Can the offense not focus on Melo this year?
He is playing good defense under Woodson but his shooting still stunk. He is under 40% now. It's pretty reasonable to expect he will not get better this year. His injured hand needs time to be 100% heal. Why is he still the main focus of the offense? We should get Amare, Novak, Lin more shots instead. Melo's poor shooting will hurt the team in close games.
They just won 5 in a row with Melo having some subpar moments shooting.
Believe me, when teams start to see Melo taking less shots, the team will find it even harder to score.
I wish he'd hit at least 7 of his 15 shots, but if he start to take less than that, no one is going to get good looks.
Melo's Shooting
Since Woodson became coach, Melo has hustled defensively, made some terrific assists, and rebounded pretty well. His shot selection has generally been good. He is just not hitting his shots and, with respect to drives to the paint, he has been blocked too many times. His shot will come back, but I am concerned about his explosiveness.
The George Karl complaint about Melo was, to some extent, his inconsistency. But Melo has had very few, if any, really good games this year. I recall being truly impressed with one of his games against Boston in the playoffs last year. He was extraordinary. I have not seen such a game at all this year.
In general, I am impressed with the way he is playing under Woodson and am waiting for his shot to come back.
As for Lin, I am not liking his current game. The complaint against Melo had been the ineffetiveness of his ISO game But Lin effectively plays an ISO game, though he just keeps moving. He has become a ball stopper. Notice how his assists have diminished and he often takes more shots than anyone else.
I do not know why Woodson starts Fields. He has been terrible. His talents are more suited to the free for all D'Antoni system. His shooting has been less than mediocre -- even his foul shooting.
I love Shumpert's defense, but he just never seems to make a shot. He can drive and get close to the rim, but as Clyde noted last night, he does not know what to do with it at the finish.
Really? When Melo was out with that groin injury, everyone was getting good looks at the basket. He still take 15 shots a game and making 5-6 of them. Lin and whoever bring the ball up the court still look at him first. They give him the ball, he play his iso game. He will take a tough shot and make it 39% of the time or kick it out. By then the other team are all set, make it harder for the rest of the team to get a good look. It would be better if Lin look at Amare or Tyson first before Melo. Numbers don't lie....39% shooting is 39% no matter how you look at it. 39% is not acceptable for a superstar, if Melo is a rookie....then i understand.
I've said it before and I'll say it again.
Melo is a volume shooter. He needs to have X number of shots per game to be effective. Without Melo the superstar, this team won't go far. Somehow Woody needs to figure out how to give Melo his allocation of iso's without hurting the flow on offense.
Melo isn't playing iso ball, just stop.
Since Woodson has taken over Melo has rarely held the ball longer than 2 seconds.
It's either catch and shoot, which isn't his game, an open three, which isn't his game either, or drives to the basket in transition.
The team got shots when Melo was out because of the unexepected emergence of Lin.
Now teams know what to expect.
I am pasting some of my post from another thread:
Knicks offesive set plays are terrible. Absolutely no more PnR's.
Melo 39% shooting doesnt truly reflect his shooting. His true shooting ability of late is prob around 25-30% if you take away the layups and dunks and blockshots. And if he is our go to guy, we will end up losing more games than we can win in the future. No one paid attention to his low percentage shooting during the winning streak because the rest of the team shot well. But his terrible shooting slump will get magnified ten fold if we lose. If his shooting slump continues and he is still our offensive focus, we will never make our playoff spot.
I have heard enough of excuses for Melo; injuries, volume shooter, shooting rhythm, MDA system not fit for his style, ISO in the wrong place of the court...blah blah blah. He is held accountable for his poor shooting.
Something gotta change! Either he gets off-court help, seeking hypnosis to get his focus back, acquire the service of motivational specialists, yoga lessons anything....i dont really care what it is but something gotta change! Albert Einstein, "Crazy is keep doing the same thing and expecting different results.
Why do we focus so much of Melo? Lately he has not lived up the expectation of Knicks fans as our $20-mil offensive player!
My thing is he was great in Denver when he was the focal point now that he isn't people expect him to be the same guy he was.......which is absurd if this is how we're gonna use Melo then expect these results
Also Lin doesn't pass Melo the ball, he looked him off like 5 times, Lin only give Melo the ball when he'll get credit for an "excellent set up by Jeremy Lin"-Mike Breen
This is what I mean. STOP blaming his poor shooting on Lin not passing the ball or anything else for that matter. He had many great looks for his shots tonight and many were uncontested. Melo made five FTs and then missed a wide open at the FT line? I mean WTF! If you take away the dunks and layups, I believe he made ONE 13-footer out of 8 outside shots!
All I am saying is: whatever is blocking his mental state or mental is out of sync with his physical state, or whatever is wrong with him, he needs to do something about it, and do it fast! Take advice from players who broke out of their slump for all we care, and if something doesnt work, try another, and keep on trying til he finds his rythm back.
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Melo's 2011-12 stats when he plays in games where the Knicks win (17)
18 PPG / 0.415 / 15.2 FGAs / 5.3 rebounds / 4.3 assists / 30.5 minutes
in losses (21)
21.8 PPG / 0.389 / 19.5 FGAs / 6.4 rebounds / 3.4 assists / 35.8 minutes
interpret the stats however you like them, but I think the Knicks play better when Melo is looking to distribute the ball more and is active on defense
there's something wrong with him though because it's not just his jump shot that is off. he's been missing shots within 5 feet from the rim way too much as well.
The Knicks will not be as successful as they possibly can with Carmelo struggling, I still thinks he needs a few more touches and iso plays ran specifically for to get him going early.
And yes Lin is still not doing a great job of finding Melo, but his struggles aren't Lins fault his timing and rhythm are really off at an all time low right now. I think at some point when the team has a big lead or something that have to force feed him the ball and let him just go 1 on 5 for a few plays so he can get going or something.
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