2FOR18: Just as a side note, Chandler was criticized for his performance against the Heat by a few people, including myself.
Also, look at how much heat Amare took on here; he was practically run out of town by many on here. I, personally, have ripped on him many times for his flaws.
The reason there aren’t 200 post battles about the above players is because no one on here goes defending them.Some would have you believe that melo is the only Knick that receives criticism on here, but that is far from the case.

jon abbey:
Owen, you know that Chandler was way worse than Melo in that series, right? why doesn’t that enrage you to the same extent? he makes plenty of money too.

and since you asked, I think that Melo did his job in that series, after an awful game 1. he barely sat, he was matched against the best player in the league on both ends (and had Battier defending him the rest of the time), and he had stunningly little offensive help.

pretty much everyone else on the team underperformed, specifically Smith and Chandler, and of course our three best guards (besides Smith) being hurt didn’t help either. if Smith and Chandler do their jobs, if Shumpert doesn’t get hurt, if we have Lin in there, and if Amare doesn’t knock himself out mid-series, maybe we could have pulled the upset. Melo did his job, though, and against many other teams (PHI, IND, ORL w/o Howard, ATL), Melo would have been the best player on the floor. against Miami, he was the third best.

Just as a side note, Chandler was criticized for his performance against the Heat by a few people, including myself.
Also, look at how much heat Amare took on here; he was practically run out of town by many on here. I, personally, have ripped on him many times for his flaws.
The reason there aren’t 200 post battles about the above players is because no one on here goes defending them. Some would have you believe that melo is the only Knick that receives criticism on here, but that is far from the case.

TelegraphedPass: I didn’t look specifically at splits; I was looking at his PPP and FG% surrendered for the year in different situations per Synergy. So you probably have more specific info on his defense during stretches this season.

He may have had excellent stretches, I’m not sure. I remember him being an excellent post and iso defender, but to my knowledge he struggled all year at guarding the spot up shots and it’s dragging his defensive numbers down.

He should close out better for sure. His teammates could, too. He’s consistently been a good man defender.

ruruland: I would love to sit down and go over that stretch with you. There was no doubt he was excellent defensively. He was doing everything at a high level, especially rotations.

I didn’t look specifically at splits; I was looking at his PPP and FG% surrendered for the year in different situations per Synergy. So you probably have more specific info on his defense during stretches this season.

He may have had excellent stretches, I’m not sure. I remember him being an excellent post and iso defender, but to my knowledge he struggled all year at guarding the spot up shots and it’s dragging his defensive numbers down.

TelegraphedPass:
I’m not sure Melo can be an “excellent” defender. He’s never been that. Even during this year, wherein he’s seemed more focused on D than most, he wasn’t excellent.

I would love to sit down and go over that stretch with you. There was no doubt he was excellent defensively. He was doing everything at a high level, especially rotations.

TelegraphedPass:
I’m not sure Melo can be an “excellent” defender. He’s never been that. Even during this year, wherein he’s seemed more focused on D than most, he wasn’t excellent. He was good, and his rep as a poor defender is a bit overblown, but he surrendered a bit too many PPP for my liking.

One thing I noticed though: Almost everyone on this team struggled with guarding the spot up shot. It was the worst area of defense for nearly every player on the roster. That leads me to believe it’s a systemic issue. The defensive schemes must lead to a lot of open shots. But our system involved heavy switching, so that doesn’t even make sense.

If those surrendered points on spot up shots decreased, Melo and the rest of our ‘Bockers would have much cuter defensive numbers. Why did this team struggle so much in that area?

he was excellent in the stretch where Woodson took over and Lin and Amar’e were healthy. Excellent meaning as good as anyone wing not named Lebron, Deng, Iguodola, Shumpert or Wade.

He obviously did not play at that level most of the year. But he was pretty much as good as you’ll see in the NBA minus the freak of nature guys for a solid two weeks. He’s had stretches like that before, particularly in ’08, where his usage was down.

Nick C.:
Ruru- I have a clarifaction to ask. Typically the data you put up has Melo with higher, maybe much, assisted basket % (and apparently at the rim) with Miller. Yet the playoff numbers with Miller posted are much worse. It seems contradictory unless its the difference between regular and post-season.

Denver was able to get easier baskets in the regular season with Miller/Melo in semi-transition. When the game slowed down and teams loaded up to Melo’s side there fewer opportunities for Miller to get Melo easy baskets.

The two were less compatible in the half-court because Miller was a post-up guard who got assists when you spread the floor around him. He did not help spread the floor for Melo and because he wasn’t a penetrating guard he didn’t collapse the defense.

Did you notice the kind of assists Miller got in the playoffs? And Miller, btw, has a worse playoff record than Melo and has never gotten out of the first round. fwiw.

TelegraphedPass: He loves New Jersey (except Joe Budden).

lol

yellowboy90:
JR building a house in NJ per twitter.what could it mean?

He’s from New Jersey. He has a tattoo on his arm that says King of Jersey. He loves New Jersey (except Joe Budden).

yellowboy90:
JR building a house in NJ per twitter.what could it mean?

He’s from Jersey so I’m not sure it means anything either way.