Hezonja has been bad in 21 games of playing barely any minutes. But his last two seasons were better than Anthony's last two seasons. I'd bet on Hezonja as the more valuable player going forward.
NBA 2019-2020
- Thread starter altodevil
- Start date
Blazers need a new coach.
Not having to play the post-season last season, after so many years of constant playoffs and finals journeys, has really rejuvenated Lebron, and he's absolutely enjoying this season and is as fresh and energetic as a 5 year old. The partnership with Davis so far has clicked brilliantly and is actually starting to come to the fore with the kind of scary potential that it has. While the rest of the roster is contributing well enough to support the big two. Their basketball has been quite enjoyable to watch especially with Bron leading the unit brilliantly.
Agree with the poster above who said getting a high rank in the regular season is crucial for them. They ideally need to coast through the first two rounds and not having any draining Game 7 series, as they need to be absolutely fresh and healthy for the Clips and then likely the Bucks, if they go that far.
Really do hope that happens as a Lakers-Clips series with both the teams fully fit and fresh could be an absolute blockbuster. How do people see this Lakers outfit setting up defensively vs. the Clippers?
Agree with the poster above who said getting a high rank in the regular season is crucial for them. They ideally need to coast through the first two rounds and not having any draining Game 7 series, as they need to be absolutely fresh and healthy for the Clips and then likely the Bucks, if they go that far.
Really do hope that happens as a Lakers-Clips series with both the teams fully fit and fresh could be an absolute blockbuster. How do people see this Lakers outfit setting up defensively vs. the Clippers?
I mean they will just send their litany of swing men at Kawhi and George. They are quite athletic defensively but they'll need Kuzma to improve defensively if he's going to play significant minutes against that Clipper bench.
Yes.
On the one hand, I secretly love the fact that although Dame waved us off and basically ended that current version of OKC, the Blazers are now worse off than we are 
On the other hand, they're too bad and messing up our lottery situation by looking like they'll get a better pick than us.
On the other hand, they're too bad and messing up our lottery situation by looking like they'll get a better pick than us.
Doesn't matter, what matters to the blazers is who is better for them right now. And that's Melo, by a very wide margin
Can you elaborate on what makes him better? He had 4 good games, 2 vs the Bulls, 1 vs Kings and 1 Vs the Thunders, other than that he's been really really bad, he might have the occasional good game vs the worse teams but he is really bad vs any good team.
Hezonja and Tolliver are bad against everyone
Melo was bad in games in which the whole team was bad. And really good in games the team was good
There isnt a single game in the last 5 years where he has been "really good". Defense matters and he is absolutely terrible at it.
Fair enough!
The whole debate started with someone saying that Melo would be a positive on the Lakers team btw, imo unless a team is tanking he's a negative, still selfish, still shooting really bad, and still bad defensively.
I hate Rockets and I hate Bjelica. Had £50 on:
Brogdon over 1.5 threes
Markkanen over 1.5 threes
Lopez over 1.5 threes
Thompson over 8.5 rebounds
Towns over 24.5 points
Paul over 5.5 assists
Ingram over 1.5 threes
Rockets to beat Kings
Rockets were 1/10, everything else was around 5/6 or better. Had £3200 to return lost because Kings decided to come back twice and get a buzzer beater to win the game. Still £1£ up in basketball this month but could have been £4K which would be so handy for Christmas!
Brogdon over 1.5 threes
Markkanen over 1.5 threes
Lopez over 1.5 threes
Thompson over 8.5 rebounds
Towns over 24.5 points
Paul over 5.5 assists
Ingram over 1.5 threes
Rockets to beat Kings
Rockets were 1/10, everything else was around 5/6 or better. Had £3200 to return lost because Kings decided to come back twice and get a buzzer beater to win the game.
Still £1£ up in basketball this month but could have been £4K which would be so handy for Christmas! He's been good. Better?
He's not been a negative for the blazers though, not by a long shot. And the blazers aren't trying to tank, they're just losing games because they have like 5 fit players and zero defence because every defender they had is out
You could say he's been inconsequential, which would probably be true, but that's different from being a negative
No he absolutely been a negative, it's not about scoring points.
He's been good. Better?
He's not been a negative for the blazers though, not by a long shot. And the blazers aren't trying to tank, they're just losing games because they have like 5 fit players and zero defence because every defender they had is out
You could say he's been inconsequential, which would probably be true, but that's different from being a negative
He's absolutely not been a negative. Blazers are essentially the exact same team they were before they signed him.
He has been a negative. Hes the worst defender in the league and shooting 40%. That's actively harmful to his teams chances of winning.
