They were saying on the LFR podcast that Melo was having to play way too many minutes for his age and the role we signed him for. I haven’t really taken that into consideration, but it’s true, 30 vs the Spurs, 31 vs the Thunder, on a back to back, it’s too much. Tonight he plays 25 and just has to catch and shoot which is exactly the role he’s here for and he’s lights out. Hopefully when we get healthy that will be his role, 20 or so solid minutes to just let it fly.
And those 30+ minutes after he emptied the tank vs the Grizz. He probably needed a lighter load after that. I'd like to keep his minutes around 22-24 and maybe less on back to backs.
Well, let's hope he can keep it going on the road. I have read 3-4 different opinions that his defense his awful: particularly with not tagging the roll man or just not showing any effort on specific possessions. However, if he's scorching hot, you have to play him. Just hope the shooting outweighs the defense. And it has at least for 2 games this season; he has been very instrumental in the Memphis & Cleveland wins.
This is going to be Melo...some nights he's on and some nights he will be off. We have to ride the wave.
He's like Kyle Korver as a catch and shoot guy. He probably should have tried to join Lebron a lot sooner as my goodness, you see flashes of Olympics Melo with them together.
He really does feed off the crowd, and Staples absolutely loves him! Crowd goes crazy whenever he touches the ball, and you can tell Melo starts feeling himself. To the point where I’m almost worried that they sometimes encourage him into taking bad shots lol
I also wonder about the sustainability of playing Melo so many minutes. For playoff-type situations, I worry about beating the best teams if Melo is always in the closing line up. But in the early part of the regular season, this is awesome. It's a treat to have him score like this.
