Will this be Carmelo Anthony’s last season in a Knicks uniform?
Three years ago, the New York Knicks acquired superstar forward Carmelo Anthony from the Denver Nuggets in hopes that he would lead the franchise to an NBA championship.
Today, the Knicks are arguably the laughing stock of the NBA.
Many people have been looking for answers as to why the Knicks have taken such a dramatic turn for the worst. Sadly, Melo has been labeled by most as the source of the dysfunction and debauchery that has engulfed this once proud franchise. People who blame Melo do so because they believe he is a selfish player and because they believe he only cares about himself and his numbers.
However, anyone who has watched the Knicks this season would know that Melo has done the exact opposite of what his critics say. Melo is second in the NBA in scoring (28.2 points a game) and he is averaging a career-high 8.6 rebounds a game. His usage rate is fourth in the NBA (30.3 percent) and he is playing a league-leading 39.1 minutes a night, also a career-high. If that’s not enough, Melo broke Kobe Bryant’s record for most points scored at Madison Square Garden and Bernard King’s record for most points by a New York Knick when he scored a career-high 62 points against the Charlotte Bobcats last month. Simply put, Melo is having a career year. The 9-time all-star and 3-time Olympic medalist has carried the Knicks this season and has gone to great lengths to profess his desire to stay in New York after initially stating that he wanted to become a free agent after this season.
So if Carmelo Anthony isn’t to blame, then who is?
There isn’t a “who” per se, but let’s take a look back and see how the Knicks set themselves up for destruction.
One of the things that made the 2012-2013 Knicks so deadly was their ability to shoot from the perimeter. The Knicks were fourth in three-point percentage and first in three-point field goals made per game. Eight players on last year’s squad (nine if you want to include Kurt Thomas) averaged 35 percent or better from the three point line. Three of those nine (again, four including Thomas) averaged 40 percent or better from the great beyond (Copeland, Shumpert, Novak). To sweeten things up, the Knicks were first in opponent steals per game (6.4) and third in opponent blocks per game (4.0).
Another reason the Knicks were so successful last year was their defense. The Knicks ranked seventh in total defense and fifth in opponent field goals made per game. A big portion of these statistics can be contributed to center Tyson Chandler, who was voted the NBA Defensive Player of the Year in 2012.
J.R. Smith’s play and Mike Woodson’s coaching also deserved some credit last season. Smith, last year’s NBA Sixth Man of the Year, averaged a career-high 18.1 points a game last season and made things much easier for Melo offensively. Woodson, who was promoted to head coach after Mike D’Antoni resigned, led the Knicks to a 54-28 record, earning them the second seed in the Eastern Conference.
So how did a team full of accolades and astounding achievements take such a hard nosedive?
First, point guard Jason Kidd announced his retirement last June after 19 NBA seasons. The former champion and 10-time all-star was a leader in the Knicks’ locker room and a big reason why the Knicks were able to move the ball and score so efficiently last season. One month later, the Knicks lost forward Chris Copeland to the Indiana Pacers via free agency. Copeland was one of New York’s best three-point shooters last season and a key contributor off the bench.
Just a few days after losing Copeland, the Knicks blew up their roster and mortgaged their future assets by trading Novak, Quentin Richardson, Marcus Camby, a 2016 first-round pick, a 2014 second-round pick, and a 2017 second-round pick to the Toronto Raptors for center Andrea Bargnani. The loss of Novak, the Knicks’ most accurate three-point shooter last season, has greatly affected their performance from three-point land. Moreover, Bargnani, who may go down as one of the biggest busts in NBA Draft history, is purely a one-dimensional player. He’s a 7-footer who can’t rebound and he plays abysmal defense. He can hit the mid-range jumper and the occasional three, but he is nowhere as efficient as Novak was. To make matters worse, he sidelined himself indefinitely last month after tearing a ligament in his left elbow attempting a dunk against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Fast-forwarding to September, the NBA suspended Smith for five games without pay for violating the league’s anti-drug policy. After returning to the lineup, Smith admitted that he had knee soreness due to delaying his offseason knee procedure until after he signed a 3-year, $18 million contract. Smith raised eyebrows once again after the league fined him $50,000 in January due to unsportsmanlike conduct stemming from his multiple attempts to untie opposing players’ shoes. The fine prompted Woodson to bench Smith for a short period of time in hopes that the 28-year-old would learn his lesson. Unfortunately, Smith continued his antics after he pulled down the headband of guard Vince Carter in Tuesday night’s game against the Dallas Mavericks.
Lastly, point guard Raymond Felton made headlines Tuesday after getting arrested on three counts of criminal possession of a weapon. Felton has struggled mightily this season, averaging a career-low 10.4 points a game while shooting just under 30 percent from three.
In sum, the things that made New York so great last year have been taken away due to poor front office decisions and underachieving players.The Knicks have fallen to tenth in the league in three-point percentage, seventh in three-point field goals made per game, and twenty-first in total offense. Only three players are shooting above 35 percent from beyond the arc and only two are shooting above 40 percent. The Knicks have also dropped to eleventh in total defense. As this .gif image demonstrates, the Knicks’ defense has looked astonishingly bad at times. J.R. Smith is averaging just 12.8 points a game while shooting a career-low 38.8 percent from the field and the timetable for Andrea Bargnani’s return is unknown.
Currently, the Knicks are 21-37, 11th place in the Eastern Conference, and bound for the lottery. The Knicks’ nightmarish season has worn thin on Knicks fans and has revealed the ineptitude of coach Woodson and Knicks management (*cough* James Dolan *cough*). J.R. Smith has failed to recapture his award-winning form, Raymond Felton has found himself in hot water, Tyson Chandler has beefed with Woodson over defensive philosophies and personnel issues, and Amar’e Stoudemire’s best days are well behind him. Iman Shumpert was nearly traded to the Los Angeles Clippers and Metta World Peace, whose dream it was to play for the Knicks, was released by the franchise two days ago along with point guard Beno Udrih, prompting a response from his brother, Daniel Artest.
The Knicks are driving down a one-way street with a no outlet sign at the end. They have failed to build a winning team around Melo and they lack the assets necessary to do so in the future because they traded them all away to bring Melo and Bargnani to New York. Rookie Tim Hardaway, Jr. has provided a small glimmer of hope, but now the question of “will we make the playoffs?” becomes “will we be able to keep Melo?”. With free agency looming, will Melo give the Knicks another chance to build a winning team around him? Or, will he cut his losses and move on?
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