He has to be playing the media to get more money. Ujiri can't be this stupid.Gotta love the rumors of Masai Ujiri being "interested" in the Knicks
Out of curiosity who would everyones ROY be so far? I was really liking JA but he seemed to have slowed down a bit. I like the two rookies in Miami a lot too and also just realized Paschall is averaging 17ppg In the Warriors.
ROY: I'd go with Hachimura or Morant right now.
ouch. i haven't bet for awhile but i used to get pissed off when i missed out on an accumulator paying like £70, let alone missing out on £3k! which site do you use that you can pick out all these rebounding options etc?I hate Rockets and I hate Bjelica. Had £50 on:
Brogdon over 1.5 threes
Markkanen over 1.5 threes
Lopez over 1.5 threes
Thompson over 8.5 rebounds
Towns over 24.5 points
Paul over 5.5 assists
Ingram over 1.5 threes
Rockets to beat Kings
Rockets were 1/10, everything else was around 5/6 or better. Had £3200 to return lost because Kings decided to come back twice and get a buzzer beater to win the game.
More like Smello.
Got him.
I don’t care about Melo at all and this debate is bad even for an uninteresting debate... All I’ll say is, Bit weird to say a player who is the worst defender in the league isn’t a negative for a team who are losing so much because they have zero defence.
Got him.
I don’t care about Melo at all and this debate is bad even for an uninteresting debate... All I’ll say is, Bit weird to say a player who is the worst defender in the league isn’t a negative for a team who are losing so much because they have zero defence.
He's played 10 games. In 5 of those he was a disaster. In the other 5 he was good
That's hardly a negative. Especially when you factor in that every minute he plays is a minute Hezonja and Tolliver don't, and those guys have been straight up garbage in every game
He wasnt good though. You're saying he was good because he had good offensive numbers and you're totally ignoring his defense.
Unibet. Admittedly there were a lot of bets I considered instead of the ones I went for which didn’t work out - I wanted Redick over 2.5 threes instead of Ingram over 1.5, wanted to take Anunoby over 1.5 threes over Markkanen etc. Still the circumstances of that loss were just awful.
Don't matter how bad the defence if his impact on offence was greater
I'm looking at the stats. Melo was good in half the games. He was a positive presence on the floor in half the games. Both +/- and net +/-
In fact, by net +/- the blazers are quite clearly better with him on the floor. Even when he/they are bad
It wasnt greater. He would have to shoot 75% from the floor or something crazy to make up for his defense. Plus minus is all but meaningless when it comes to individual players.
Wes Matthews, Eric Bledsoe and Donte DiVincenzo are not 3 of the top 7 players in the league. They just happen to play with Giannis. Ben McLemore is not better than James Harden. Kevin Love isnt a bottom 15 player. Jordan Poole isnt better than Jrue Holiday.
Those are season to date stats and they are wildly misleading. Single game stats are even worse.
The only stat not dependent on the team, change or rules is FT %. Rest of the stats got to much noise or are flawed. Hence, FT% is the only valid stat.
He's played 10 games. Single game stats are basically everything we have right now
Take away his horrid first game and his stats are significantly better than the players he replaced. And the blazers are better with him on the floor than they are without him
+/- and net +/- aren't worthless as you claim, they don't tell you the full story but they're a good indicator of the kind of impact a player is having. Granted, i'm going by basketball-reference and they don't exclude garbage time unfortunately
I don't get why it's so hard to understand that no matter how bad Melo might be, the guys who'd be playing his minutes are worse
You don't get why it's hard to understand because you refuse to account for defense. If Anthony was even below average at defense he would be a useful bench player. But hes not, hes the worst in the league. That craters his value so much that needs to be an all star level player on offense to have value. In his prime he was and he did. In 2019 hes not and he doesnt.
No, you're refusing to accept the reality that in 4 games they won with Melo, the blazers were better on offence with him on the floor than they were poor on defence.
On the 6 they lost sure, he was tragic. But as bad as Melo might be on defence, the guys he's replacing are just plain worse overall and offer less to the team. Those games they lost with Melo, they would have lost without him anyways. The games they won, they might not have without him
PS Melo is not the worst defender in the league either
I'd be interested in seeing some evidence for the first point. As mentioned earlier, plus minus is not compelling.
How about ORT/DRT?
Isnt that the same thing?
Not playing defence?
We're talking about his defense in a particular game right? Pick a game and I'll pull it up on league pass.
Either game against Chicago
But this is pointless. The argument isn't whether Melo is bad or not. The argument is whether the blazers currently have been better off with him or not. And they have, objectively
I thought we were discussing his defense. You can tell offensive impact pretty accurately though stats. Defense has more noise and needs a much larger sample size which is why I trust the eye test more.
Need a separate thread for Melo . I am sick of this debate now
let's talk about luke kennard