Author Topic: Fab Melo & Athleticism  (Read 5444 times)

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Re: Fab Melo & Athleticism
« Reply #15 on: November 26, 2012, 06:42:20 PM »

Offline ScoobyDoo

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Long and mobile sounds much better. Outside of that there is nothing really dynamic about his athleticism to me.

He's a big, solid athlete. Michael Jordan and Kevin Garnett, even Rajon Rondo are "gifted" athletes to me.

Now, this being said, if Melo has a good motor and Bradley kind of desire buried in there - he could take that decent athleticism and length and turn into a true force in the paint.

Do you guys see that in him - within, as someone said, 1-2 years?

Because if so, I "do" think:

1. He is well worth the wait.
2. That he and Sullinger would then become a very formidable duo in the paint as Melo would have great ability to cover Sullinger's lack of height and Sully would help cover Melo's lack of dominant rebounding - they would actually be a good compliment to each other.   

Re: Fab Melo & Athleticism
« Reply #16 on: November 26, 2012, 06:53:27 PM »

Offline ScoobyDoo

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I remember that play you posted, the break away dunk in summer league. Agree that a lot of that ability definitely comes form the soccer background.

Hopefully he can figure out how to use that big backside, the hips and his size to seal and hold guys off so he can up his rebounding numbers.

It seems like he should be a real space eater if he can understand how to use his body correctly in the paint.

It took Perk 3-4 years.. and you can clearly see that this guy has much more length and athleticism.

Re: Fab Melo & Athleticism
« Reply #17 on: November 26, 2012, 07:20:52 PM »

Offline Celtics4ever

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He needs to really work on his strength upper body wise.

Re: Fab Melo & Athleticism
« Reply #18 on: November 26, 2012, 07:26:39 PM »

Offline SHAQATTACK

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If he can survive the trades , he'll be a decent asset in another year.  Just will make me mad , if we trade him off and then another team uses him to destroy us down the road, becasue we were too impatient .  I know we need a big man now, but I HATE trading the good prospects off.   :(

Re: Fab Melo & Athleticism
« Reply #19 on: November 26, 2012, 10:12:01 PM »

Offline ManUp

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He's agile and quick off of his feet, but not particularly fast or explosive. He's a good athlete, especially compared to the average seven footer. I'd say he's on par with present day KG, maybe a little better.

Re: Fab Melo & Athleticism
« Reply #20 on: November 26, 2012, 10:26:59 PM »

Offline ianboyextreme

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I would say he is well above average for his size. Hes no Dwight Howard, but hes also no Roy Hibbert. He certainly has all the athleticism he needs to be a very good defender.

Re: Fab Melo & Athleticism
« Reply #21 on: November 27, 2012, 10:11:43 AM »

Offline drax

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His body is NBA ready and needs no work in my opinion. Strength, speed and length are just fine. He just has to learn how to use this body.

If someone teaches him fundamental things like getting into position for rebounds, boxing out, how to help defend and some post moves, he could turn into a Tyson Chandler type of center. And that would be really awesome.

Re: Fab Melo & Athleticism
« Reply #22 on: November 27, 2012, 10:16:55 AM »

Offline Chris

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His body is NBA ready and needs no work in my opinion. Strength, speed and length are just fine. He just has to learn how to use this body.

If someone teaches him fundamental things like getting into position for rebounds, boxing out, how to help defend and some post moves, he could turn into a Tyson Chandler type of center. And that would be really awesome.

I think Tyson Chandler is shooting a little high, but yeah, he could be a very good center.

I do think it needs to pointed out that this stuff is not easy to teach.  It really is a rare player who comes into the league (particularly at 22 or however old Melo is) with such weak fundamentals, and is able to be even a quality rotation player, let alone a top center like Chandler.

He is YEARS behind other guys in his development, many of whom are just as gifted. 

That is not to say he won't be a very good player, but it is going to take spectacular discipline and commitment from him to learn how to play this game. 

I think as a C's fan, it is easy to look at a guy like Perk, who made a similar transformation, and assume that its easy.  But Perk really is the exception, and not the rule.  Hopefully Melo can follow in Perk's footsteps, and be another exception.  But it is not so easy as some make it sound. 

Re: Fab Melo & Athleticism
« Reply #23 on: November 27, 2012, 10:37:12 AM »

Offline drax

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I didnt mean the compare him straight up with Chandler, just the body and the athleticism reminded me of Chandler. And with a good work ethic and discipline his seeling could be a Chandler like center.

Defensive stopper with some offensive moves. I'd say Fab is two, three years away from a significant role on an nba team/contender.

Re: Fab Melo & Athleticism
« Reply #24 on: November 27, 2012, 12:14:35 PM »

Offline Celtics4ever

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Quote
His body is NBA ready and needs no work in my opinion. Strength, speed and length are just fine. He just has to learn how to use this body.

Wrong on the body, he is weak upper body.

http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Fab-Melo-5715/

http://nbadraft.net/2012-nba-combine-athleticism-analysis

The NBA only uses 185 lbs.  I could do 225 lbs  28 times in my 20s.   To be able to do 185 lbs 9 times  is a joke.  I can do that at 45 no problem and I am not a short armed guy.

http://www.topendsports.com/testing/tests/max-bench-press.htm

http://www.topendsports.com/sport/basketball/testing-nba-draft.htm

Keep in my mind he weighs over 200 lbs.   I know his arms are long and that makes it more difficult.   I have a 83" wingspan and I could 28 times.

