Are the New York Knicks Asking Carmelo Anthony to Be Someone He's Not?
All these years later, with mountains of evidence to the contrary, the New York Knicks are still hoping there's more to Carmelo Anthony.
This is a familiar trope, one that seems reasonable at certain times, hyperbolic at others.
Phil Jackson has been asking more of Anthony since arriving in New York, believing he can improve as both a player and leader. Sinking five years and $124 million into the star's aging body over the summer was the Knicks' way of doubling down on this belief.
Nearly an entire season into this big-picture experiment, though, the jury is still out on both assumptions.
As a player, Anthony will inevitably headline some version of the triangle offense, a system that prides itself on passing, off-ball movement and some of the NBA's more traditional tenets—dual-big men lineups, methodical half-court sets, frequent elbow action.
Only certain elements of that philosophy are evident in the Knicks' current attack, the same one that ranks 28th in efficiency. The five-man combinations are conventional, the pace is snail-like, the ball is moving.
But deviations from the triangle's core concepts are the standard, since the Knicks have neither the long-term pieces nor necessary talent to install any kind of lasting on-court culture. Traces of the offense's principles are there, mostly in the way players position themselves to begin possessions. What happens as the passes fly and touches unfold is unpredictable.
Anthony is no longer present for any of this. He is out for the season after undergoing a left knee debridement, leaving strings of question marks in his wake.
Although the Knicks are a better offensive team with him on the floor, scoring with the frequency of a top-10 machine, his potential within this dynamic remains unclear. More of his shot attempts are coming as spot-up opportunities, and he's passing in greater volume, but this is his least efficient offensive season since 2011-12.
The Knicks' surrounding talent also makes it difficult to judge much of anything. Their roster is beset by placeholders and will look much different to start 2015-16, after Jackson finishes up his second offseason at the helm, his first with cap space.
Upon returning to action, Anthony will be ferrying the burden of proof once more, still under a monster contract, still subject to Jackson's aforesaid assumptions.
Especially on a leadership level.
Jackson and head coach Derek Fisher still expect Anthony to be a steadying emotional presence next season when they usher in the next part of New York's rebuild. Fisher is even stressing the importance of having him around now while he rehabilitates, just so he becomes comfortable in his new, unofficial post, per Newsday's Barbara Barker:
More than expecting Anthony to adjust his play style, this is the real stretch.
Not once over the course of Anthony's career has he been a frank forerunner, mentor or juggler of egos. He is a self-aware scorer, one of the egos who needs juggling, leading only by example—a standoffish, if not fruitless, approach that J.R. Smith detailed after joining the Cleveland Cavaliers, per Bleacher Report's Ethan Skolnick:
Anthony confirms such views by his own admission, though, he does so indirectly.
Weeks into the Knicks' 2013-14 campaign, he lamented the absence of certain veterans from the previous season's 54-win team, not for their play, but for the sense of calm they imparted. From the New York Post's Marc Berman:
"That makeup of the team was different [last year]. With J-Kidd, he was a leader in his own right. He wasn’t a vocal leader like a Rasheed [Wallace] or Kurt Thomas. He was leader by example on the court. His hard work, his play, everyone fed off that. And everyone led in their own way. Now we do miss that — J-Kidd, Kurt, Kurt and Rasheed. Last year as a team we were more synchronized than right now due to chemistry, due to having fun, due to just having one another’s back.
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Attributing the Knicks' 2013-14 malaise to the departures of three past-their-prime warhorses, only one of whom (Jason Kidd) appeared in more than 40 games during that 2012-13 crusade, is strange.
Not even Kidd had some salient impact on the Knicks. Their offensive production remained basically the same with and without him. And his turnover percentage (33.4) was almost three times higher than his shooting percentage (12.1) during the team's ill-fated playoff campaign.
That Anthony credits him, along with Thomas and Wallace, for the Knicks' chemistry is troubling. Not humble or self-effacing.
Alarming.
That cast of characters will not be at the Knicks' disposal next season when they're welcoming in scores of new additions, at least one of whom will be a young, impressionable draft prospect. That's in addition to the budding talent already on the roster and, therefore, under Anthony's care.
Langston Galloway, Cleanthony Early and Tim Hardaway Jr. likely aren't going anywhere, giving Anthony four young basketball minds to groom, not including other picks, a potential Thanasis Antetokounmpo call-up and any additional millennials the Knicks sign in free agency.
This is foreign, and therefore dangerous, territory for New York's lone superstar. He is not the developing-player whisperer, after all.
Back in December, he reportedly had a heated exchange with Hardaway, according to ESPN.com's Chris Broussard. While this run-in is now a footnote from a season rife with on- and off-court dysfunction, it isn't the first time Anthony has been on the wrong end of similar drama.
As Chris Herring of The Wall Street Journal wrote in December:
"Last year, it was Iman Shumpert who got frustrated with Anthony following a lazy defensive effort that resulted in a four-point play against New Orleans. Landry Fields openly acknowledged shrinking as a player following Anthony’s trade to New York, presumably because he never developed a comfort level with him. And last year, according to a person familiar with the matter, Anthony grew highly agitated with former Knick Jeremy Tyler during a practice in which Tyler apparently trash-talked him.
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There's nothing that even remotely suggests Anthony is the type of player others can grow beside.
If it's not his leadership methods, it's his ball-dominant play style—that which does not accentuate the talent of those around him or, by present design, seamlessly fit into New York's presumed offensive ideology. As CBS Sports' Matt Moore writes:
"Mostly, you need to get the ball out of Melo's hands. Anthony's predilection is towards holding the ball for long periods of time before finally engaging in an offensive move, often when the defense has set and primed itself for his attack. ...Anthony's better used as the tip of the spear, rather than at the controls of the offense.
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No one is refuting Anthony's skill. He does what he does (shoot and score), and he does it well—better than most.
What the Knicks need, it seems, is someone else—a player who may not supersede Anthony in status or function but helps him and the others fall into line both on and off the court. And free agency can be their way of bringing in that star, that mentor, they're asking Anthony to be.
Unless, of course, things change. Anthony could evolve into everything the Knicks are looking for. He re-signed with the team knowing the plan, knowing the demands, so he understands what's at stake.
Nor is this to say the Knicks should have let him go in free agency. There isn't another team in the league that wouldn't have handed him a lucrative contract, provided it didn't cost anything in the way of assets.
But the odds are against him being everything New York needs.
Twelve years, 896 games (playoffs and regular season) and 32,845 minutes into his NBA career, Anthony's individual identity is no mystery.
Which means, at least for now, the superstar these Knicks employ and the one they're calling for are two different players.
*Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference and NBA.com and are accurate leading into games for March 4 unless otherwise cited.
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