Nick C.:
I seem to recall several years ago Karl said something to effect of going “bully ball” with Melo when things bogged down. Maybe not at the same time Melo said something about “bully ball” being hard in the body. Am I misremembering and what exactly were they talking about?

Karl often spoke about Melo as the “horse” he would ride when other parts of the offense weren’t functioning well.

Grappling with his defender most possessions has had an effect before, guys have to match Melo physically so it’s typically a 36 minute wrestling match between Melo and whatever guys he’s playing that night.

You’ve got to have other things you can do and there are plenty of other things this offense can do.

I’, pretty sure it was Eric Snow who came up with “Bully Ball” after getting beat up trying to guard him in Cleveland in ’06.

TelegraphedPass: Melo – .99 points per possession in the post on 47.6 FG%. Turnover rate of 9%. Occupies 11.6% of his possessions.

Kobe – .88 points per possession on 41.2 FG%. Turnover rate of 10.8%. Occupies 19.4% of his possessions.

</bloanks.
Thanks for the info. What really pisses me off is that Kobe is always considered the best last shot shooter yet when the data was out on 82 games Melo crushed the field.

Ben R:
I know Melo loves the elbow but it is a bad place to initiate offense from. If you drive you are attacking the teeth of the defense with no spacing and if you shoot it is the worst shot in basketball the long 2 and if you post you are starting too far from the basket which makes it easy to help.

It is much better to either initiate from the 3 point line to give clear open lanes to the basket if their tight or three pont shots if they sag or on the low block to draw defense in or score quickly.

That’s entirely dependent on personnel. Gosh, so much to say about this… I’m going to hold off for now and talk about it during or after the game.

ephus: Biedrins, Pachulia, Noah, Varejao, every other defense-first big.

I would actually say they’re better iso scorers because they know not to try. Plus I’ve seen Pachulia iso in the low post and Noah took the ball to the rim on a couple isos against Amare last time we played Chicago. But thats not really fair though because Amare would be pretty good at isos if he had a defender as bad as himself defending him.

hoolahoop:
If Melo’s plays the rest of his contract as a team player and intense defense in order to exonerate himself as a primadonna coach killer, then Dantoni did his job.

He was starting to come back to life defensively in the second quarter two days ago. If you watch possession by possession, you can see how good he can be on that end when he chooses to be.

flossy: Then what did George Karl do wrong?Melo’s TS% has never been elite and that’s despite coming from an offense that was built around his talents.

Would you say .573 over 95 games is elite?

Melo should have been putting up much better efficiency numbers in Mike’s offense. He’s been horrible this year and some of it I’m not sure I can explain or understand.

But, at the end of the day, I think it has something to do with how Melo thinks.