So- here's my question about Fab Melo. Every time I watch him, he is on the losing end of some embarrassment, and yet he posts a good +/- and he was all-defense for the D-League last year.
I think he's terrible because every time I look at him, he does something totally weak.
Is this a Jack Wilson effect? Jack Wilson is the guy who always played the best defense by making everything look routine, but he never made web gem plays. Derrick Jeter, on the other hand, makes all the flashy plays but is a terrible overall defensive player.
Is Fab Melo quietly doing all the right things? Is Fab Melo a seven foot Jack Wilson and I'm just not seeing it?
Melo is wildly inconsistent...that's what he is.
He makes some spectacularly dumb looking plays, air-balling a hook shot, getting blocked by a guard because he doesn't go up strong on a dunk, passing into the back of an opposing player instead of one of his team mates. He also *looks* almost spastic jumping out to challenge, or going *way* outside to set a pick and then in both cases scrambling like mad to get back in the paint. Melo will rush to one side of the court to challenge a shot, then turn and rush to the other to try to get position on his man.
Then he makes an occasional great play, even two or three in a row, and you see his potential. Smooth hook shot, great position and rebound on defense, followed by a quick cut to the basket for a dunk on an interior pass. The good/great plays appeared to be increasing in frequency in D-League during Dec/Jan, then he got hurt and they fell off when he came back. Yesterday, both good and bad were in evidence.
However, when he isn't playing the Little Girl with the Curl (you know when she was good, she was very good but when she was bad she was awful) he seems to be quietly solid on defense. On offense, he sets screens and attempts to rebound. He has a long way to go there, too, but he seems to be improving on getting/keeping position. I also notice him moving out of his area to grab a rebound or two yesterday.
There are three things Melo does that absolutely flumux me. These are things I've seen from him in college, last year, this year. If he fixes these 3 he would get minutes even if he never improves anywhere else.
One, in many cases he doesn't try to catch a rebound...he punches the ball. He looks like a soccer goalie punching a shot away from the basket. If he was punching it to a team mate, that would be one thing, but he isn't his just punching it away and it usually ends up in the other team's hands.
Two, he plays "excuse me" ball when he tries to rebound. He'll get his hands on the ball, but if *anybody*...team mate or opponent can get their hands on the ball, too, *they* will come away with it. This is an attitude thing. Good rebounders are selfish and aggressive..."that ball is mine, *every* ball is mine! Get the hell away from it, it's mine!" Melo is more like, "Oh, okay, it's yours." He has got to *take* all the 50/50 balls, rip them out of any and everybody's hands.
That leads to three, he's just too darn nice. He doesn't seem to ever get mad or even really aggressive. Heck, Melo is huge, he would scare the heck out of the average guy just standing there, but do you think he scares *anybody* on the court? I don't want him to be mean, but he needs to whack a few people, throw a hip or two, shove somebody out of the way, get into someone and challenge them. If he would do that, be aggressive, even occasionally it would improve his effectiveness on the floor by 50%!