NovU wrote:What do stat lovers like benji and grin think about this Morey trying to land Melo deal? Makes me wonder because Melo is prototypical not so money ball player. This goes against Morey's building philosophy. What do you think is he seeing in Melo that some of us dont?
2012-14 Melo, also Team USA Melo, look at the position he was effectively playing in the lineups. Look at how much better he played.
Melo complained about it when the Knicks started losing, and then after they got Kristaps they had to move him back outside. But that's never been Melo's best area. He even played the four in college when he dominated.
It's hard to believe he'll complain as much about it and touches when he's playing with Paul, and also Harden. He thrived with and conceded to Billups/Nene because they used different spots that complimented each other.
I mean, that's the basics of the argument. Morey's building philosophy has always been to acquire superstars, where he differed was that he was willing to horde pieces to make deals (which was also part of The Process) by plucking guys like Jordan Hill and others off teams who gave up on them too quickly. Also amassing second round picks. Dwight arguably fit his philosophy less than anything but Morey took the chance because if it worked and Dwight got his mojo back, he could easily surround Dwight with shooters like in Orlando but the team would also have the playmaker Orlando never did in Harden.
"Moneyball" isn't a philosophy that's unchanging, what it is is a philosophy that's about finding inefficiencies in the market. Or in the game, like with everyone's fear/dismissal of using the three point line. The Spurs minutes management and focusing on character and acquiring multinational players is a form of moneyball, it's just not statistics driven. Really, the original Moneyball that Billy Beane used wasn't either, it was informed by data, but when everyone else in MLB caught onto this or that, he'd flip and go against the safety of the data. The grand example from the book being the high school pitcher, which went from overvalued to undervalued after the book, the stats still say it's a bad pick but in baseball where there's a farm system and the draft dynamics are so different from the NBA, it's one that's actually low risk as long as you aren't betting solely on it. The A's, like Morey, also were willing to drop big money on FAs, what they weren't willing to do was match other teams dropping bigger money on their players that were more replaceable statistically.
It's a continuum, not binary. Melo in one system is not a "moneyball" player, but on a capped/taxed out team, with two existing superstars, he's potentially undervalued, especially if the Knicks are willing to take little in exchange just to dump him. It gives Houston what Golden State has to great effect with Draymond's capabilities, the ability to rarely go without two playmakers on the floor at all times. Since their target is Golden State, they're also saying, Melo potentially works as our counter to
two Warriors in Thompson/Draymond since the Warriors can only get a useful possession out of only one at a time on both ends. (Due to the physical limits of non-Space Jam basketball.)