Summer league matters. Summer league is a chance. KO played like it mattered to him. Pressey played like it mattered to him.
yup, couldn't have said it better.
In all honesty, Fab was a top 5 player on that Summer League team.
There were two guys who were clearly better than him - Olynyk and Pressey. After that you had Iverson and maybe one other guy who were about on par with Fab's production. Yes he still made errors, but he was showing quite a massive improvement in Summer League this year compared to what he showed in Summer League / Preseason last year. Improved jump shot, improved hook shot, better mobility. Sure he still looked very raw, but outiside of maybe 4 guys everybody else on that summer league team was horrible, significantly worse than Fab from a talent (if not IQ) perspective.
Exactly. And you don't hear any of them crying about not being given a chance. He definitely looked better. It would have been hard to look worse. I wouldn't say he looked good enough to get lots of minutes in the NBA though. Not sure C Iverson did either, so he went to Turkey without crying
Fab Melo was a 7-foot, 250 pound, shotblocking center on a roster that was getting killed night in and night out because we lacked anything even closely resembling a 7-foot, 250 pound shotblocking center. Excepting KG of course.
Doc gave minutes to Jason Collins who (nice as he is as a person) was absolutely horrendous. Horrendous to the point where he made Ryan Hollins (from the previous season) look like an All-Star. Collins was giving us maybe 3 points per 36 minutes, rebounded like a guard, couldn't block a shot, and got in to foul trouble any time he attempted to play anything resembling defense.
Doc was starting a 6'9" Sullinger at center which was a disaster because he just doesn't have the size, and then when Sully went down the 6'7" Bass spent a lot of time at the center spot.
I'm not sure if there were even 5 teams in the league who needed a legit shotblocker with true NBA size as much as the Celtics did last season, yet he did get more than maybe 2 minutes of NBA game time. In the preseason games he barely played, even in this years summer league games he barely played in half of them.
From Fab's perspective, his D league averages showed that he had at least SOME game. Given Boston's lack of size and struggles defensively when KG sat down, I'm sure Fab felt like he had some skills that could eventually help the team if he were given some charity minutes here and there. Yes his IQ is terrible and I'm sure he knows that too, but the guy has only been playing basketball for something like 2-3 years so how can you expect otherwise?
I'm not saying he was a good player or that he would have contributed in any way at all, but I am saying that given the garbage we were putting at the center position, he probably at least deserved a chance. Doc played Collins knowing that he was practically useless outside of being able to offer 6 fouls. Well Fab could offer 6 fouls too, only he is a better rebounder, shotblocker and probably even scorer than Collins (and that's saying something!). i'd be willing to bet that Fab would hit an open 12 foot jumper before Collins would. I bet he'd hit one of those nice little hook shots before Collins would too.
It's hard not to criticise the team when you consider the Darko situation. This looked like a good opportunity for him to finally make an impact on a team. He said all the right things, he played fantastic 'role player' minutes in the preseason and really made an impact on the court. He gave us the type of enforcer-like toughness we have been longing for since Perk left. He got tons of minutes in preseason and really played well, then the regular season started and he saw what...2 minutes? The entire season? No wonder he left.
Doc is one of those coaches who would not give a young guy a chance unless:
1. He is a very rare talent (Sullinger was expected to go lottery before his back issues were exposed)
2. Circumstances demanded it (Bradley got no minutes from Doc until Ray Allen got hurt)
I'm sure there are a lot of other coaches and teams in the league under which guys like Bradley (and even Fab) would have gotten some opportunities, but Doc was certainly not one of them.
There were a LOT of times when I watched this team last year failing miserably, getting scored on at will in the paint, and I just begged and pleaded internally that Doc would just throw Fab in there and give him a chance. See if he can block a shot or two, maybe grab a rebound, something to give himself some confidence and maybe inspire the team a little. It never happened, he just kept going with the same old lineups that were getting hammered by opponents.
So while Fab does appear a bit immature (both personally and basketball wise) I do to a degree see where he is coming from.
Also you said that the other players on the summer league roster didn't complain - you're right, but those players were all there with the hope of making a roster so they had no expectations. Fab was drafted in the first round, had a guaranteed contract, and was already on the roster. It's blatantly obvious that he is going to have more expectations (in terms of playing time) then a bunch of young guys who have never been on an NBA roster.
Just sayin!
Topic: Fab Melo: The C's didn't give me a chance (Read 17960 times)