The New York Knicks Won't Win a Championship with Carmelo Anthony

Knicks' fans have seen this before. Their team is headed for an early playoff exit, again. Their team is under performing, again. Their team looks unprepared, again.

Does anybody have Phil Jackson's phone number?

At the center of their meltdown is Carmelo Anthony. I know, Anthony didn't gash his hand open punching through glass. I know, Anthony didn't get the flu. He didn't get hurt.

None of that matters. Carmelo Anthony is the Knicks' best player.

Carmelo forced his way out of Denver, longing for the bright lights of the Big Apple. Carmelo got his way—he is now playing on the biggest stage on basketball. Unfortunately, Carmelo is proving what I said almost a year ago—he isn't a max level player, and he isn't capable of leading his team to an NBA championship.

A lot of people disagreed with me then. Well, Anthony is shooting 34 percent from the field, putting up 21 points and eight rebounds per game during this series against the Heat. Playing on the same court as Dwayne Wade and LeBron James, two elite superstars, Carmelo looks oddly out of place.

Carmelo is a ball-hogging, ball-stopping presence in the Knicks' offense. The beautiful motion and ball movement that the team enjoyed with Mike D'Antoni and the "Linsanity" era? Long gone.

Carmelo is a gifted scorer with an arsenal of moves, but his greatest strength and his greatest weakness on offense is that he shoots a lot. When he's hot, this is a good thing. When he's not, he kills his team.

He is that proverbial "he'll shoot you in the game, or he'll shoot you out of the game" player.

And unlike stars of a generation long gone, there is little else to his game to carry him on a night when his jumper isn't falling. Larry Bird would try to rebound more. Magic Johnson would pass the ball more and try to get his teammates involved. Michael Jordan could shut his man down defensively.

I know what you're saying, "Carmelo isn't those players. His game is different."

That's my point! He isn't those players. He isn't the kind of player that can lead a team to a championship, and he will be 28 years old next year. Does it look like he is going to get there in the next two or three years?

I don't think so.

In the LeBron-Durrant-Rose NBA, there is no room for a Carmelo Anthony championship. So it looks like, once again, the Knicks are back to square one in their quest for their first NBA Championship since 1973.