NYKfan77 wrote:This was the first game that I really thought Melo looked slow. Didn't look like he was limping but looked like he was moving really slow. Don't know if the injury is really bad and he is trying to play through it or not. But his lift on his jumper is gone. His legs look gone.
Yeah - from my perspective there were numerous games early in the season where his legs were completely lacking. He looked great for a 10 game or so stretch where everything was in sync and he was getting easy/solid looks but the past 8-10 games his body looks bad again and he's not moving well.
This happens all the time over and over again with aging players.
They realize that they have to conserve energy and they also realize that they risk injury if/when they have to try to explode to the basket. As a result defensive players lose respect for their ability to take them off the dribble and or finish at the rim. The defenders then start to get up in their face more and contest the jump shot more. You can see this materialize and Melo has to use his jab step 2-3 times to clear himself for a shot and in how he plays more and more with his back to the basket relying more and more on tough/contested off balance fade-away jump shots rather than taking easier open-looks facing the basket straight on.
It's very similar yet not as advanced as what you see from Kobe right now -- he can still make shots on many nights but those shots as a whole are much more difficult and mostly mid-range or contested 3-point shots always with a hand in the face. The shooting % starts to decline year/year -- the points are still produced but the net impact of the numbers is over-stated, inflated, empty.
It's just the fact of aging.
