This attitude is what is wrong with us.
I agree, but it's a fatal flaw in the way the team plays.
No other player of Melo's caliber has to shoulder the offensive load alone. LBJ, Durant, Westbrook, PG, Blake, CP3, LMA, Lillard, Steph, hell...even Cousins... they're all either highly talented players on team's where the offensive concepts are geared towards ball movement and body movements off pin downs & screens, or they are the the PG and they run the team.
Too often the ball is given to Melo with the shot clock running down, and there's no one in position to even set a screen for anyone else. So even if guys were to move, they'd be moving with a defender right in their hip pocket.
How many times have we seen CP3 cross half court, and dribble the clock out before some lame bail out pass, all the while JJ Reddick is just standing there looking at him?
Bad example because he's a PG?
How often do we see LBJ with the ball in his hand and everyone is clearing out the court for him to go 1-on-1, and eventually 1-on-everybody? Not often. We see the floor appropriately spaced for LBJ, and he has options. Sometimes it's a PnR and he comes off the pick hard, forcing help to come, and he'll make that little pocket pass to the big filling space on the lower block once his man vacates and goes to help on LBJ (we saw Birdman living around the rim, and just killing the Pacers and Spurs doing this in the playoffs); or because the court is spaced appropriately as opposed to everyone just standing around while he isolates on the wing, LBJ still has options when he drives, if he drives.
Or even PG. He receives the ball in the flow of the offensive set. It's not dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, give the ball to Paul.
So seeing as how there doesn't seem to be a team concept on the offensive end, and it's just give it to Melo and watch him take on the world, I question how much he has in the tank to give on the other end of the court.
Not making excuses, maybe we can legitimately question his conditioning then.
But I brought it up before, and I think it's worth repeating. Remember, Melo's bad defense under MDA, or early last year, was far more often a question of playing smart as opposed to effort. I routinely remember him making the silliest fouls closing out on his man, when Woody was only an assistant coach, as opposed to the head man. Melo would switch, and then go flying at someone to contest the shot and foul them. We also remember his effort on D early last season.
What's the common denominator?
Under MDA, the offense was constantly high PnR and then maybe Melo got to take a bad shot from the perimeter, but he was never on the wing iso'd up, taking on the whole team; and early last year, the ball was swinging around the perimeter and the team was launching 3s from the opening tip.
With Woodson now employing his equally as bad, poorly planned....if there is even a god damn plan...Iso offense, that we saw in ATL with Joe Johnson. Melo is the offense when he's on the floor. To a fault. But this is not a new development with Mike.
There's a reason why he was fired after his 50+ win team was eliminated in the second round in ATL.
