Melo will shoot better, sure. He will have games where he plays better and where he plays worse.
But his ONLY available trajectory is downward based on his age. You should stop placating her - her bizarre comparisons to LeBron James, who is in another stratosphere, as well as Dirk and KD who have had seasons Melo could only dream about, including a championship from one of them... defy logic or basic understanding of the game.
She's running face-first into a brick wall, looking at the blood on the ground, and swearing it's just some media propagana from the pro-wall mainstream.
It's clinical.
I root for melo because he plays for my team, I want him to succeed, I want the knicks to win a championship with him. But I also have the capacity to to at the same time make obvious observations that Melo's style of play is NOT necessarily conducive to the getting most consistent, positive results. He can no longer defend consistently at an average level, he plays a premier position, and he stops the ball movement on offense. Even though he CAN pass.
I'm glad he's playing well with Porzingis, I hope they build chemistry... but Melo is not this team's future. He's too old to be anybody's future.
And I think, at the heart of it - THAT is where the disconnect is for some posters. I can root for melo to play well, AND know that he is probably not the answer for this franchise, and definitely not franchise-altering star we'd hoped he was. Both things can be true.
Personally, as an aside, I LOVED the fact that he set that pick for KP at the end of the game last night... I mean, he fukked it up and got called for a terrible foul, but I love that he recognized that Porzingis was hot, and recognized he NEEDED to have the ball on that last possession. That is an important realization... it is the kind of thing that Kobe has NEVER gotten, for example.
It is the kind of thing that gives me hope that he COULD settle into being the second or third option... but it still leaves more than a decade between him and the player who is now the cornerstone. Which is probably too wide a gap to bridge.
It would be great if Melo appeared to be a draw for free agents... but that hasn't proved to be the case... maybe he AND porzingis could draw some young/exciting/promising talent? But then... doesn't that REALLY mean they're signing on to Porzingis?
Basketball is a simple game... but the WAY to win, the strategy is complicated. The BUSINESS of building a basketball team is even MORE complicated, with even MORE ways to succeed and fail. I just think people need to realize that the duality of rooting for a player and a team, and also thinking the team might be better off trading that player are NOT mutually exclusive.
But more than anything, y'all should just block zema. She doesn't add anything to the thread except for post count and frustration. He doesn't understand basketball, and uses the wrong statistics..... this is how I imagine barbershops were in the 90's when white kids started coming in and talking about Vanilla Ice as a top rapper in the game.
:telldtruth:
