Why Jeremy Lin Can't Coexist with 'Selfish' Carmelo Anthony

When Carmelo Anthony leaves, teams improve.

Before Melo’s injury, the New York Knicks were still in desperate need of a starting-caliber point guard. They found their floor general in Jeremy Lin, but the Harvard grad won’t be able to coexist with Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire.

Prior to Linsanity, one would guess that Air Jordans were the Knicks’ team shoe because all they shot were J’s.  And Melo was the face of that shoot-now-think-later mentality.

Anthony is a ball hog.

Now, don’t get it twisted; Michael Jordan was a ball hog too.  Kobe Bryant defines the label, but the fact that Melo and Lin must dominate the basketball to be effective will prove to be an issue. Throw Stoudemire’s need for touches into that mess and Spike Lee’s celebrations will become rarer.

With Anthony out of the equation, Lin and Stoudemire would actually form a lethal pick-and-roll duo.  But Melo is in the picture, so a single ball isn’t enough to feed the trio.

Anthony isn’t going to allow the undrafted Lin to control the basketball. And Lin isn’t a spot-up shooter.  In order to maintain his effectiveness on the offensive end, he must be able to harness his lightning quickness to penetrate the lane, which he won’t have the opportunity to do with Melo playing isolation basketball.

Sure, according to ESPN’s Ian Begely, Melo told reporters:

"

“When I get back Jeremy will have the ball in his hands and I'm playing off of that.  When I'm reading the stuff, it's more funny than anything because at the end of the day I know what I bring to the game, I know what I bring to this team.  My teammates know that.  But to say, ‘How can I fit in?’  It's easy; give him the ball and space out.  I get back to doing what I know how to do best.  So we'll see.”

"

He continued defending himself to ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, saying:

"

“That's like a slap in the face.  None of my teammates I've ever played with would say that I was a selfish player.  Nobody.  It's a tough situation.  I'm human at the end of the day, so it's like damn, where is this coming from?  I know I'm not a selfish player.  People around me know I'm not a selfish player.  I do everything I can to make people around me understand I'm not a selfish player.”

"

Melo, if being called selfish is a slap in the face, get ready to turn the other cheek.

Where is this coming from, he asks? Is it just coincidence that the Knicks and Denver Nuggets each improved when he was taken out of the starting lineup?

Last season, Denver went into All-Star weekend with a record of 32-25, but after the blockbuster trade, the freed franchise went 18-7 over the remainder of the regular season. Just take a look at the correlation between Melo playing and the Knicks winning in ESPN’s game logs of the forward:

If Anthony can’t identify the trend, he should’ve stayed at Syracuse and upped his education.

Melo is arguably the most talented all-around scorer in the NBA. He boasts the shooting ability to be an effective spot-up player. But despite what Anthony is preaching to the press, his past would lead to you believe that a role transformation won't be as easy as he’s attempting to make it sound.

David Daniels is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.

Follow @TheRealDDaniels