Fab Melo anyone?

[European NBA fan]

He grabbed 11 rebounds yesterday. He doesn't have bad hands, he is just learning about positioning for the rebound because he has only played the middle of a  zone defense where his main job was to alter shots from guards driving to the hoop.

Euro NBAfan with all respect how much have you seen of his game?   He has horrible hands, he did in Summer League and he did in Syracuse.   

Reading a box score is great but here is some film for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBk-t40Db6Y

Notice how a lot of them bounce off his hands.  He does get the easy ones but is lousy in traffic.

Well I saw a good part of his first two games for Maine, and I stand by my assessment. That video doesn't really do him justice.
Just look at his turnovers, he has one in three games. His fundamentals aren't sound, and he can almost only score on alley oops and "catch and dunk". But that doesn't equal bad hands in my book.

[PhoSita]

fab melo was the reason syracuse was the #1 college team for a good portion of last season.

Hasheem Thabeet was a beast in college.  Look at how long it's taken him to become a serviceable rotation big in the league. 

They are very similar.

except thabeet playede a lot till he was better...melo plays NONE...the D league, will always be the D league, it isn't the NBA, college part II...so what....only playing in the NBA gets you ready for the NBA.

Thabeet played a lot of D-league until he became serviceable.  He also bounced around 2-3 teams and got very little real NBA playing time, because teams expected him to be able to do more.

[PhoSita]

Popovich has had a young, raw foreign big drafted in the late first round on his roster before.

Ian Mahinmi played 46 games in the D-League as a 21-year-old rookie, but only 24 minutes in 6 games with the Spurs.

I think that provides a clue as to how Popovich might use a young, mobile, athletic, offensively-challenged big who might be lacking in fundamentals because he grew up playing soccer and switched to basketball later than when many start playing.

Good point, Mahinmi is an interesting comparison.

[alajet]

fab melo was the reason syracuse was the #1 college team for a good portion of last season.

Hasheem Thabeet was a beast in college.  Look at how long it's taken him to become a serviceable rotation big in the league. 

They are very similar.

except thabeet playede a lot till he was better...melo plays NONE...the D league, will always be the D league, it isn't the NBA, college part II...so what....only playing in the NBA gets you ready for the NBA.

Thabeet played a lot of D-league until he became serviceable.  He also bounced around 2-3 teams and got very little real NBA playing time, because teams expected him to be able to do more.

The comparison is legit.
The thing is these kind of project bigs are drafted as project bigs and then they aren't given the run. That definitely doesn't help.
Yeah, they should "earn" those minutes, but sometimes, it's not enough to make it for lack of experience.

[PhoSita]

fab melo was the reason syracuse was the #1 college team for a good portion of last season.

Hasheem Thabeet was a beast in college.  Look at how long it's taken him to become a serviceable rotation big in the league. 

They are very similar.

except thabeet playede a lot till he was better...melo plays NONE...the D league, will always be the D league, it isn't the NBA, college part II...so what....only playing in the NBA gets you ready for the NBA.

Thabeet played a lot of D-league until he became serviceable.  He also bounced around 2-3 teams and got very little real NBA playing time, because teams expected him to be able to do more.

The comparison is legit.
The thing is these kind of project bigs are drafted as project bigs and then they aren't given the run. That definitely doesn't help.
Yeah, they should "earn" those minutes, but sometimes, it's not enough to make it for lack of experience.

Playing time is very valuable, but playing a guy a bunch of minutes when he's actually so bad that all he does is pick up a ton of fouls, miss rotations, and turn the ball over, you're setting a guy up to fail.

[alajet]

fab melo was the reason syracuse was the #1 college team for a good portion of last season.

Hasheem Thabeet was a beast in college.  Look at how long it's taken him to become a serviceable rotation big in the league. 

They are very similar.

except thabeet playede a lot till he was better...melo plays NONE...the D league, will always be the D league, it isn't the NBA, college part II...so what....only playing in the NBA gets you ready for the NBA.

Thabeet played a lot of D-league until he became serviceable.  He also bounced around 2-3 teams and got very little real NBA playing time, because teams expected him to be able to do more.

The comparison is legit.
The thing is these kind of project bigs are drafted as project bigs and then they aren't given the run. That definitely doesn't help.
Yeah, they should "earn" those minutes, but sometimes, it's not enough to make it for lack of experience.

Playing time is very valuable, but playing a guy a bunch of minutes when he's actually so bad that all he does is pick up a ton of fouls, miss rotations, and turn the ball over, you're setting a guy up to fail.

Of course, he shouldn't be thrown into the fire, either.
There needs to be a balance between. And not every team can afford to give that bit of playing time to these young guys.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

I like Fab and his potential. I hope he develops to a solid Center that could help us in the long run.

But, as a Bay Area resident, watching the Warriors play every time it's on TV. I think we missed on Festus Ezeli. I like Fab, but Ezeli could probably help us right now.

[Who]

fab melo was the reason syracuse was the #1 college team for a good portion of last season.

Hasheem Thabeet was a beast in college.  Look at how long it's taken him to become a serviceable rotation big in the league. 

They are very similar.

except thabeet playede a lot till he was better...melo plays NONE...the D league, will always be the D league, it isn't the NBA, college part II...so what....only playing in the NBA gets you ready for the NBA.

