We have to go to a more traditional lineup. We are getting bruised on the boards because Tyson has to box out 2 guys most of the time and Melo is just not dominating enough to condone running him at the 4. Also teams are switching on Melo so why run him at the 4?
We need to start Sheed and call it a night, Melo can be a spot 4 here and there but to have him at the 4 is dumb because teams know how to combat him now. Lebron is the only guy that can get away with that simply because he is a freak of nature, but Melo needs to be put back into his natural position because he is just a scorer. He cannot pass at the same clip as Lebron or rebound nor can he defend the post as well as Lebron.
Let Melo run at the 3 against weaker/shorter players and he can bully his way to the basket and wont risk injury from getting pounded all game by 7 footers...
Also another flaw that is seen when running this small lineup is that when the other team switches on Melo, Brewer/Kidd cant take advantage of one of the PF/C's guarding them so it is literally a useless strategy. Last night Brewer could not take advantage of ZBo guarding him so the plan failed. If we had Shumpert and Jr in thats different but about time Shump comes back Amare will have been back for a month...
Bottom line this small ball is useless, Miami does this to make helping on Lebron and Dwade a big mistake but here is the things they have that we lack.
1. Multiple knockdown 3 point shooters at their disposal.
2. A big that can shoot the midrange consistently.
3. 2 excellent passers in Wade in Lebron, who also can get to the rim at will and draw help to free up shooters.
So Miami's gameplan works because they have the personnel for it and we simply do not. Our team is built for the halfcourt yet Woody wants us to be the 06' Suns.
I hate how coaches are going toward this small ball lineup when other than Miami, no team has ever won a championship like that. Play the way the game is meant to be played and dont follow the footsteps of a almost impossobly talented Suns dynasty and the 2012 Heat who have the greatest Talent in the history of the game along with one of the greatest Shooting guards ever and a pretty good bigman...
We have too many bigs to be running a small ball lineup as our base, we need to dominate the boards and then our wins so far would have been by 25+ every time because we were dominating while being abused on the boards which has never happened nor will ever win a championship.
Get big so we can combat easy layups, Rebounds and have more open shooters since we will have better screen setters and we can truly dominate.
Melo at the 4 is a myth, he is without a doubt a SMALL FORWARD, who can be slotted into the 4 when the OTHER TEAM goes small, but he is a legitimate 3 and should not be forced to play the 4 all season long. Melo cannot pass, defend, finish, or rebound good enough to take the risks of him playing at the 4 because the Cons outweigh the Pros heavily so far.