Tearing one’s ACL isn’t as damning to one’s career as it used to be, thanks to modern advances in medicine and the physical rehabilitation practices. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the ramp-up period leading to one’s return to on-court play, let alone a return to one’s pre-injury form.
That ramp-up period doesn’t spare superstar-level players from having to take a couple of games to get back to previous form; what more for a career role-player in De’Anthony Melton, who — after returning from an ACL tear that ended his first tenure with the Golden State Warriors rather prematurely — has had to be handled with care and precision by the Warriors’ medical staff, in the form of Melton not being fully deployed in back-to-back slates.
With the Warriors not seeing another back-to-back until January 19-20, this stretch is prime opportunity for Melton to get his legs fully underneath him. Prior to the Warriors’ game against the Milwaukee Bucks, Melton had been shooting a cold 22.2 percent from beyond the arc, well below his career mark of 36.4 percent. Valued for his ability to defend and shoot the ball, Melton had struggled to perform the latter task, despite his defense having been up to the task.
Melton has rarely been out of position on defense — as exemplified by a couple of possessions in December, one against the Brooklyn Nets and the other against the Phoenix Suns.
Against the Nets, a timely “peel” switch gets Melton the steal after Brandin Podziemski has to cover the cut by Egor Dёmin:
With the Warriors needing a stop to secure the win against the Suns, an exit-screen set for Collin Gillespie is taken away with a timely switch by Melton onto Gillespie. With the primary action taken away, Gillespie is forced to pass out of the corner — and commits what should’ve been a backcourt violation, but is enough of a wayward pass for the Warriors to force the Suns into a tough spot:
At 6-foot-2, Melton’s 6-foot-9 wingspan subscribes to this team’s composition of wingspan outliers (with Draymond Green and Moses Moody both having 7-foot-1 wingspans — a plus-seven differential in Green’s case and a plus-eight differential in Moody’s case). It certainly has helped Melton become a more threatening defensive player both at the point of attack and off the ball, despite his short stature.
Whichever defensive role Melton plays — as an on-ball defender, as a roamer, or as an off-ball chaser, as can be seen in the possession below — he has lived up to the billing he established on that end during his short six-game stint last season:
But the piece that completes the Melton puzzle has always been his ability to shoot the ball at a level that allows the Warriors to finish advantages created by its offensive fulcrums. All season long, an offensively compromised squad has had to suffer through bouts of subpar shot-making, especially from possessions in which good looks were created but were finished with a shot that did not go in.
The process deserves to be given its flowers. But at the end of the day, the result still matters. Melton’s process can’t be knocked, but he hasn’t produced the necessary offensive results that the team has come to expect out of him. To be fair, having to get back to form has played a huge part in Melton’s slow start.
But the past couple of games has seen an upward trend in Melton’s ability to space the floor and punish opponents who have been placed in the proverbial blender. While 5-of-14 shooting (35.7 percent) on threes over his last five games is nothing to write home about, it nevertheless heralds an uptick in shooting.
Granted, against the Bucks, Melton was aided by a bit of lineup and schematic contexts. With Gary Payton II being sidelined due to an ankle injury, Steve Kerr tinkered with his combinations on the floor. In particular, he surrounded Curry with a cadre of capable shooters in a spread-pick-and-roll alignment.
With Gui Santos setting the ball screen for Curry in the possession below — and Al Horford, Melton, and Brandin Podziemski spread out — the Bucks are in a precarious position after sending two defenders toward Curry around the screen, with Santos getting the ball in the short roll. With the Bucks facing a three-on-four numbers disadvantage, a pass to Horford on the wing, followed by an extra pass to Melton in the corner, creates the open look off of Curry’s advantage creation. Melton being able to finish the possession with a made three is a sight for sore eyes:
Melton made it a point to finish these spread pick-and-roll possessions born out of Curry creating the advantage at the point of the screen. With Horford setting the screen in transition (note how he starts from the right before flipping the direction of the screen — an intentional maneuver to lure help away from the “one-side,” that is, the side of the floor where there is only one help defender), Curry draws two defenders around the screen, with Horford in the short roll enticing AJ Green away from the corner:
On another possession, with the Warriors making use of “short” action in which Curry passes to a third player (Al Horford), typically situated on the opposite wing, in order to create a better passing angle to the roll man (Jimmy Butler), a quick slip by Butler draws Ryan Rollins away from Melton in the weak-side corner. Ignoring the open layup that Butler should’ve taken despite the Rollins rotation, the pass to Melton in the corner creates another open look that Melton misses.
Fortunately, the Warriors get the offensive board and Melton gets another chance, one he takes full advantage of:
Melton’s outside shooting acts as a sort of deceptive shroud that hides other roles he can play on offense. As a secondary ball handler, he can initiate possessions while also use his off-the-dribble ability to attack the rim — although, it is often a last-resort measure:
Melton’s wiggle is by no means extraordinary, but it’s a relative luxury the Warriors need on a roster that has little shot-creation craft beyond Curry and Butler (who profiles as more of a pass-first playmaker than as a self-creator these days). It can be argued, however, that if the Warriors are to rely on last-second heroics by the likes of Melton and his limited ability to self -create, it represents an inherent flaw in the roster that they have yet to address.
It can’t be denied that the Warriors’ offense — as painfully mediocre as it has been despite Curry’s presence — has been generating open looks. For a team shooting the most threes in the league by frequency (45.8 percent three-point rate, per Cleaning the Glass), they have been in the middle of the pack when it comes to makes (36.3 percent, 13th). Melton represents the make-or-break nature that is dependent on whether the supporting cast can step up at a sufficient level to sustain their offensive attack.
If the on-off numbers are of indication, Melton has provided plenty of value on that end of the floor. The Warriors are tallying 124.1 points per 100 possessions in his 230 non-low-leverage minutes this season, per Databallr . Coupled with opponents being held to 111.3 points per 100 possessions, the Warriors are outscoring opponents by 12.8 points per 100 possessions in Melton’s minutes.
That provides plenty of evidence that Melton, despite a slow shooting start amid extensive recovery from an injury that saps form and confidence, has been a beacon of two-way value. Him warming up to the kind of role player the Warriors need him to become can only portend good things for a team that is in sore need of a string of good outcomes.
