higher than Durant’s. Look it up.

Westbrook is not a swingman, but if he were, he would satisfy the rule: he’s a ballhog, but he can pass far better than Melo (he just chooses not to this year).

Bison: That may well be true, if he refuses to improve his passing.However, it’s a fair question whether Oklahoma is dominated by Durant or by Westbrook.If the latter, then the swingman rule does not apply.

lmao

ruruland: Translation: It’s impossible for Kevin Durant to win an NBA championship.

That may well be true, if he refuses to improve his passing. However, it’s a fair question whether Oklahoma is dominated by Durant or by Westbrook. If the latter, then the swingman rule does not apply.

ruruland: The whole point of that video was to show the significant difference in the looks.

AS you can see he’s often playing on the weakside away from the CHauncey/Nene pnr — giving him some space to attack or shoot.

We haven’t seen those looks in this series, and it has a lot to do with the fact that when the ball isn’t in Melo’s hands, the strong side attack is not being honored by the Heat as much as it should be from an average offense.

So, the 3pt looks are going to come off the dribble. Off-dribble 3pters are always much lower percentage than catch-shoot 3pters. Melo is a good catch and shoot 3pt shooter as you saw last year and as he’s been the last 5 years or so.

I thought he got some pretty good looks from three at times this year, he just didn’t knock them down- he didn’t shoot well from 17 feet either so I’m guessing it was the wrist. Of course when they did have a pnr game working with Lin and D’A put him out behind the line, he clearly wasn’t happy- I think he would have been much more amenable to what D’A wanted to do if he was knocking down the shots that he normally hits. I’m also sure he’d have been okay (if not super enthusiastic) with it if they’d have been winning. That Laker game was exactly what D’A wanted out of Melo, the fact that they weren’t getting the point guard play and Melo being out of sorts caused everything to blow up.

ephus: If Melo dedicates himself to getting into LeBron-level fitness and playing hard on both ends of the court at all times, he can be the best player on a championship level team. As a long-suffering Knick fan, that is all I can hope for.

If if if
If I was 6’10 and twenty years younger, if I could shoot 50% from midcourt, it I . . .
He’s been here two years. No more excuses.

If Melo dedicates himself to getting into LeBron-level fitness and playing hard on both ends of the court at all times, he can be the best player on a championship level team. As a long-suffering Knick fan, that is all I can hope for.