Golden State Warriors' Draymond Green picks Melo over Jayson Tatum – claims Melo was harder to guard. JT's game involves HIS TEAMMATES. Melo's never did. (JT=3.5 Assist per Game, Melo 2.7). Clearly, Draymond doesn't know hoops.
by touchedbyadouchebag
30 Comments
It’s almost like he doesn’t understand basketball isn’t a 1 on 1 game in the NBA
Of all of Draymond’s stupid and intellectually dishonest takes this is certainly one of them.
Isn’t melo one of his friends
Wouldn’t take it too serious
>The thing that Melo did different than just about anyone was the pressure he put on the rim,” [said Green](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs9iI24f8xc&ab_channel=Club520Podcast) on the [*Club 520 Podcast*](https://www.youtube.com/@club520podcast). “I actually told JT this before, get to the cup. Sometimes you settle too much. I told him this after we beat him in the championship. I just want you to know our stuff was predicated on you settling.”
Who can possibly disagree that Tatum settles. He’s among the league leaders in contested pull up 3s while being among the worst in converting them. Melo has a dribble pull up you had to respect, and he was good at following up on his own misses whenever he got to the rim.
We all know that Tatum is a legend here, but Tatum isn’t helping himself when he shot 28% on 3s this past postseason and couldn’t hit a single jumpshot in the Olympics. Recency bias is making him look like a superstar with incredible D, rebounds, passing, and drive ability, but still can’t hit a jumpshot.
I don’t see the issue. Melo was an elite scorer with lot of tricks in his bag.
Saying that one of the greatest walking buckets of all time was more difficult to guard than Tatum isn’t really that unreasonable of a take. I think everyone would rather have Tatum as a building block given what we know about the one dimensional type of game Melo played, but that doesn’t seem to be the question here.
A lot of players who played 2000’s-2010’s consistently say melo was one of the hardest players to guard. That he’d get to his spots and you’d “feel” him score.
The players put him up their with Kobe and KD as “the toughest players to guard”. Not even Bron is mentioned as much, and bron might be the goat scorer.
It’s not better player or even better offensive player, it’s who’s harder to guard. I don’t really listen to draymond, but I don’t think this is a slight.
They barely ever played each other.
Melo was bigger, faster and had a better shot. He also never even had half the team we’ve rostered over the past few years.
And I love Tatum.
I really hope this is a shitpost
> JT’s game involves HIS TEAMMATES
It’s a team sport… I guess dray wasn’t aware because he just targets individuals to assault
Melo was never a team guy, he couldn’t be apart of a system. To compare the two is baffling, I would 1000% much rather have Tatum because he is the type of guy who can be put in a team told what to do to help the team and do it very efficiently.
Melo was a better scorer than Tatum and it’s not close.
If we’re comparing them as all-around players, that’s a more interesting conversation.
Take is not wrong. Melo is the 10th all time scoring leader. He did have a 19 year career, but he started to become injury prone 2012ish. Became 2nd,3rd and fourth option for the last 5 years of his career after the Knicks. Dude is a walking bucket, too bad he had to play defense and run up and down the court.
Tatum has a more complete game, better shape, and better team. If he was given Melos bag he would be unstoppable. There is definitely some recency bias in Green’s statement, piling on while he still can because Tatum hasn’t shown up lately. Tatum also took a very simplistic approach to scoring this year. Sharpen what worked, took out what didn’t work. This helped him become a better passer and elevate his teammates around him. I wouldn’t say his scoring was one dimensional but also not as diverse like we have seen in the past years, especially when compared to freaking Carmelo Anthony. The exciting thing is Tatum still has many years to sharpen up and add to his bag. It’s a good thing he realized he doesn’t need to do it all at once, it’s making him a better player. We have a lot of prime Tatum coming up, it’s going to be fun. *knock on wood
I though you were talking about LaMelo Ball but you’re saying it’s outrageous he’s picking CARMELO ANTHONY over Tatum? That’s not at all crazy and I think I actually agree with him. Carmelo is one of the greatest scorers ever.
Say you’re 16 without saying you’re 16
In a sense, its kind of true. Melos offensive game involves like one move, like a power dribble and splash. A lot less room for recovery. And the fact that Melo could let it fly with like no space, dude can practically shoot inside a telephone booth makes it that much deadlier. You would think a dude with no moves should be easy to guard, but no Melo’s like single move plus his build and skillsets were just that deadly. People like to refer to Melo as a walking bucket. na bro the dude doesnt walk, he just does. But in no way should this reflect on or diminish Tatum’s credibility as a scorer or a player. Tatum is tall, fast, strong, big, passing abilities, insane foot work, drb, orb, and a huge defensive playmaker. His game is much more than a 1 dribble pull up. So yea you can say he’s easier to guard, but thats cause he got random ass Marcus Smart a free bucket. so whoever defending tatum could just chill.
Melo was like if you gave Jaylen brown a green light and he decided to take 35 shots a game. This would also require Jaylen brown to stop taking tren and instead spend his time being a fat slob who is too out of shape to play defense.
He would put up great numbers on dog shit efficiency and then he’d have a legion of loyal followers who think he’s better than he was because he’d do a lot of pretty jab steps before clanking back iron.
