iserp:
Not that the loss is on Melo (he carried the team), but he went 1-on-4 for long stretches in the 2nd and 3rd quarter. Even if your teammates brick your passes, you need some ball movement just to space the offenses. If you start an iso play with other 4 players you are clearly not going to pass (maybe because they’re missing all they shoot), then all the defense is going to collapse on you. We need a bit of ball movement, someone drives, passes it back, to the other side, back to Melo and then i have no problems with Melo trying to get his spinning-fadeaway-offbalance-superhero shot; at least he will have a bit more of space then. That, an douglas taking ill-advised 3 pointers without even looking his teammates (even if those 3 pointers went in) drove me mad. Man, i envy Toronto for having Jose, even if he is thoroughly criticized there. About Fields, i think he had a fine game (he failed some layups, but those were good drives by him), although i have to agree that he was the 3rd best player on the floor (after Melo and Chandler), and he needs to be more aggressive in this games when so many people is missing.

xduckshoex:
Watching Melo is really frustrating because he really does have all the talent in the world, he just wastes it by playing isolation basketball.When he abandons that and plays with the team he gets easy looks, but he doesn’t do that often and everyone suffers as a result.In a typical season for him 30-40% of his plays are isolations even though his efficiency on those plays is lower than his general efficiency; seems pretty obvious that if he abandoned that in favour of a more team-oriented game he would be a lot more successful.

nicos:
But it’s not just the missed shots- it’s the guys passing up open looks on kick-outs.I don’t know how many times Melo has drawn a double and kicked out to an open man only to have that guy hesitate and pass up the shot. D’A’s yelling at guys to shoot the ball, Melo is telling guys to shoot the ball- the guys on the perimeter (Fields esp.) are just as responsible for bogging down the offense as Melo.

Seriously – look at the guys out there with Melo last night. Toney Douglas is a 7th man on a good team, and should be no more than a tertiary scorer anytime out on the floor. Instead, he’s the starting point guard and the secondary scorer with Melo on the floor, primary scorer with Melo on the bench. Fields is fine, but he’s better as the 4th or 5th scorer, picking up the garbage points. Jorts is a rook, and even though he played well the other night, I’ve never seen someone who has the green light to shoot 3′s miss SO BADLY on so many shots. He was off by FEET last night, not inches. And Chandler is great, but very limited offensively. Seriously – JORTS is our starting PF – on a good team he plays 5-10 min/night max as a Brian Cardinal type.

Like BBA said, Melo easily could have had 35 points, 11 reb, and 8 or 9 assists last night with actual starting-quality NBA players around him.

If you want to blame anyone – blame Bibby for last night. He played 15 minutes, bricked 3 wide open 3′s, fouled 3 guys and was a -18. I was hoping he could at least be an Eddie House for us, but it looks like he’s taken over Roger Mason’s role of guy with green light but sub 30% TS from last year’s 1st half.

I am definitely NOT in panic mode. We are literally playing with 3 out of our top 6-7 out right now with Baron, STAT, and Shumpert not playing. Not to mention we’re missing Jefferies who would help a little on D at least. With those 4 playing, Jorts goes back to 5-10 min/game. Bibby goes back to 0-5 min/game.