Hornets PG Thread: Melo With The Game-Winner! We're Currently 6th Seed!!!

[Rotten Apple]

I gotta see some of those passes in the 4th quarter.

[AmazingJason]

Noah has been killing us. When he's not injured he is slow on defense with little to no rim protection while being a zero on offense and killing our spacing. We'd be fine at the five with KP, O'Quinn, Willy and Plumlee there. If we can trade Noah for a small forward we could move Melo to the four where he is best. Who could we get? Iguodala? Otto Porter?

When we signed him, I kind of just assumed Phil did his DD and that last season was an aberration due to injury. He would eventually recover, get into the best physical shape of his life, and get back to being 80% of his prime.

It's looking more like I was wrong

The truth is he hasn't been good in a long time. Chicago fans were trying to tell us that, but we were in the honeymoon phase and told them to GTFO. It honestly looks like Thibodeau and Noah's playing style burned him out, his play fell off a cliff and it may never return.

[sushibear]

Can I start the next game thread? I'm doin it

[dakomish23]

even Robin Lundberg's giving credit to Melo tonight.... it must have hurt him to do so

**** that guy

[matchman]

Game thoughts:

Rose: 16p/5a on 6/13 shooting and only attempt 1 three. big bank shot down the stretch in 4th quarter, an even bigger block on Kemba Walker on the 3-point attempt. It was always an upset to us in the past. Slowly Rose becomes a lock down defender on PG and surprising you and me. Before the season I just aim at Rose being not a defensive liability but he is winning me over. And the way he attacks the rim is just refreshing and never to be seen from all those PG in the past decade after Marbury. Thank Rose for the good game. The D actually compensates the shortage of assists. (we get that from his teammates so it's all good)

Lee: 12p/2r/2steals on 4/10 shooting with 2 3-pointers. Tough cover on Marco (he seems to make every wide open shots or on the curl with the screen guy), but the shots are falling so it is a mediocre but acceptable night from him. Still have that tough D on McCollum in my mind and we would need that from him tomorrow.

Melo: 35p/14b/5assists/2stl/1blk What more can you ask from him? Just a dominant night and an alpha performance and keep reminding us why we need and love him to be our leaders tonight. When he shoots in rhythm whether it's ISO or not, it is just like a magnet and makes life easier for his teammate. It's not the same as Lebron (who may need his ball in his hand or outrun or rolling like a tank) but tell you what, I think Melo's prime game can last longer than Lebron which depends less on physicality. When double team is put on Melo, it's important to find the open man and tonight he found not once, not twice but three times down the stretch to Willy and KP which is equally important to his game winning shots. It just shuffles defenders' mind and some tough choices to be made, which explains why basketball is a team game after all. Having Melo logging 41 minutes caused a concern on his stamina tomorrow but let's enjoy the win first.

BTW, I would like to mention, even though KP was open for like a second in the paint in that last possesion on 4th quarter, it's actually a good decision/overlook from Melo to let the clock run out and him to take the last shot. It's a tie game and to me it's more important to hear the buzzer sound and never give the chance for Bobcats to have a time out and a chance for them to win in regulation.

KP: 16p/8r/3blks FOUL TROUBLE is hurting his rhythm and it's his task to overcome. However down the stretch when he plays with Melo or Willy at 4/5, his recover blocks and then the threes relieve the pressure from Melo and Rose and outplay Kaminsky (I remembered somebody here prefers him over KP before draft LOL), and make Bobcats, oh I mean Hornets to adjust our lineup to play small.

Noah: 6p/8r in 18 minutes. Better performance than I expect in the comeback game. When team is struggling in the early 1st and 3rd quarter his hustle does help the team. Yes there is team spacing concern, but I think his chemistry with Rose does help in the pick and roll situation, and we can mix it up a bit like playing Jennings with KP (Chemistry brothers lol). We are also witnessing how KOQ and Willy looking for cutters in the high post, which was Noah's signature move and I will give merit to Noah to help development on KOQ and Willy.