Thabeet played a lot of D-league until he became serviceable.  He also bounced around 2-3 teams and got very little real NBA playing time, because teams expected him to be able to do more.

I don't think the D-League helped Thabeet one iota. It just wasted valuable development time and held him back. What Thabeet is doing now, he could have been doing 2-3 years ago if handled better.

[ThaPreacher]

I'd bet you $1k that popovich would put him in..as i recall, splitter was about as rough...so pop played him into a contributer...Doc...sits him until he is GREAT...too bad that doesn't work..!

Tiago Splitter has been playing professional basketball since 2003, and in his second to last season before entering the NBA averaged 17.8 points per game in the Spanish ACB league (one of the most competitive in the world).

There is NO similarity between Tiago Splitter and Fab Melo in terms of experience and readiness to play at a professional level.

Well, good for you, and your research....i was wrong on part of that then. BUT, pop would still play melo, and that is evident from his past, all his rookies played till they made it or lost it...but played a lot till it was fact, and that is a fact.
[/quote

You are both right! 
Popovich would play him.  And Tiago Splitter was a well developed big.  On that point,
I was shocked that Boston didn't take him late in the draft that year.  The problem was that Splitter had been so indecisive for so long about declaring and staying in the draft.
It went on for a few years, as I recall.

Regardless, its apples and oranges or bananas and kiwis.

The Celtics have made a decision.  They have a plan to develop Melo.  Its a good plan.
They also need help inside.  Expect them to make a move to replace Darko and alleviate the problem they are having in the middle.

TP's for both of you, fruits!!! 

[pearljammer10]

He grabbed 11 rebounds yesterday. He doesn't have bad hands, he is just learning about positioning for the rebound because he has only played the middle of a  zone defense where his main job was to alter shots from guards driving to the hoop.

Euro NBAfan with all respect how much have you seen of his game?   He has horrible hands, he did in Summer League and he did in Syracuse.   

Reading a box score is great but here is some film for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBk-t40Db6Y

Notice how a lot of them bounce off his hands.  He does get the easy ones but is lousy in traffic.

Well I saw a good part of his first two games for Maine, and I stand by my assessment. That video doesn't really do him justice.
Just look at his turnovers, he has one in three games. His fundamentals aren't sound, and he can almost only score on alley oops and "catch and dunk". But that doesn't equal bad hands in my book.

Melo has the worst hands Ive seen in quite some time. This is really the only thing I noticed about his game in summer league. He probably has no turnovers because the offense really doesnt run through him, he just gets alley oops and put backs with no real passing game.

But Melo definitely needs to go to wood shop to build a new pair of hands.

[Celtics4ever]

Tennis ball and a wall would do wonders for him.

[hwangjini_1]

just an update on melo melodrama. 

saturday, he played 24 minutes, scored 4 points, had 1 block, 5 fouls....and....

9 rebounds!!! 5 offensive and 4 defensive.

that is 20 rebounds in his last two games i think. melo may be moving along faster than i had thought, which is fine by me.

only 2 games i know, but encouraging nonetheless.

[Sketch5]

People are saying he has bad hands. It may be reaching, But Im wondering were he had played soccer for 2/3rds of his life has some thing to do with that.

You know a game were you can't use your hands and its a turn over if you do. Its in his head not to touch it, so he doesn't go after it like most people would. I have see improvements on this. Right now he has trouble catching it on the run. He needs to just to drills with Rondo running up and down the court with a defender and Rondo giving him bounce passes on the fly.

[hwangjini_1]

People are saying he has bad hands. It may be reaching, But Im wondering were he had played soccer for 2/3rds of his life has some thing to do with that.

You know a game were you can't use your hands and its a turn over if you do. Its in his head not to touch it, so he doesn't go after it like most people would. I have see improvements on this. Right now he has trouble catching it on the run. He needs to just to drills with Rondo running up and down the court with a defender and Rondo giving him bounce passes on the fly.

good point on melo. it may not be a case of him being cursed with "mark blount hands" as part of his DNA. rather, many americans grow up practicing eye/hand coordination in their sports. sheer repetition and lots of training sharpen this coordination.

soccer, as you mention, is less concerned with hands...unless you are a goalie, as i was. 

perhaps it is not that soccer "limited" eye/hand coordination for melo as much as melo did not play sports that required a great deal of eye/hand coordination. thus he never really developed catching the ball, etc.

if so, then there is hope for melo's appendages. if not, then he better learn to head the ball into the basket.

[PhoSita]

fab melo was the reason syracuse was the #1 college team for a good portion of last season.

Hasheem Thabeet was a beast in college.  Look at how long it's taken him to become a serviceable rotation big in the league. 

They are very similar.

except thabeet playede a lot till he was better...melo plays NONE...the D league, will always be the D league, it isn't the NBA, college part II...so what....only playing in the NBA gets you ready for the NBA.

Thabeet played a lot of D-league until he became serviceable.  He also bounced around 2-3 teams and got very little real NBA playing time, because teams expected him to be able to do more.

I don't think the D-League helped Thabeet one iota. It just wasted valuable development time and held him back. What Thabeet is doing now, he could have been doing 2-3 years ago if handled better.

Agree to disagree here, I guess.  I don't think giving a player who isn't ready to play NBA basketball meaningful minutes (10 or more a game) is worth it.  When they're THAT raw, makes more sense to play 30+ a game in the D-league, for at least a while.