Warmly welcome, Melo, and in every game, in every way, may your play make our day. Do that, and we won't know what to say! (And that's rare around here, dude)
Over/under on the amount of time before the narrative becomes: "Everybody has been sleeping on Melo, but I knew all along he would excel!" I say December 1st.
That's all I needed to hear. He's making clear that the no-bench bravado is an expression of pride, that he understands that's what it is, and that what he fundamentally needs is honesty, not a starting role. I'm not the biggest fan of Melo's style, personality, or skill set. But he's showing here that he has worked through his emotional issues around starting, and is ready to do what the team needs.
This EXACT thing is what this has been all along. It seemed pretty obvious to me. As MDA has said " we have 7 starters." There are 12 starters on an all star team. 12 starters on USA Basketball. But 5 of them are on the floor at the beginning of the game. ;-) From the MOMENT that Carmelo was fine with coming to the Rockets, those meetings with MDA/Paul/Harden at Summer League, when everyone was on the same page at that moment.....it seemed pretty obvious to me he would go with the flow with MDA's personnel groupings. And as usual the National Media was stubborn and had blinders on. Warmly welcome.......Rocket Melo.
Everyone, here is the FULL interview with Rachel Nichols and Carmelo http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/24969791/carmelo-anthony-ready-adjust-houston-rockets-nba