i haven't looked it up recently, but i feel like curry's actually only been a minus defender a couple times in his career. i think people just remember lebron and houston trying to find him for isos against bigger, stronger players. his team defense has been good for a long time, imo. these things cannot be said for melo.
whilst I agree, Melo isn’t a max player and if he can replicate Kuz on O and somewhat be there on D, we are winning.
Maybe that's the approach this offseason. Grab a bunch of offensive-minded players and let Vogel do all the defensive work for us.
If you want to see him, here's video from the interview and not just audio... come on Lakers.com, do better
I think we'll see flashes from the old HOF Carmelo this season I'm sure he'll be very motivated, playing with Lebron and last change to get a ring and all
When the second unit needs a bucket, Anthony gets the ball and get the **** out of the way. Looking forward to his isos on the floor.
As much as I look forward to his 3 point shooting, I might even be more excited to see Melo operate out of the post/mid range the way he does. Watched Kobe do it for years and it really is becoming a lost art in basketball.
Aside from just being a legitimate spot up shooter, you can still run your offence through Melo in the post for 4-5 possessions in a row to give the big three a 3/4 min rest. Even in this day and age, Melo can hit 45-50% in the post against bench players. I think one of lebron and russ will always be on the floor, so imagine a defensive minded lineup like Nunn, Bazemore, Lebron, Melo and Gasol. Let Lebron cruise and throw it in to Melo in the post for a few minutes to get an active break. If the defence is collapsing, Melo can kick it out to Nunn, Baze and Gasol - all good shooters and Lebron can spot up decently too. That'll be huge! Then you got AD and Russ coming back in after a rest. Just surrounded them with shooters and spam the PnR and PnP.
More like fight for minutes though …. as many as he can get …. definitely on his mind I’d imagine. Only place he could start position wise would be the 3 or 4 and that’s LeBron and AD.
Crazy stat. Melo had his best 3 point percentage of his career this last year at 41%. If he gets open shots, I do not think he will miss like Kuzma.
I think Melo should go into the season trying to be the 6th man of the year. If he does that and Westbrook is taking the load off lebron during the season, the Lakers aint losing.
We've been on this road before about 3pt % of a new Laker, always expect the worst like 10% lower than his previous year
Carmelo isn't your typical role player. He is a future Hall of famer who has a history of making shots when open.
I thinbk Carmelo's floor in term of 3 point shooting is arund 35%, which is Kuzma's ceiling so far in his career. At the very least I don't expect Melo to shoot a lower percentage than Kuzma from 3. Will he continue shooting 41%? I hope so but I thinkm its reasonable for him to regress to the mean to a certain degree.
I'm optimistic on Melo's shooting. He shot 41% on 4.7 attempts last year and I'd argue that's part of a long term trend of him improving from the 3 since he moved to NY. Let's break that down a bit. First of all, I'm cutting out the Houston season where he only played 10 games - that doesn't constitute a trend. Corner 3's: 43.8% (Last Season) 37.8% (Career) - 5/6 last seasons at 38%+ and 2 of those at 55%+ Catch & Shoot: 40% (Last Season) - 6/7 last seasons at 38%+ and 4 of those at 40%+ Wide Open 3's: 42% (Last Season) - between 42%-50% each of the last 7 seasons Melo has turned into a legit shooter. --- Here are our other shooters. Monk - shot 40% last year on 5 attempts Corner 3's: 57.6% (Last Season) 36.2% (Career) Catch & Shoot: 41.6% (Last Season) - 3/4 last seasons at 38%+ Wide Open 3's: 43.3% (Last Season) - 4/4 last seasons at 38%+ Ellington - shot 42.2% last year on 6 attempts Corner 3's: 41.6% (Career) - 9/12 last seasons at 40%+ Catch & Shoot: 38.1% (Last Season) - 6/8 last seasons at 38%+ Wide Open 3's: 43.3% (Last Season) - 7/8 last seasons at 39%+ and last 5 seasons at 42%+ Nunn - shot 38% last year on 5.7 attempts Corner 3's: 32.9% (Career) Catch & Shoot: 42.1% (Last Season) Wide Open 3's: 44.2% (Last Season) Gasol - shot 41% last year on 2.3 attempts Corner 3's: 50% (Last Season) 40% (Career) Catch & Shoot: 41.7% (Last Season) - 4/6 last seasons at 39%+ Wide Open 3's: 41.6% (Last Season) - 5/6 last seasons at 39%+ Bazemore - shot 41% last year on 2.7 attempts Corner 3's: 39.2% (Last Season) 38.4% (Career) - 5/8 last seasons at 40%+ Catch & Shoot: 42.4% (Last Season) - 5/7 last seasons at 38%+ Wide Open 3's: 42% (Last Season) - 6/8 last seasons at 36% and 4 of those at 40%+ Ariza - shot 35% last year on 4.8 attempts Corner 3's: 37.3% (Last Season) 40.2% (Career) - 9/10 last seasons at 39%+ and 6 of those at 42%+ Catch & Shoot: 37.2% (Last Season) - 5/8 seasons at 38%+ Wide Open 3's: 34.8% (Last Season) - 6/8 seasons at 40%+ Lebron - shot 36.5% last year on 6.3 attempts Corner 3's: 45.5% (Last Season) 39.2% (Career) - 7/9 last seasons at 37%+ and 4 of those at 40%+ Catch & Shoot: 35.4% (Last Season) - 5/8 seasons at 39%+ Wide Open 3's: 37.4% (Last Season) - 5/8 seasons at 38%+ AD - shot 26% last year on 2.8 attempts Corner 3's: 62.5% (Last Season) 39.7% (Career) - last 4 seasons at 40%+ and 2 of those at 55%+ This data basically mirrors the eye test. Melo, Monk and Ellington are all good shooters on high volume. Nunn seems to be developing into a good shooter on high volume but oddly shoots the harder ones better - needs to improve from the corner. Gasol is a good shooter but reluctant. Bazemore and Ariza are good shooters from the corner. When they focus the majority of their 3's from the corner, they have better shooting seasons. Lebron takes a lot of 3's and hits them at a league average clip. However he is almost a 40% shooter from the corner. AD isn't a great 3pt shooter, however, just like Lebron he can hit the short corner 3 at almost 40%. It'll be interesting to see them spot up from the corner when Russ takes his turn running the offence.
