FKF wrote:Not mean to be a troll, I feed your guys pain.
Be don’t blame your coach.
George Karl, Mike d’Antoni, Mike Woodson, Derek Fisher, Jeff Hornacek, they all had to coach around Melo’s defense.
Just bench Melo, start Patterson, use Melo as offensive option off the bench. Your team D will dramatically improve. If Donovan doesn’t do that, he’ll get fired at some point.
The Knicks defense is dramatically improving now.
We can look at the lineup splits:
Melo ON: 104.2 DRtG (99.4 per stats.nba.com)
Melo ON, Russ ON (basically the starters): 107.7 DRtG (102.9 per stats.nba.com)
Melo ON, Russ OFF (basically the bench): 96.0 DRtG (n/a per stats.nba.com)
For comparison: Durant-Adams in 2015/2016 had a 101.5 DRtG per nbawowy (95.5 per stats.nba.com).
Adjusted for the opponent's offensive strength, we're 3rd in defense. His DBPM is at the moment slightly below average at -0.2, which would rank as his 3rd best season in that regard.
Melo will have to play better on that end because his effort has been too erratic for my liking. One game he gets steals, blocks shots, gets rebounds. The next game he looks like he doesn't care.
At least his rebounding numbers are now up to par with his career numbers and have been trending upward. I think that's the one thing he is able to do night in, night out and his main way of contributing defensively. His STL% is at his career average (1.5 %) and his BLK% at a career high (3.0 %). I don't think expecting him to at least
-Grab defensive rebounds
-Get in the passing lanes
-Block a shot here and there
is expecting too much of him.
