New York Knicks: Why Carmelo Anthony is the Root of New York Knicks' Struggles

Twenty-one. The number of games the New York Knicks have won since the acquisition of Carmelo Anthony in a blockbuster deal on February 21st, 2011. 

Twenty-seven. The amount of games the New York Knicks have lost since acquiring the highly sought star small forward from the Denver Nuggets.

Since the fiasco that was the Anthony trade, the Knicks have lost 56 percent of their games. That's right folks, your New York Knicks, the second most valuable franchise in the NBA, valued at $780 million by Forbes, have a losing record since they made the trade to acquire the savior of the franchise.

Melo was seen as the second savior of Knicks basketball behind Amar'e Stoudemire. The beloved power forward-center hybrid, super-freak of nature, who above all other teams clamoring for his services chose to come to play in the Mecca of basketball that is Madison Square Garden.

The swap that essentially turned the Nuggets into Knicks-West or Knicks 2.0 or whatever you want to call it, may have been the downfall of the Knickerbockers' return to basketball glory. If you win in this city people will adore you. You'll become a legend in the eyes of all New Yorkers (see Walt “Clyde” Frazier or Willis Reed).

But when you lose, public approval, along with forgiveness, does not come easy. No matter who you are.

The Knicks traded away a trio of young promising players who were exceeding expectations in the first half of last season.

Raymond Felton. Danilo Gallinari. Wilson Chandler. All gone. The players that the New York faithful had come to love were sent to Denver basically for the services of one man. Truthfully, the Knicks did get decent production out of Chauncey Billups and adequate bench play from Anthony Carter, but that was just a bonus.

The Knicks signed Felton to a two-year, $15.8 million deal before the 2010-2011 campaign. He had some trouble getting his pick-and-roll down with Stoudemire, but once that was polished and nearly perfected, the Knicks were a force to be reckoned with. Stoudemire rattled off 30-10 games night in and night out, dominating the competition while helping the Knicks win 13 of 14 from November 17 to December 12.

Stoudemire was showered by choruses of “MVP” chants during his streak of exceptional play, but those chants are now long lost in the catacombs of newly renovated Madison Square Garden.

Gallinari was the sixth pick in the 2008 NBA Draft, based on heavy lobbying from Mike D’Antoni, and averaged 16 points per contest last season before he was sent away. The Nuggets just signed "Gallo" to a four-year, $42 million deal. All that you talent and promise gone for the great Carmelo.

And now we have poor Wilson Chandler. He was averaging over 16 points per game playing on Broadway, and now this poor man has been relegated to obscurity due to the NBA lockout, playing for Zhejiang Guangsha of the Chinese Basketball Association. 

Countless New Yorkers are clamoring for Mike D'Antoni's head game in and game out, but the blame cannot be entirely put on him.

As currently constituted, the New York Knicks are far from a team. They don't play team basketball. You seldom see the spectacular ball movement and backdoor cuts that turn a mediocre team into a good one and a good one into a great one. Their game play consists of catching and shooting, better known as the Melo show. Unfortunately this season’s Melo show features a sub-40 percent shooting display from the field.

D'Antoni has feebly attempted to change his mantra into defense first. Funny joke, right? A D'Antoni-coached team would rely on defense to win games? No chance. Not even the arrival of Tyson Chandler, completing one of the best front-courts in the league (on paper at least), could save the Knicks.

Catch and shoot. That's the Melo show. Toney Douglas dribbles the ball up court and either passes it to Melo or finds a way to take a contested running jumper. Well, it used to be Toney Douglas until his productivity plummeted into oblivion while rookie Iman Shumpert’s stock soared through the roof.

Melo then proceeds to do his usual shake and bake followed by a turnaround, fade away jump shot or a lame attempt to drive the lane. That's not basketball. Where is the offense that was once powered by Stoudemire’s stellar interior play?

Yes, Tyson Chandler is now down low, creating a bit more traffic than “STAT” is used to, but if an injury-plagued Chandler helped the Bobcats make the playoffs in the 2009-2010 alongside Gerald Wallace, he can surely make this work with Stoudemire. Offense needs to be a team effort and not a constant (and easily stopped) game of one-on-one.

The problem isn't just on the court as it seems STAT and Melo aren’t on the best terms off the court either. Stoudemire recently ripped some players for not studying the game plan before the games and who exactly do you think he was calling out? My guess is that he's pretty unhappy with Melo.

Stoudemire isn't the only one frustrated with the course of this season. Chandler told reporters this after a January 28 loss to the Houston Rockets: "I refuse. I refuse. I refuse to have a losing season like that. We have to do what it takes, I don’t care what is, I really don’t. Like I said, we have to man-up."

Not only does Chandler refuse to accept the present state of the New York Knicks, he refuses three times over.

Just a little tidbit of information for you here: The Knicks beat the Charlotte Bobcats by 33 on January 24. Melo registered only one point in 30 minutes of game time. However, the more impressive statistic is that he took a measly seven shots from the field. Meanwhile, Stoudemire and Chandler shot a combined 72 percent from the field and Landry Fields even threw in 18 points, his second highest output of the season.

Fields averaged double-digit points per game before the Anthony trade but his point production, along with rebounding numbers, tailed off notably after his arrival. Of course you expect the scoring of your players to go down when a new star comes around, but a player who is seen as a superstar should make everyone around him play better overall.

As the saying goes, statistics are everything. If you go by statistics in this instance, the Nuggets got the better of the deal. They are 14-6 this season and trail only the Oklahoma City Thunder for first place in the Western Conference while the Knicks are trying to stay relevant early on, compiling a dreadful 7-13 record, struggling to keep their heads above water. 

Could it be that the Knicks are better off without Carmelo Anthony? Perhaps management could work a possible Melo for Deron Williams deal. Trying to win the NBA championship without a point guard is the same as trying to win the Super Bowl with no quarterback. Teams without a field general simply cannot compete with superior guard play. 

I do believe the Knicks will find a way to turn things around and avoid an unprecedented letdown of their fan base. However, a few locker room and on-court issues need to be worked out before the front office, players and fans are comfortable with the state of the Knicks franchise.

And it all starts with No. 7.