Regarding Melo:
The mid range jump shot is nowhere near as dead as some of you claim in the NBA. Its much less prevalent than before, but it is still a fairly decent % of shots in a game... and the spacing has opened up the floor to make it a little more efficient in the past few years when teams deny the three. But is usually done off penetration and quick moves. It is just not efficient to clear, stall, jab and create contested jumpers like Carmelo excelled at. That is just not efficient now -- less talented players that are willing to move on the floor into space will get easier looks in the mid range.
As I said the mid range game is certainly not dead... it has resurrected the career of Serge Ibaka this year for example, and Kawhi has a very prevalent mid range game. But you have to be willing to move on offence and defend in space. Serge Ibaka as a Center knows how to take advantage of the extra space to get consistently clean looks. It requires much less talent than what Carmelo had, but it is just as efficient.
I have no doubt in my mind that prime Carmelo would have excelled if this was the game he entered into or evolved into during his prime. But it's difficult when it happens later in his career. Carmelo wanted to consistently default to what he excelled at... but that game made the rest of the team more inefficient (current day)
And most importantly, with the additional space defending is really important and really limits some players.
Take a look at a player like Jonas Valanciunas. He is an offensive beast in 19 minutes a game. Has a PER of 26 I beleive. But he can't see more time then that because he is totally exposed on the defensive side of the ball.
