Not so Fab Melo

[footey]

melo is drawing ire today because perry jones was on the other team, most of us wanted to draft perry jones, and perry jones looked like he could be a good player. 

[indeedproceed]

Regarding the thread title:

Brian: You stay up all night thinking of that one, Peter?

Peter: ah I got to bed around 2, 2:30.

Regarding Fab Melo, we knew it would be a project.

[GreenFaith1819]

melo is drawing ire today because perry jones was on the other team, most of us wanted to draft perry jones, and perry jones looked like he could be a good player. 

Good point...PJ III looked good, no doubt.

But he won't protect the rim much.

[D Dub]

Some people want Melo to be an All-Star. Right now.

I would be happy if he was a basketball player but just general instinctive basketball skills appear to be missing.

did you miss the play where he showed on p/r outside the arc, then recovered on the pass to block the shot at the rim?

His foot speed is as good/better than all other 7fters.  He's got a knack for shot blocking - and he can hit the 15' face up.

Melo is gonna ball this year.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

One game on summer league someone is already throwing a ROOKIE under the bus. SMH.

Well, Sully had 20/6, he's an allstar now?

[indeedproceed]

One game on summer league someone is already throwing a ROOKIE under the bus. SMH.

Well, Sully had 20/6, he's an allstar now?

Only if the guys doing 'all-nba'  and 'all-decade' votes are blind.

[gar]

Melo was as advertized. He has a very bizarre habit of batting rebounds around; but we did dominate the boards and Melo and Sullinger were clearing a lot of space for Christmas to clear the boards.

[bfrombleacher]

Some people want Melo to be an All-Star. Right now.

I would be happy if he was a basketball player but just general instinctive basketball skills appear to be missing.

did you miss the play where he showed on p/r outside the arc, then recovered on the pass to block the shot at the rim?

His foot speed is as good/better than all other 7fters.  He's got a knack for shot blocking - and he can hit the 15' face up.

Melo is gonna ball this year.

Like I said before...dude ran down the floor on a semi-break/delayed break and almost caught an alley from E'Twaun (I think E'twaun?). If it connected it would have been a highlight of the night. I can't believe people missed it.

He is insanely gifted physically. I thought he was going to be a lug but man can he move.

[Evantime34]

I think he will help us at the back end of our defense a ton after not playing much this upcoming season. He's a very good athlete he just hasn't played enough to contribute in the NBA immediately. If you don't expect anything from him this year you won't be disappointed.

I really wanted PJ3 but after reading this tweet it made me rethink that:@SethDavisHoops "NBA scout told me today his team's docs believe Perry Jones's knees will only hold up for 3-4 years in the league. Explains why he dropped" That being said if he is able to not get injured he is going to be a very good player.

[aporel#18]

melo is drawing ire today because perry jones was on the other team, most of us wanted to draft perry jones, and perry jones looked like he could be a good player. 

TP. Few CBers wanted Melo over PJ3, but Danny took him, and that has created too big expectations on the kid.

I expected more from him, too, but he wasn't bad at all. He was pushed around by the terrible OKC bigmen, and he rebounded poorly, but he recovered very well and blocked shots. He can be very good in the pick and roll D, and maybe he can learn to defend in the post. He has all the tools and just needs to back up his words with his hard work.

On offense, he didn't have many touches, our PG play was plain terrible. But if he can shoot consistently, that's more than ok. His feet are very good, and if someone teaches him, he can be decent at least.

It's just a game, give him a year to develop and learn the game. Celticsblog is a fun place, really. People were killing Dooling to give his minutes to Moore. Maybe in 4-5 months people will want Melo to start.

[nostar]

Okay I watched the draft and after picking Sully @ 21 I was standing and waving my arms yelling "PJ3"for at least 15 seconds. Dude is built almost exactly like KD and has all the talent to be a superstar.

However...

I just saw Roy Hibbert get a max offer from Portland (and a match from the Pacers ruling out rogue GM-itis). To me Hibbert is exceedingly average. When the hell did averaging 13 and 9 equal max money. Asik got ~8M. Let's ignore Hibbert and focus on starting "defensive" centers.

• Tyson Chandler: 13.6M
• Jokim Noah: 11M
• Kendrik Perkins: 7.8M
• Deandre Jordan: 10.5M

After seeing the Asik offer and looking at the landscape of the NBA I'm way more comfortable taking a chance on a 7ft "defensive" center. Centers have the highest average salary in the NBA and if we can snag one for 4-5 years on a rookie contract I'm sold. I guess if PJIII goes gonzo and becomes the next scoring champ then I'll be irked but I don't see it.

[myteamisbetterthanyours]

Melo's complete indifference to trying to get a rebound or even just get into a position to get a rebound really concerned me.

Biggest man on the floor and his ability to gauge where to be, where the ball is going after a shot, how to position oneself for and to go get a rebound were completely lacking. Those are not things one can teach at this level. You have it or you don't.

It appears he doesn't have those abilities.

Sullinger, besides being seriously overweight, looks to be a steal where the C's got him. Dude needs to lose a good 20-25 pounds.

You can't teach someone how to get better positioning/box out?  That's something that can definitely be taught.. What can't be taught, is Melo's great speed, length and size for his position.. Melo's got the tools and he's still learning.  He's going to be real good IMO.

[ptroger]

Melo's rebounding will improve dramatically as he gets settled in to playing professionally. Rebounding out of a zone is actually much different than rebounding when playing man to man defense. In fact, most coaches (I'm a HS coach) will tell you that rebounding is much easier when you are playing man to man defense because your block out responsibilities are predetermined, whereas when you are playing in a zone you have to seek out the man closest to you (which can sometimes lead to more shot watching than block out). His rebounding will be much better once he gets out of the habit of just watching the shot go up without instantly finding his man.

His offensive improvement is anyone's guess at this point, but I don't think he can be any worse than Hollins was this year. If he can run the floor, screen well and protect the rim when KG is out then I'd say we got what we needed.

[Sketch5]

Melo's complete indifference to trying to get a rebound or even just get into a position to get a rebound really concerned me.

Biggest man on the floor and his ability to gauge where to be, where the ball is going after a shot, how to position oneself for and to go get a rebound were completely lacking. Those are not things one can teach at this level. You have it or you don't.

It appears he doesn't have those abilities.

Sullinger, besides being seriously overweight, looks to be a steal where the C's got him. Dude needs to lose a good 20-25 pounds.

You can't teach someone how to get better positioning/box out?  That's something that can definitely be taught.. What can't be taught, is Melo's great speed, length and size for his position.. Melo's got the tools and he's still learning.  He's going to be real good IMO.

He's only played ball for 6 or 7 years. How can you say he can't be taught boxing out at this level? Most likely he hasn't been taught much being he's so big, the high school coach probably told him just go out and make sure know one scores.

What can't be taught is how fast he got from one spot to an other. The play were he was scrapping for the ball it got pass to the other side of the paint and he recovered for the block. WoW! Most guys wouldn't even had tried for it, but he tried and got it.

As long as he does what he say's he will do and is willing to learn, he should be okay.

Also, it was one game...

 

[CelticG1]

Glad I didn't watch the game. Got a lot of good insight on Melo here