Larbrd33:
My take away was not to play Fab Melo down the stretch against Miami with 5 minutes to go and a 3 point lead for the Celtics.
I never said "meaning full" minutes. What I said was 'Minutes".
I'm always surprised by people who think that Fab Melo playing 5 minutes during the first half of any game will
A) Guarantee that the celtics get slaughtered in that game because of it and
B) It will also likely lead to the abject demise of the Celtics franchise as a whole, for decades to come.
I see no possible way that Fab Melo could hurt the dynastic fortunes of the 2013 Boston Celtics by playing 5-10 minutes a game, early on in any game, any more than Jason Collins, or for that matter, Brandon bass sometimes...
We have the kid. He's a seven footer with length, the only one we have outside of KG.
It's a really, really strange thing how sometimes little bits of minutes here and there can slowly get a player's comfort level and confidence up. How they can slowly keep learning. Meanwhile, if he can get KG 5-8 minutes a game less of "not" having to bang with all the other big bodies every night, all the better.
Put the highest pressure in the game on the kid, let him get smacked in the head every night for 5-8 minutes, see what happens.He might surprise us with 4 points, 3 boards and a block before you know it.
Whether Perkins knew positional defense of not, check out his numbers in years 1-4.
Perkins average 28/16 and 8 in high school...
Melo put up a stretch of games in the D-League where he averaged 18/12 and 8 or whatever he did. I think D-league has better talent than High school does.
You don't think Melo can match Perkin's numbers given equal playing time over his first three years? I do, he has way better length and athleticism than Perk - once it clicks in his head and gets confidence, he could surprise us very much.
And I can honestly say I didn't see a whole lot clicking in Perkin's head in his first three years in the league and I watched every game he played.
I loved his toughness and aggression but he was basically a complete train wreck for the better part of 3 seasons.
All I'm saying is if I had a young, athletic mobile 7 footer with length on a team desperately lacking size, length and athleticism, I would find him spots to play, they don't have to be meaningful minutes - just minutes.
It's not like we're torching the league -