Bench:

Kuz: 0/6 but with 4 rebounds 2 assists and 1 steal. Shots not falling this game but he's always on the right spot, which helps the spacing and I don't mind opposing teams sleeping on him, there will be some more bombs (ask Portland) here and there later. And his D is improving. Baby steps.

Hernangomez: 6p/9r/2assist/4TO He's playing down the stretch, and step in the place which we expect from Noah. Silly mistake to foul on Kemba (although I scream bull when the whistle) to let them tie. And yeah imagine KOQ or Noah got Willy's footwork in the paint. :drool: :saliva: He's also in the right spot to be close to the hoop when Melo was being double-teamed. And talk about we will have him by paying pennies over the next 4 years. Thank you, Gaines and Phil.

KOQ: 8p/3r/3a/2blks Oakley movement. Nuff said. Again he's proving why we should have patience when players were struggling before. Kudos to Noah and Hornacek or whatever big man coach to help KOQ.

Holiday: 9p/1r/1a He's important to this team and it proves again when we see how Marco breaks down the perimeter after his shoulder injury. Hopes he recover soon.

BJ: 3p/3r/3a Not playing much this game due to the size of opposing backcourt, but I guess he will log heavy minutes in tomorrow's game.

Sahsa: Holiday's sub.

Hornacek: Can't say enough to have his service. That "NO WAY" scream and the T helps when the team has a slump ( I forgot it's 2nd quarter or 3rd). As I always mention, when teams are in close margin, coach is a huge factor to a close win, or an upset. When Knicks logging more close win under Hornacek's belt, we should thank god it's no longer a rookie or incompetent coach leading this super team.

8-7 and sixth in the east. Let's enjoy the win together.

[ChilledAlex]

ESPN are bums

They try to point out the iffy missed pass by Melo to KP and then only say the points and rebounds Melo up.


5 assists TOO

Even Stephen A's at it and I thought he was Melo's biggest stan in the media

Read on Twitter

Don't pay attention to those whores. They need the Melo vs KP because that would make huge clickbait worthy articles. Those fcking media scumbags are instigating all this drama for their profits.

[Rotten Apple]

Noah has been killing us. When he's not injured he is slow on defense with little to no rim protection while being a zero on offense and killing our spacing. We'd be fine at the five with KP, O'Quinn, Willy and Plumlee there. If we can trade Noah for a small forward we could move Melo to the four where he is best. Who could we get? Iguodala? Otto Porter?

We good man, Noah is fine, the contract sucks but he's necessary at times.

[Rotten Apple]

even Robin Lundberg's giving credit to Melo tonight.... it must have hurt him to do so

**** that guy

yeah he's trash, another agenda based media member.

[reub]

Noah has been killing us. When he's not injured he is slow on defense with little to no rim protection while being a zero on offense and killing our spacing. We'd be fine at the five with KP, O'Quinn, Willy and Plumlee there. If we can trade Noah for a small forward we could move Melo to the four where he is best. Who could we get? Iguodala? Otto Porter?

Lmao man we are not getting a rotation level player in exchange for Noah's contract. He's on our team. That will stick.

Why can't we get a large contract back for Noah? The money could be a wash. Crabbe, Wes Matthews, Evan Turner, something like that? Of course I'd prefer Iguodala.

[reub]

Noah has been killing us. When he's not injured he is slow on defense with little to no rim protection while being a zero on offense and killing our spacing. We'd be fine at the five with KP, O'Quinn, Willy and Plumlee there. If we can trade Noah for a small forward we could move Melo to the four where he is best. Who could we get? Iguodala? Otto Porter?

We good man, Noah is fine, the contract sucks but he's necessary at times.

We are pretty good. But we have been playing much better with Noah on the bench and Melo at the four. Just sayin.

