Jeremy Lin: How Linsanity and Knicks Will Fare When Carmelo Anthony Returns
LeBron James is praying Melo doesn’t mesh.
Derrick Rose, Kevin Durant and Dwight Howard hope that Carmelo Anthony can’t play nice with the new-look New York Knicks. If he does, Spike Lee will be celebrating an NBA championship in a New York Linute.
More likely than not, Anthony won’t be able to give up his isolation ways to allow Lin to dominate the basketball. If he manages to humble himself for the good of the team, though, New York just went from being a laughingstock to the most loaded team in the league in less than a month.
In his nine starts this season, Lin is averaging an unthinkable 25.0 points, 9.2 assists and 2.2 steals per game. Those aren’t just All-Star caliber statistics, either. If he continues to produce at a similar pace, the numbers put him in the discussion as one of the league’s top floor generals.
Combine Lin’s elite penetrating ability with Amar’e Stoudamire’s dominance in the pick-and-roll, and Mike D’Antoni’s offense is in full effect.
Again, if Melo, arguably the most talented pure scorer in the NBA, meshes, D’Antoni’s arsenal of weapons will be limitless. Tyson Chandler is one of the few talented true centers in the entire league. Landry Fields isn’t bad at all for a fifth scoring option.
Anthony’s return would move the emerging Iman Shumpert to the bench. Thanks to not only Lin’s explosion, but Baron Davis’ return, Shumpert will be able to stay on the wing where he excels.
Davis’ veteran presence at the point will be an ideal change of pace to the occasionally erratic Lin; plus the Harvard grad won’t be forced to play 46 minutes in a single game.
The newly acquired J.R. Smith is impossible to forget. When feeling it, Steve Novak is one of the most deadly three-point shooters in the NBA. Jared Jeffries is a scrappy big who knows his role and plays within it well.
Carmelo holds the key to a Knicks championship victory. If he decides to go with the flow, he’ll complete the puzzle that is this squad.
David Daniels is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.
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