Nicolò Melli

Player information
Nicolò Melli

birthday	26th January 1991 (age 29)
place of birth	Reggio nell'Emilia , Italy
size	205 cm
position	Power forward
league	NBA
Jersey number	20th
Clubs as active
2004–2010 Pallacanestro Reggiana 2010–2015 EA7 Emporio Armani Milan 2011 → Scavolini Pesaro 2015–2017 Brose Bamberg 2017–2019 Fenerbahçe Since 2019 New Orleans PelicansItaly Italy ––––– Italy Germany Turkey United States
National team
Since -2011	Italy

Nicolò Melli (born January 26, 1991 in Reggio nell'Emilia ) is an Italian basketball player .

He has played for the New Orleans Pelicans in the NBA since 2019 . Before that, Melli played for Brose Bamberg in the basketball league from 2015 to 2017 , and then for the Turkish club Fenerbahçe Istanbul in the TBL . He also played in the EuroLeague for both clubs .

Melli has been a national player in the Italian men's squad since 2011 . The European junior vice champion from 2011 won the Italian championship with record champion Olimpia Armani Milan in 2014. His mother Julie Vollertsen won the silver medal with the United States women's national volleyball team at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Career

Melli grew up in the youth teams of Pallacanestro Reggiana in his hometown, where he had his first appearances in the men's area in the Legadue from 2008, and in 2010 moved to the Italian record champion Olimpia Armani in Milan , which he did at the end of the 2010/11 season Loan league rivals Scavolini from Pesaro . At the end of the season, however, he missed a win in tenth place to make it into the play-offs for the Italian championship. At the U20 European Junior Championship 2011, the Italian junior selection, led by Alessandro Gentile , lost the final against hosts Spain and thus received the silver medal. Then Melli returned to Milan, which also signed Gentile, and was now increasingly able to secure shares in the top Italian team. In the top-ranking European club competition ULEB Euroleague 2011/12 they just reached the intermediate round of the 16 best teams, in which they were eliminated because of the poorer direct comparison with UNICS Kazan . In the Italian championship they reached the final series, which was lost after only one win in five games against series champion Montepaschi Siena . In the following ULEB Euroleague 2012/13 , Milan failed after only three wins in ten preliminary round games after the preliminary round. Also in the Italian championship, the Milanese only achieved fourth place after the main round, just ahead of defending champion Siena. In the first play-off round there was already a new edition of the previous year's final series, which Siena was able to win after victories in the sixth and seventh games.

At the European Championship final tournament 2013 Melli was represented for the first time in a final squad of the Italian men's selection. After five preliminary round victories, Italy only won the final intermediate round match against defending champions Spain . After the following three defeats in the quarterfinals and placement games, however, the qualification for the 2014 World Cup was missed . In the ULEB Euroleague 2013/14 , Milan was able to qualify relatively confidently for the quarter-finals, in which they had home rights against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the first game . But the Israeli team was able to prevail, so that Olimpia Armani missed the final tournament in the home Mediolanum Forum , in which Maccabi finally triumphed and won the most important European club title. In the Italian championship, in which Melli was second-best rebounder for Olimpia Armani behind Samardo Samuels with just under five rebounds per game and ahead of Gani Lawal , Milan and defending champion Siena met again in the final series sixth and seventh game could win. After the end of the season, Melli's contract in Milan was extended for another year.

In the 2015/16 season, Melli joined the German champions Brose Bamberg . The team supervised by Andrea Trinchieri was his first club station abroad. With Bamberg he did not only appear in the BBL in the following two years , but also in the EuroLeague , the highest European league. Melli's role in the Bamberg squad was significantly more important than before in Milan, where he often sat on the bench as a role player and accordingly received little responsibility, which was ultimately decisive for a move to Bamberg. In Trinchieri's game system, which is characterized by small ball , Melli played as a power forward , but also as a center and was able to develop and develop much better. Due to his very good distance throw and his athleticism, which also enables him to play close to the basket, he became one of the most sought-after players in fourth place in Europe during his time in Bamberg, and NBA teams also noticed him.

In both 2016 and 2017 Nicolò Melli won the German championship with Brose Bamberg . In 2017 they even managed to double with the cup victory . In the EuroLeague season 2015/16 they were the first German team to miss the playoffs to win. The Euro League season 2016/17 closed Bamberg to ten wins in 30 games and twelve narrow defeats with six or fewer points from 13th place.

In the summer of 2017, Melli moved to the reigning Euroleague champion Fenerbahçe Istanbul . With the team he won the Turkish championship in 2018 and the cup competition the following year. Although his statistical values in the EuroLeague appearances with Fenerbahçe fell slightly compared to his time in Bamberg, the squad of the Turkish team also had a significantly higher performance density. In the 2017/18 EuroLeague season, in which he reached the final with Fenerbahçe but lost Real Madrid there, he averaged 8.9 points. In the final against Real Melli was the outstanding man of the game with 28 points, which was not enough for the title. In 2018/19 it was 7.3 points per encounter. This year he had to admit defeat to the Istanbul team for third place in the EuroLeague.

In late July 2019, he signed a contract with the New Orleans Pelicans in NBA. The management of the Pelicans hoped that the Italian would do good defense work and bring in his strengths as a template.