Knicks Rumors: Why Mike D'Antoni and Carmelo Anthony Will Never Work Together

The New York Knicks’ head coach Mike D’Antoni and their star Carmelo Anthony will never work together and be successful in the Big Apple.

These two people cannot work together for a lot of reasons. Anthony is not the type of player that D’Antoni can win with and D’Antoni does not have the respect of Anthony or the team as a whole.

Something has to give in this relationship and if history can tell us anything, it will probably be D’Antoni that gets the boot from the Knicks’ organization.

Are You Guys Listening?

According to a recent report from ESPN, Mike D’Antoni has completely lost the respect of the entire Knicks’ locker room. The team has lost eight of its last 10 games and the players are supposedly confused about the offensive and defensive schemes.

It is no coincidence that this eight of 10 game slide started when Anthony was placed back into the lineup after returning from a groin injury. When he was out, the Knicks won six of seven games, and Jeremy Lin became a phenomenon and household name.

Now, the players have lost faith in their coach and are shutting the door on him. The vaunted offense D’Antoni is a proponent of isn’t being run correctly and the team is playing no defense.

This is probably a sign that the end is near for D’Antoni. If he can’t get things moving in a better direction, this team will miss the playoffs. That would be a travesty considering all the talent on the roster.

As the coach, D’Antoni has to figure out a way to work with Anthony, especially off the court.

He still has a few months to prove something, but he needs to get started fast.

I Can’t Work This Way

Another interesting part of the report from ESPN is about how Anthony is not fitting in on the court and how it is throwing the rest of the team off.

D’Antoni’s offense calls for Anthony to plant himself at the three-point line to provide spacing for the point guard to run the pick and roll and hit open guys. Anthony tends to shift into his favorite spot on the floor, between the post, elbow and the arc.

This clogs up the offense and causes the whole system to break down.

Apparently, since he has never done it in his career, standing out at the three-point line makes Anthony uncomfortable.

The report also discusses the issues that Anthony has had with D’Antoni’s new point guard prodigy, Jeremy Lin.

Apparently, Lin would try to talk to Anthony on the court about the offensive struggles, which Anthony met with a very mature turn of his back. The two have since reached a compromise, agreeing to run D’Antoni’s offense and mix in the type of plays that Anthony likes.

However, that just hasn’t been working.

It’s pretty clear that Anthony can’t get along with D’Antoni on the court or off of it. Before he came back, the Knicks were winning. Now, they are not.

I’m sure it will be D’Antoni who gets the axe, because coaches get too much blame and too much praise in the NBA. It’s a shame though, because it seemed like such a dynamic fit.