New York Knicks Wasted Career Season from Carmelo Anthony

The 2013-14 Knicks were going to go as far as Carmelo Anthony could take them.

The team didn't get markedly better in the offseason—it lost Jason Kidd, and added Andrea Bargnani and rookie Tim Hardaway Jr.—and it didn't have a coach with a battle-tested system. But the Knicks did have Melo.

And yet, somehow, despite Melo's inspired play throughout the bulk of the season, the Knicks still found a way to slip up. In the process, the team failed to build on last year's success and squandered one of, if not the best season of Anthony's superstar career. 

Way back in February 2011, the Knicks mortgaged their future in the name of securing Carmelo's services. They threw away a stockpile of young talent and future picks so that they could bring Melo to New York and restore glory to a city and a base of fans that were starting to forget what winning basketball looked like.

The team went all in for a player who could take them all the way.

Like with any new relationship, there were some bumps along the way. Melo and Mike D'Antoni didn't make each other better, and Amar'e Stoudemire couldn't stay healthy. But last year, having adjusted to New York, Mike Woodson, and his teammates, the Knicks put it all together and won 54 games en route to the East's two-seed.

The Knicks were hosting a playoff series and had the best player in the matchup. Melo helped the Knicks end their playoff drought, reaching the second round for the first time in a decade.

For the most part, the narrative was going according to the script: Melo was here, and the Knicks were a contender. Mission (somewhat) accomplished. 

Kathy Willens

But after the team ousted the Celtics, it failed to reach the Eastern Conference Finals, which is where the two-seed is supposed to end up. 

So despite entering this season as the reigning scoring champ with a successful playoff series under his belt, Melo had more work to do. 

The rhetoric after the loss to Indiana was that the Pacers had arrived and would be a worthy foe moving forward. With the Bulls set to get Derrick Rose back, and the Heat set to be, well, the Heat again, Anthony was going to have to elevate his game if he was going to get his team over the hump.

Obviously, none of that went according to plan. 

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Except the part about Melo stepping up.

From the outset of this disastrous season, Melo brought the extra effort that fans expect from a superstar. For the first time in his career, Melo averaged 8.0+ rebounds a game.  He scored his 27.4 ppg on an efficient 45 percent from the field, 40 percent from three and 84 percent from the line. His scoring dipped a touch from last year, but his effort night in and night out was an upgrade from his previous seasons in New York. 

If his numbers don't jump out at you, then watching him play this season likely did. 

Throw in the fact that Melo fought through injuries and losing streaks without so much as a peep, and he was everything a franchise player should be. He seemed to will this team to victory in a way nobody else in uniform could. He was hungry all season long and played his heart out amid the mounting frustration and losses.

"You can't point [the blame] at [Anthony], because he's been there all year," Woodson said, per ESPN's New York Ian Begley. "He's had a hell of a season for us."

At no point during a season that was filled with questions about his pending free agency and embarrassing losses was Melo unprofessional or unprepared or uninterested in winning.

The big shots did not fall for him this year, but that never stopped him from crashing the boards and playing defense. Those are the types of intangibles that a star player needs to bring on a nightly basis—even when his shot isn't falling and his team is losing, he is playing hard and urging his teammates to do the same.

But the Knicks took all that and threw it away. They wasted a season from Anthony that was good enough to land them back in the East's Final Four. Instead, the team pissed away Melo's greatness, finishing ninth in the East, where teams like the Wizards, Bobcats and Hawks will all be playing postseason games. 

On top of that horrific truth (the Bobcats?!!!), the Knicks' lost season will surely play a part in Anthony's decision-making moving forward. Nobody goes through his first non-playoff season and shrugs it off completely.

Melo has proven that he wants to be in New York and is willing to work hard and earn his max money. But that doesn't mean his talents are unlimited or his opportunities endless. 

The Knicks gambled on repeating last season's success, and they lost big. Now, the team is going to spend the next 10 weeks trying to figure out if it wants to resign Anthony to a five-year, max contract, while Melo considers whether he should take less to play elsewhere. 

You know, somewhere with cap space, draft picks and a coach.

At the end of the day, the Knicks just asked their superstar to play like a superstar. He did. And the team missed the playoffs. Melo is still reeling from that reality much the same as many fans. 

It is one thing for the Knicks to have had a lost season—but it is quite another to lose a career year from their best player. 

A truly pitiful turn of events.

*Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference