How'd He Do?: Melvin Ely

by Rohan on May 21, 2008 2:53 PM CDT

Welcome to the first in the "How'd He Do" series where we'll be going over every Hornet player and how they performed this season. This is the first of a two part series- this half will be purely about player performance and the next half will be purely financial (and whether a player should stay or go). Most importantly, make sure you vote in the poll down yonder. That way we can create a virtual "approval rating" for every Hornet player. We start with the back-up big man today. Step right up, Melvin!

via www.slamdunkcentral.com

	Pts	Reb	Ast	REB%	PER
2007 - Melvin Ely	3.9	2.8	0.4	13.6 (71st)	9.0 (264th)

Positives: Rebounded solidly off the bench (a rebound rate basically equivalent to David West), made a few flashy post moves, was monumentally better than Hilton Armstrong as a backup big.

Negatives: Fouled too much, was miserable overall offensively (9.0 PER where 15.0 is league average), and was a "black hole," refusing to pass the ball out of double teams.

My Grade (1 to 5): 2

Poll

Where 1 is worst, and 5 is best, how well did Melvin Ely fill his role in 2007-2008?

1

13 votes

2

22 votes

3

8 votes

4

2 votes

5

2 votes

47 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

I was looking at salaries today though

And for the money, even if Ely’s a 2 you can’t say you went wrong there.

by ticktock6 on May 21, 2008 6:55 PM CDT reply actions

Yeah

That’s a good point. I figured on the first run through, we’d do only performance (not salary stuff), and then second run through compare with how much they make and see if it’s worth it. Ely signed for the minimum last September, and it was a deal the Hornets would’ve looked stupid not to offer.

by Rohan on May 21, 2008 7:06 PM CDT up reply actions

Makes sense.

Man, I can’t wait for salary on Chris Paul. Salary: $3-4 million. Worth: PRICELESS.

Unfortunately, like the rest of the bench, I thought Ely fared worse in the playoffs.

by ticktock6 on May 21, 2008 8:28 PM CDT reply actions

The way I see it,

CP3, Tyson, and DX are pretty much guaranteed to stay for a long time. Tyson has had his career reinvented by Paul, and there’s no way he leaves that. The Hornets gave West all the time in the world he needed to develop, and I’m sure he’s really thankful for that opportunity. For that reason he stays. CP, we force him to stay with whatever means necessary (not that he’d want to leave…)

And I still see Peja retiring a Hornet IF he stays healthy. IF he plays like he did this year or at that level until 2011, we’ll surely extend him 3, 4 or so years allowing him to finish out his career. He’ll be 34 in ‘11, so 38, 39 seems like a good retirement age. Pure shooters age better than probably any other type of player, so if his back holds up, the odds look good.

by Rohan on May 21, 2008 9:00 PM CDT up reply actions

Tough

As a long time sports fan, I love the problems we have. Normally, there are so many players you just don’t like. You think quit or are lazy or just suck. I really don’t feel that way about anyone. Not one. I really like Ely. I think he’s a great guy, has a lot of positives, and can be a solid role player. But now we’re expecting a championship. And I don’t know that he offers much more than a 14th or 15th spot on that team (see Spurs, 2006-07 roster). That said, I have no problem keeping him at the current rate, but if they sign him, they might want to pick him up for 2 years to avoid that whole Devean George situation in case they want to trade him. Tough to sign a guy under that criteria, though. I can imagine he’d like to go somewhere where he can expect to play more. And I’d also expect Byron and Mr. Shinn to be good enough to let him know what his future is, so he can look elsewhere if he wants to.

by m-W on May 21, 2008 11:00 PM CDT reply actions

I dunno

I voted a “2” performance wise for him, but I still think he’s a great guy to have stashed until we can find a legit back up big man. There’s no arguing that he has some really nice post moves. You can almost think of him as the Instant Offense, General Pargo of the Post, if only we would give him the ball inside more. He comes with big liabilities, but so do most backups. I like your point about the whole Devean George thing… that would stink if something like that happened to us.

We have him at the minimum for one more year. So might as well see how that plays out before doing much else.

by Rohan on May 21, 2008 11:32 PM CDT up reply actions