Carmelo Anthony Should Have No Regrets about Joining the Knicks His Way

It’s time to leave Carmelo Anthony alone, y’all.

Not only did he know what he was doing when he forced the trade back east last year, he did the right thing—at least the right thing for Anthony, Saturday night’s Danilo Gallinari Garden party notwithstanding.

Mike D’Antoni’s New York Knicks currently are a disaster and, frankly, a chore to watch.  What happened to that fast-paced, high-scoring offense for which his Suns were so notorious?

These Knicks have yet to shoot 50 percent for a game, six times falling below 40 in their first 16 contests.

In the last eight games (including their current six-game skid), the New York field goal accuracy has exceeded 42 percent exactly once—that tough double-OT loss to Gallinari’s Nuggets—while they’ve averaged 18 turnovers a night.  Additionally, more than a quarter of their field goal attempts in that stretch were launched from three-point land.

And it may not get any prettier as Anthony and the boys begin a four-games-in-five-days road swing in Charlotte Tuesday.  When the Knicks and Bobcats met two weeks ago, they combined to misfire on 97 field goal attempts as New York eked out an unattractive four-point win.

You’d think a guy would be kicking himself for becoming part, parcel, even poster boy for all this mess.

Yet, if the Knicks can maintain their current standing in the Eastern Conference through the remaining 75 percent of this screwy season, they will have earned entry into the NBA’s championship tournament—in all likelihood, joined by Gallinari and the rest of Anthony’s former squad.

Yup, the Knicks, with their 6-10, .375 start to the season, hold the eighth-best mark in the East, albeit tied for 18th league-wide.

With a handful of teams little more than cannon fodder these days, the East would be the most logical place to most swiftly resurrect a franchise.  (Do you really think Dwight Howard would prefer to go to LA or Dallas?  Really?)

It must be painful for Walt “Clyde” Frazier watching night after night as the likes of Toney Douglas and Mike Bibby masquerade as competent pro guards.  (Abacus will cut some slack to rookie Iman Shumpert, who has shown some sporadic promise but lacks a good role model excepting maybe D’Antoni himself, a heady lead guard in his playing days.)

Does Baron Davis still have the nearly 33-year-old wheels to provide the on-court leadership to spur on a playoff charge?

Is there a deal to be made?

Time will tell.

While pulling an upset in a playoff series holds a good bit more challenge than unseating a second seed in the Sweet Sixteen during March Madness, Anthony has demonstrated a champion’s pedigree before.

That frontcourt of Anthony, Amar'e Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler probably has ol’ Clyde wishing he had some legs left.

Questions remain and there’s certainly work to be done on several fronts, but Carmelo Anthony has put himself in a good spot.

After all, he could have gone home to the Wizards.