[Rotten Apple]

Noah has been killing us. When he's not injured he is slow on defense with little to no rim protection while being a zero on offense and killing our spacing. We'd be fine at the five with KP, O'Quinn, Willy and Plumlee there. If we can trade Noah for a small forward we could move Melo to the four where he is best. Who could we get? Iguodala? Otto Porter?

We good man, Noah is fine, the contract sucks but he's necessary at times.

We are pretty good. But we have been playing much better with Noah on the bench and Melo at the four. Just sayin.

yeah thats our money line up but Noah is still necessary.

KP/Melo at the 5/4 is our ace in the hole, similar to the Warriors death line up.

Noah will be needed at times. If he was making half his salary guys wouldn't be so much against him IMO.

[taikibansei]

That's cool.. Kp will carry the load tomorrow

He needs to keep his butt out of foul trouble.

I've realized KP's foul trouble is 100% Noah's fault. He forces KP to guard these SF/PF Tweeners and that gets KP in foul trouble.

Source: Look at KP's foul numbers when Noah isn't out there.

I've been saying the same thing for a month now, even took some heat here (for being a supposed KP apologist ) because of it. Noah needs to be benched.

I just got back to my house and watched the game. Wow. **** wow. Too emotionally drained to analyze. Off to start drinking instead. (It's Saturday here/)

Peace.

[dakomish23]

Players not named Marco were 3-for-23 from 3pt line. Yikes. Starters were 2-for-14. Frank and Batum were 1-for-7.

[nykfan42]

"what a selfish player. dude he hates his teammates bro. he won't pass to them or acknowledge them" said every internet troll

Ignoring the pass to KP for 3 with 45 seconds left. Ignoring common sense as well but that's another conversation.

Dad Melo doing Dad things as MSG!

[WesleyExChiFan]

Rose has always had it in him to be a lockdown defender, but I think he usually only turned it up in the last few minutes of the game, or when someone thought they could post him up. Maybe he was conserving cause he was the only serious independent scoring option on the team? Being the third option on offense seems to be bringing the best out of him on the other end though. Nice to see he's still got enough vertical to block Kemba's 3 at the end. Did the same thing to Parker last year. Exploded from the lane to block a corner 3.

Props to Melo. Just pooped on a really good defender in MKG.

Porzingas is deceptively quick on his feet. Moves with the quickness of a 4 legged animal with hooves...

[3toheadmelo]

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

Enjoy fam

[Greenie]

even Robin Lundberg's giving credit to Melo tonight.... it must have hurt him to do so

He lost a damn listener in me with how he started showing his ass.
I used to download that mans podcast. Now? Fuq Robin.

[MrProb]

Holy shiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat that was freaking INTENSE !!

I took my wife to a fancy dinner because today is our anniversary but man, I only watched the first half and not gonna lie my mind was on the game the whole meal kept checking the phone every 30 seconds

MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[reub]

We good man, Noah is fine, the contract sucks but he's necessary at times.

We are pretty good. But we have been playing much better with Noah on the bench and Melo at the four. Just sayin.

yeah thats our money line up but Noah is still necessary.

KP/Melo at the 5/4 is our ace in the hole, similar to the Warriors death line up.

Noah will be needed at times. If he was making half his salary guys wouldn't be so much against him IMO.

We can solve a lot of problems by moving KP to the five and backing him up with O'Quinn, Willy and Plumlee (who can play). And by moving Melo to where he belongs at the four. Every time Noah leaves the game recently (when he's healthy enough to even play) the team goes on a major roll. He just doesn't fit in. Noah for Crabbe (same salary). Who says no?

[stuporman]

Good game, the team showed mental toughness, timely play making and chemistry.

SAS goin in on Melo for not passing the ball to KP in the closing seconds? Wow, you would think he'd defend Melo's decision to shoot it under any circumstance since he views the Knicks as "Melo's team" and the "superstar".... hmm