2020 jayson Tatum is better than any version of Carmelo Anthony ever in terms of overall play. Chucking up tons of shots on a lottery shitter doesn’t make you great.
everyone in this thread needs to look at Melo’s shooting splits. there’s a lot of nostalgia going on
What a surprise, a loud mouth who plays like a clown, acting like a clown. Can’t wait for him to disappear into obscurity
Why does anyone care what Draymond says? Just ignore him and don’t give him the clicks/mentions/threads
Melo was an absolute bucket lol, Tatum has a better all around game, but it is not crazy to say that melo was harder to guard. I love Tatum and obviously he is a superstar talent, but melo didn’t benefit from having several other HoF potential and all nba, all defensive talents around him. Young JR was a bucket but nothing compared to what Tatum has to work with. I bet if melo was plugged into todays game with this Celtics team and had Tatums career paths I bet he’d be even better than he’s considered
Tatum is significantly better than Melo because of his defense but he’s also a more efficient scorer and has similar volume over his career. Tatum is the better passer and they’re both good rebounders.
Tatum does play in a more efficient era of course and takes and makes more threes.
There’s really not a lot to recommend Carmelo over Tatum all time, outside of the fact that Carmelo was one of the cool kids.
Of course no one is more hung up on being a “cool kid” than Draymond Green so it makes sense he’d say this to curry favor with Carmelo.
Mell definitely harder to guard than Tatum rn. I think Tatum is overall better though.
JT is also light years ahead of Melo as a defensive asset
Melo was arguably a top 10 scorer of all time, it’s completely fair to say he was harder to guard than JT.
Also your assists argument is just stupid. Both players have pretty low career assist averages, JTs being 0.8 apg higher is such an insignificant thing to use as an argument against Melo, especially when you’re trying to imply that JT heavily utilises he teammates whilst Melo didn’t.
Melo was harder to guard because if he was sucking triple-teams into the corner repeatedly, he’d force his way and his shots through instead of hitting one of his wide-open teammates for a gimme bucket.
And just so the side-by-side comparison is easy to digest, I give you this breakdown. I have highlighted all the areas Anthony has (so far) surpassed Tatum in his career for ease of reading:
**Seasons: Anthony 19 – Tatum 7**
**Playoff appearances: Anthony 13 – Tatum 7**
All-NBA First Team: Anthony 0 – Tatum 3
**All-NBA Teams: Anthony 6 (*in 19 seasons*) – Tatum 4 (*in 7 seasons*)**
–
Regular season PPG: Anthony 22.5 – Tatum 23.1
Regular season RPG: Anthony 6.2 – Tatum 7.2
Regular season APG: Anthony 2.7 – Tatum 3.5
Regular season steals per game: Anthony 1.0 – Tatum 1.1
Regular season blocks per game: Anthony 0.5 – Tatum 0.7
–
Career FG%: Anthony .447 – Tatum .460
Career 3pt FG%: Anthony .355 – Tatum .375
Career FT%: Anthony .814 – Tatum .844
–
BEST SEASON (no game minimum)
PPG: Anthony 28.9 (2007) – Tatum 30.1 (2023)
RPG: Anthony 8.1 (2014) – Tatum 8.8 (2023)
APG: Anthony 4.2 (2016) – Tatum 4.9 (2024)
Steals per game: Anthony 1.3 (2010) – Tatum 1.4 (2020)
Blocks per game: Anthony 0.8 (2022) – Tatum 0.9 (2020)
—
And of course… PLAYOFFS:
PPG: Anthony 23.1 – Tatum 24.0
RPG: Anthony 6.7 – Tatum 7.9
APG: Anthony 2.5 – Tatum 4.9
**Steals per game: Anthony 1.2 – Tatum 1.1**
Blocks per game: Anthony 0.3 – Tatum 0.9
Total points: Anthony 1914 – Tatum 2711
Total rebounds: Anthony 557 – Tatum 897
Total assists: Anthony 204 – Tatum 549
Total steals: Anthony 100 – Tatum 126
Total blocks: Anthony 29 – Tatum 100
Total games: Anthony 83 – Tatum 113
FG% – Anthony .414 – Tatum .440
3P% – Anthony .325 – Tatum .345
FT% – Anthony .826 – Tatum .838
–
It’s only fair that we also cover their career best playoff performances:
**PPG: Anthony 30.7 (2010) – Tatum 30.6 (2021)**
RPG: Anthony 10.3 (2011) – Tatum 10.5 (2023)
APG: Anthony 4.8 (2011) – Tatum 6.3 (2024)
**Steals per game: Anthony 2.0 (2010) – Tatum 1.2 (2018)**
Blocks per game: Anthony 0.8 (2011) – Tatum 1.6 (2021)
Celtics fan and Melo was one was the best scorers ever . Not that crazy or a take
Melo IS a harder gaurd than Tatum. I don’t even think its close. I think its very few people ever that Melo isn’t a harder gaurd than. He is one of the greatest bucket getters of all time. JT is better in literally every other aspect of basketball though, which is why he is better overall. But in terms of who will make your life worse when you are assigned to them? Melo hands down no question.