When Carmelo Anthony was traded to the Knicks, delighted New Yorkers thought they had a better player than LeBron James who would bring the team into contention for the championship title.
Carmelo had a great debut at MSG, the Knicks even defeated LeBron James and the Miami Heat on the road. But since then, the Knicks began piling up lousy losses to lowly teams and are now below .500, thanks to their six-game losing streak. All these are happening despite the fact that they can be booted out from the playoff picture.
So what is really happening to the New York Knickerbockers? Here are the real problems:
* They gave up too many players in the Carmelo trade. In fact, the players that they gave up, with the exception of Timofey Mozgov, are playing exceptionally well in Denver and are playing a huge role for the team’s playoff push. Raymond Felton, Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari have all all-star potentials and they were all given up by New York for virtually Carmelo Anthony only. They could have just waited for the offseason since Carmelo had committed to sign with the Knicks, hence, getting Carmelo via free agency and those three are still in the team.
*Knicks current roster doesn’t fit Coach D’Antoni’s system. We all know the run and gun is D’Antoni’s system. His philosophy is to outscore the opponent while playing zero defense. He doesn’t believe in true centers and he must have an ala-Steve Nash point guard. Now, look at the Knicks roster, it doesn’t fit the above-mentioned system. Players, Carmelo Anthony more specially, would rather isolate and play one on one offense. Chauncey Billups needs the ball longer to be effective and looks to spot up first than to pass, which is a mile far from Steve Nash’s game. This is definitely a dilemma for the coach.
*The team has no concept of defense. Sophomore Tyler Hansbrough dropped his career high in points twice against the Knicks, struggling Brandon Jennings scored a season-high 37 against the Knicks, Carlos Delfino had a career high eight 3pts made against the Knicks, the lowly Bobcats with a hobbled Stephen Jackson easily hadled the Knicks. What’s next? The UP Fighting Maroons will beat the Knicks at the buzzer? The Knicks must be reminded that defense is an essential part of basketball.
*Amar’e Stoudemire needs help on the defensive end. When the Knicks faced Orlando, Amar’e had to guard Dwight Howard. Against the Pacers, he had to guard 7’3” Roy Hibbert, against the Bucks, had to guard 7 footer Andrew Bogut. The result? He had to deal with foul troubles. When Phil Jackson realized that Kobe was spending too much energy on the defensive end at the expense of his offensive capabilities, Jackson traded for defensive specialist Ron Artest to enable Bryant to focus more on the offensive end. The moral of the story? Never let your best player guard the other team’s best player. But this has not been the case in New York. Amar’e keeps on spending too much on the defensive end and his offense is very much suffering. He needs a decent center to play with, and look who D’Antoni get – Jared Jeffries. What a pick!
*Carmelo Anthony is overrated and cancerous to the team. Carmelo is a good offensive player. In fact, he is a great offensive player. But that’s it. He doesn’t play defense, hogs the ball too much and doesn’t pass the ball, he makes bad shot selections and can easily be defended by good perimeter defensive players. He doesn’t have heart and has no leadership abilities. He has attitude problems and comes to New York for the money and the big lights only and not to win. Now, his teammates have caught the Melo fever like rookie Landry Fields whose game went down significantly since the trade. New York fans, Carmelo is not the person who you all think he is.
*Other problems: Chauncey has passed his prime which makes Knicks fans miss Felton big time; weak supporting cast off the bench; owner James Dolan keeps on making bad decisions; the ghosts of Isaiah Thomas, Stephon Marbury and Eddy Curry still haunt the team.
So what should New York expect this season? Assuming they will reach the playoffs, they will surely be swept. So what should the Knicks hope for? Get CP3 next season, but first, they should get rid of Billups, perhaps, and D’Antoni certainly. Calling Coach Jeff Van Gundy!
New York Knicks, keep on breaking our hearts!