He needs to work on his upper body strength.   It will really help him.  He could not Chandler's jockstrap athletically.

Re: Fab Melo & Athleticism
« Reply #25 on: November 27, 2012, 12:31:10 PM »

Offline CapnDunks

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So many people use athleticism exclusively to refer to jumping ability when talking about basketball.

Anyone who played a lot of soccer will be able to run forever and be relatively agile.

So it depends on how you're defining athletic?

Re: Fab Melo & Athleticism
« Reply #26 on: November 27, 2012, 12:34:00 PM »

Offline AB_Celtic

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I keep forgetting we have this kid. Anyone else?

I think he'll turn into a very serviceable NBA center. Good for 15-20 minutes in a couple of years.

Re: Fab Melo & Athleticism
« Reply #27 on: November 27, 2012, 12:39:49 PM »

Offline Change

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Quote
His body is NBA ready and needs no work in my opinion. Strength, speed and length are just fine. He just has to learn how to use this body.

Wrong on the body, he is weak upper body.

http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Fab-Melo-5715/

http://nbadraft.net/2012-nba-combine-athleticism-analysis

The NBA only uses 185 lbs.  I could do 225 lbs  28 times in my 20s.   To be able to do 185 lbs 9 times  is a joke.  I can do that at 45 no problem and I am not a short armed guy.

http://www.topendsports.com/testing/tests/max-bench-press.htm

http://www.topendsports.com/sport/basketball/testing-nba-draft.htm

Keep in my mind he weighs over 200 lbs.   I know his arms are long and that makes it more difficult.   I have a 83" wingspan and I could 28 times.

He needs to work on his upper body strength.   It will really help him.  He could not Chandler's jockstrap athletically.

Good for you

This is basketball however and not bodybuilding. Where skills, shooting, and size matter in the NBA; benching heavy weight means nothing in the NBA. Young players are just developing into their NBA bodies. Jajuan Johnson did 15 reps....Crazy, right? He got manhandled every game. Bucks starting power forward at the moment John Henson did only 5 reps. Superstar Kevin Durant failed do one full rep.

Re: Fab Melo & Athleticism
« Reply #28 on: November 27, 2012, 09:16:28 PM »

Offline Celtics4ever

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Kevin Durant is not a post player.  He plays on the perimeter.   He get's star calls but Melo won't get them.  Therefore he needs to be strong.   Comparing Melo to Durant is apples and oranges.  Durant has guard skills, Melo does not.   Durant has a multifaceted offensive game with a great jumper.   Melo is a one dimensional defensive stopper.

Jae Crawford did the most reps this year and he is hardly a body builder.  In fact, I do not know one body builder worth his salt that works out with 185 lbs.   It is a low weight to test muscular endurance.  You could not build a lot of mass with it unless you were 16 or so.

Melo will benefit a lot from building some strength.  It helped Perk a lot.   

But to those who think he is out of the world athlete.  The combine numbers prove he is not elite in terms of athletic ability.  He is not a dud either.

Re: Fab Melo & Athleticism
« Reply #29 on: November 28, 2012, 12:12:13 AM »

Offline crimson_stallion

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I read the Fab article on the main page today and saw the phrases "athletically gifted" and "crazy athleticism" used to describe him.

I watched him in summer league and while I thought he was a "decent" athlete for a seven footer, I also thought he looked like a typical seven footer, that is, a little slow, awkward and cumbersome at times.

When I think of athletically gifted 7 footers names like David Robinson, Kevin Garnett, Dwight Howard and DeAndre Jordan type guys (athleticism only, not talent...) come to mind.

Do you guys look at Melo and think "athletically gifted"?

From what I aw in the preseaon  Fab looks just as agile/mobile as Dwight Howard.  I honestly don't think Howard is THAT agile overall, he's just agile for a man who's built as tank-like as he is.  Obviously he has freakish leaping ability as well.

Fab seems like he's got some leaping ability himself though, just not on Howard's level (obviously).  On the few blocks I've seen him get his elevation was pretty darn impressive.  Bigs with average athleticism use timing rather then leaping ability to block shots , but he had Sully in his way on one of those preseason blocks and practically jumped OVER him to block the shot. That's impressive hops for a man of his size.

Athletically he reminds me a lot of Ryan Hollins, but is a better rebounder, has a better jump shot and is a MUCH better defender / shotblocker.  Hollins was always considered a very good athlete, but just had no real ability.

As for the Chandler comments, I don't see.why Chandler is an unrealistic expectation defensively.  Melo is probably as good a shot blocker as Chandler (maybe even better) right now.  He's shown flashes of being a solid pick-and-roll defender as well, and we all know he's nowhere near his potential.  If the guy wasn't so offensively raw hiabdefensive ability would probably he good enough to keep him on the court.  I don't see anything Chandler does on defense that Melo couldn't potentially do just as well after 2 or 3 seasons in the league.

Even offensively Chandler is pure "catch and dunk".  That pretty makes up 80% of his offensive game, with the remaining points generally coming from putbacks.  He's not a skilled offensive player.
« Last Edit: November 28, 2012, 12:50:26 AM by crimson_stallion »