Knicks Must Play Carmelo Anthony at Power Forward Following Return from Injury

Carmelo Anthony's injury needs to be a final wake-up call for the New York Knicks.

Power forward is where he belongs.

Anthony is done for the season while he rehabilitates a left knee injury, a partially torn patellar tendon that he suffered two games into the Knicks' schedule, according to Marc Berman of the New York Post. Much has been made of this setback, from Anthony's four-to-six month timetable to his decision to play in the 2015 All-Star Game despite being hurt.

But this side of Anthony's surgery, with the Knicks' season already lost, there is only one concern: New York's future and how the star forward fits into it.

Offensive Advantages

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By the time next season rolls around, Anthony will be 31, years removed from having the luxury of patience. He himself has become more reflective since re-signing with the Knicks, readily acknowledging that Phil Jackson's rebuild must begin in earnest and be completed in haste.

“The time is now,” he said earlier this month, via ESPNNewYork.com's Ian Begley. “The time is now to kind of start building for the future. I don’t think we can wait. Not just for my sake, just in general, I think the time is now. The window is now. I think we’ve got to take advantage of that.”

Indeed, this is a weird thing to say for someone in Anthony's position. His Knicks have the NBA's worst record and, by all appearances, are lifetimes away from championship contention.

This need to accelerate the process is borne out of Anthony's age. The belief that it can be expedited is rooted in the Knicks' financial flexibility through the coming summers.

And yet, while successful free-agency ventures are a necessity for the Knicks at this stage, using their best player properly is equally, if not more, important.

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To that end, the jury is already out on what's best for Anthony and the Knicks. It's been out for a while since the 2012-13 season: Anthony needs to start at power forward.

Each of the two previous seasons, which were the best individual campaigns of Anthony's career, saw him spend a majority of his minutes at power forward. More than 75 percent of his playing time came at small forward this season, giving way to predictable regression. 

Anthony's player efficiency rating (21.7), while still above average, was the lowest it's been since 2011-12, the last time he spent most of his time at small forward. His PER was markedly better at the 4; he registered a 25.8 at power forward, according to 82games.com, which would rank fifth in the entire league and out-paces his score at small forward by 4.7 points.

None of which is especially surprising given what's happened over the last three years:

Playing Anthony at power forward has been a no-brainer long before now. The league is trending toward floor-spacing modules that emphasize the importance of shooters manning four of the five available spots. Starting Anthony at the 3 is merely a way of embracing traditional—and therefore outdated—lineup combinations.

There's no discounting the added tactical advantages, either. Anthony will always get his touches in the post, but when playing power forward, he forces those accustomed to defending closer to the basket on the perimeter.

Drawing opposing 4s out of their comfort zones is a boon for the offense. Whether Anthony works off the dribble or comes off screens as a spot-up shooter, he's typically quicker than his opponent, making it easier for him to create space or establish himself as a direct threat off pick-and-rolls.

And with the Knicks offense devolving into a 28th-ranked, brick-laying disaster, this team isn't in position to ignore any trace of possible upside.

Defensive Necessity

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Thought Anthony was a defensive liability before?

Think again.

Injuries and Father Time have changed everything, as The Wall Street Journal's Chris Herring noted during the Knicks' first game back from the All-Star break:

Shifting back to the 4 won't turn Anthony into an active and engaged defender. It doesn't even guarantee better defensive results. Statistically speaking, Anthony has fared better when guarding opposing small forwards:

Still, this isn't about maximizing Anthony's defensive performance per se. Twelve years deep into his career, he's set in his ways. Opponents knocked down shots at above-average clips against him this season, and that's unlikely to change.

But going up against opposing small forwards, patented wing scorers, will wreak hell on his body. His lateral quickness probably won't be the same after this latest surgery. Even if it is, Anthony has nearly 33,000 minutes—playoffs and regular season—on his treads. The Knicks have to start thinking about preservation.

Conserving his playing time won't be an option, though. Not immediately. Not when Anthony is still in his prime, and the Knicks, in all likelihood, are still working with a star-shallow roster. They need him. They need his scoring.

In the 1,227 minutes they've logged without him thus far, the Knicks are averaging just 93.5 points per 100 possessions. That would rank as the sixth-worst offensive rating of all time.

Capping his minutes, then, is not an option. But the Knicks can control where he plays.

Athletic wings don't dominate the power forward like they do small forward, even if they're contemporary floor-spacers. For every LeBron James—who, for the record, has spent most of his time at small forward this season—there are more Kevin Loves, Enes Kanters and Ryan Andersons: frontcourt staples who lack explosion and the ability to run Anthony ragged with incisive cuts and nimble dribble drives.

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Covering opposing forwards does, indeed, subject Anthony to the threat of more bully ball, forcing him to line up against hulking beefcakes who can overpower him with their back-to-the-basket sets. But the imminent danger is minimal.

Post-ups aren't as common in today's game. As the number of shooters grows and as the importance of three-pointers mounts, teams are straying away from time-consuming interior sets.

The Memphis Grizzlies run post-ups more frequently than any other team, and those account for under 15 percent of their total offensive plays. Pau Gasol and Zach Randolph are the only two power forwards (minimum 200 touches) who go to post-ups at least 30 percent of the time.

When the alternative has Anthony regularly defending the NBA's Paul Georges, Kevin Durants, and Jameses—or even the Tobias Harrises, Michael Kidd-Gilchrists and Luol Dengs—that's a risk ratio the Knicks can live with.

Clear Answers the Knicks Don't Yet See

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Moving Anthony back to power forward is not a panacea. The Knicks will still have to worry about his age and surrounding talent. They will still have to worry about his fast-closing title window.

Using him at power forward is strictly a way of capitalizing on readily available offensive advantages while catering to Anthony's unavoidable twilight. It's a form of treatment for what ails the Knicks—one they've avoided all season.

As Bleacher Report's Adam Fromal wrote: 

"

Over the last few years, the Knicks have gotten away from what's worked.

Anthony has more success at power forward, so naturally the team is going to transition out of any schemes that feature him as the second-biggest player on the court.

Apparently, playing Anthony at the 4 isn't part of the vaunted Triangle offense.

"

Derek Fisher is an extension of Jackson, and Jackson has seldom embraced the stretch-forward effigies that have become so popular—in part because he coached during a different era, but mostly because the triangle offense, which the Knicks aren't exactly running now, calls for frequent elbow action.

Running Anthony at the 4 would be a deviation from this concept, an admittance that the Knicks will butcher and contort and warp the system to meet player needs rather than ask talent to conform.

After suffering through a season like this, an experiment run aground, wholesale changes—unbecoming of Jackson's triangle vision or otherwise—shouldn't be difficult to implement.

Especially as they pertain to Anthony.

The Knicks' future is nothing if not insecure. Fixing part of its livelihood to Anthony only makes sense if the aging star is put in position to succeed.

Which, in this case, is the power forward position.

*Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference and NBA.com and are accurate leading into games played Feb. 23, 2015, unless otherwise cited.

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