I really don't get the fuss about him. He's a person that wants to win, he scores, rebounds, and passes more than people want to admit. The team will get better once his trust in them becomes stronger. People seem to always over look the simple facts that we have a whole new team and coaching staff.
I get upset too when we lose, but I'm not going to misdirect my anger in such a way. That will just expose some envy issues and cluelessness. I would give the team some time to find a identity first before I go off on any particular player.
100% agreed with everything you said. I watch every game very carefully, sometimes twice or 3 times on replay just to see if I didn't catch something on the first go around. In just about every game I've watched Melo play, he's 1 of the guys on the floor giving a ton of effort fighting for rebounds, going up for putbacks on his own shot, fighting for position down low, fighting to get into the lane & either get the layup or draw the foul.
He's also been highly underrated as a passer as well, this season he averaged the most assists per game in his last 7 seasons, & for a guy who over his entire high school, college & professional career has been mostly looked upon to carry the scoring load for every team he's played on, I think it shows he's at least trying to look for his teammates more. Melo is not a point guard, he is not a guy who is accustomed to orchestrating an offense & shouldn't be looked upon to set guys up in motion for easy buckets. D'Antoni was trying to turn him into a point forward instead of using him to his strengths posting up guys down low. Instead of adapting his system to the players he had on the roster like any good coach would do, he tried to change the players' games to adapt to his system. This is what has consistently bothered me about him ever since he got the job as our coach.
Knicks fans that complain about Melo's style of play need to stop expecting him to be something that he's not. They want him to be Lebron James or Steve Nash, but he's not that type of player. Melo's a pure scorer in the mold of Bernard King. He's used to being the guy that gets the ball passed to HIM to do the scoring.
I also think he's shown much more of a consistent effort on the defensive end also. People ask why that effort wasn't there when D'Antoni was coaching here, but fail to realize that effort was lacking in the other players that played under him too, & that encompassed all the teams since he was our coach. I don't see why fans can't just be happy that they're seeing our best player starting to take some accountability for how the team performs, instead of pointing fingers at his teammates for their shortcomings. Melo handled all the negative backlash thrown his way this year like a true pro in my opinion, even when Linsanity broke loose & everyone was thinking this team was better off without him. I think with a full offseason training camp playing with Lin, Amar'e, Shump & Chandler under the same system that Mike Woodson is running, they'll be a much better team next year. Hopefully we'll be able to retain Steve Novak too. This team needs to build that team cohesion & trust in each other that you see in teams like the Spurs & Celtics. That type of chemistry is only built over time & growing pains are all a part of the process. Knick fans need to realize this.
Sorry for the longwinded post, but this hate towards Melo by some Knick fans just doesn't make sense to me & never has.