Perfect Role for Each Key NY Knicks Player, Post-Carmelo Anthony Decision

The New York Knicks stood at the brink, wind whipping through the tranquil hair of team president Phil Jackson and 2014-15 oblivion staring back—then Carmelo Anthony re-signed with the team for five years. Now, Jackson must make good on his stated goal of a championship by surrounding Melo with the right cast and utilizing those players in the best way. 

Unfortunately, the Knicks roster may very well need a year of patience and pruning before it resembles anything close to a title contender.

Despite that reality, Knicks head coach Derek Fisher, who has zero experience on the job, decided to go into Rex Ryan mode, saying this after a win at the Las Vegas Summer League, via the New York Daily News' Peter Botte: "Even if nothing else changes (this summer), we’re good enough to be a playoff team in the Eastern Conference. But we obviously have to go out on the floor and prove it."

Fisher's faith is commendable, but he should appreciate the mammoth task set for him. According to Spotrac, the Knicks have $18.5 million in base salary committed to players not named Carmelo for the 2015-16 campaign, but Amar'e Stoudemire and Andrea Bargnani have expiring contracts that pay a combined $35 million this season. That leaves the roster with precious little flexibility for the time being.

In the meantime, there are four Knicks players currently slated as part of the future alongside Melo: Jose Calderon, J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert and Tim Hardaway Jr. Barring another trade by Jackson to clear cap room, that is the core of the roster, and these are the ideal roles for each while the clogging contracts around them expire.

Jose Calderon

Jackson pulled off quite a coup by sending an underperforming Tyson Chandler and the out-of-favor Raymond Felton to the Dallas Mavericks for two draft picks and four players. Samuel Dalembert now becomes a poor man's Chandler at center, and Calderon slots in as starting point guard with abilities uniquely suited to facilitate the triangle offense and just one glaring weakness.

The last two seasons, Calderon shot 46 percent and 45 percent from beyond the arc. His long-range prowess can help space the floor in a triangle offense, as defenses have to respect his threat on the perimeter. This point guard is more than just a shooter, however, thanks to his honed court vision and the savvy of nine NBA seasons.

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He's basically like a genetically engineered version of Pablo Prigioni. Though Calderon's assist total dipped while playing alongside Monta Ellis in Dallas, he has averaged nearly seven assists per game in eight seasons and sports a career average of 1.7 turnovers per game.

According to Sporting News' Sean Deveney, Calderon is a point guard "whose top-flight shooting is easily counterbalanced by his dreadful defense." Yes, his defense is woefully inept because he is not a gifted athlete and lacks explosive quickness at the age of 32. That deficiency puts significant defensive pressure on his partner in the starting backcourt.

J.R. Smith

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You know you're in trouble when the second-best scorer is the same guy who recently made waves for a poignant Instagram takedown of Rihanna and wishy-washy Miami Heat fans. With the roster as presently constructed, J.R. Smith remains the No. 2 scorer on the team, the only player who can take the ball and create his own opportunity with regularity aside from Anthony.

Smith's ideal role consists as a bench player, a super-sub, a relief pitcher brought on to throw heaters. He displayed his ceiling when he averaged over 22 points per game for the final two months of the 2012-13 season and claimed Sixth Man of the Year honors. However, even with the Knicks having a plethora of backcourt bodies at their disposal, no clear starting shooting guard stands out from the mix.

Last season, Smith averaged 16.5 points per game as a starter and 12.5 points per game as a reserve, though the difference between the two roles only averaged out to 3.4 minutes per game more as a starter. After logging 37 starts last season, his perfect role this season would be to start at the 2.

With some guidance from Jackson and Fisher, he will get used to playing within a system instead of isolating and launching fadeaway long-range two-pointers.

Iman Shumpert

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It's nigh on put-up-or-shut-up time for Iman Shumpert. The stout swingman has shown enough talent for teams to often include him in speculative trade talk, but he's been inconsistent enough for the Knicks to dangle him as an asset just as often. The Knicks are laden with backcourt players, but Shumpert's size makes him a useful three-and-D guy.

However, Shumpert's scoring average and shooting percentage have decreased each season since his rookie year. Now, he'll seek to improve upon last season's 6.7 points per game and 37.8 percent shooting.

Shumpert seems like the type of player Jackson should love: an athletic wing player with good size and quickness highlighted by very strong on-ball defense. 

And yet, according to Deveney: "There are also holdovers Amare Stoudemire, Andrea Bargnani and J.R. Smith, any of whom can be had in a trade for a satchel of magic beans and a wink. Jackson is said to be willing to include Iman Shumpert in any deal that would rid him of his roster baggage."

There are also reports from CBS Sports' Ken Berger that swapping Bargnani could cost two first-round picks, and the New York Post's Marc Berman writes that Jackson thinks Bargnani can excel in the triangle system.

New York's frontcourt needs bodies, and the free-agent pickings have been reduced to the likes of Al-Farouq Aminu, Kris Humphries and Shawn Marion. For cap room to make a significant move, the Knicks would have to swing a trade for one of their two expendable forwards on expiring contracts and likely add Shumpert as a sweetener. Otherwise, Shumpert will simply be auditioning for the team to pick up his $3.7 million option next season.

Tim Hardaway Jr.

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Hardaway shot 42 percent from mid-range last season, the best of any rookie with at least 60 attempts. He also had the second-best shooting percentage among all rookies with at least 20 field-goal attempts in the restricted area, behind only Mason Plumlee, per NBA.com.

Hardaway showed unique ability to get to the rack with 150 such attempts, but his skills and strengths mirror those of J.R. Smith fairly closely.

Both are better suited to come off the bench than to start, but their roles must be distinguished. Hardaway's defense makes it hard to start him, especially next to Calderon, but the Michigan product always displays tremendous effort, which is more than can be said of Smith at certain times.

Hardaway's perfect role this season is a sponge. He should remain a feature on the second unit while pushing Smith for playing time. Also, expect to see former Laker Shannon Brown back on the team as a steadying force, considering he's a former student of Jackson's offense.

Sorting Out the Rest

The Knicks will hope for something shocking out of Wichita State standout Cleanthony Early, who was taken with the 34th pick in the draft. He could have been selected in the mid-20s like Shumpert or Hardaway were. No. 51 pick Thanasis Antetokounmpo could be a useful sleeper if he can approach the effectiveness of his lanky younger brother.

Cole Aldrich re-signed when the team cut Lamar Odom, and he can help plug the gap in the middle during Dalembert's rest periods. Big Jeremy Tyler should join the rotation as well. Shane Larkin and Wayne Ellington came over in the trade with Dallas, and the latter has a track record in the pros with clear perimeter shooting skills. Larkin stands just 5'11", but he could be a project elsewhere.

Without any insult to those named in this section, the Knicks' roster shuffle involves an underwhelming set of names. An addition like Luol Deng would have been a potential impact piece, but the team's big haul in free agency basically involved retaining Carmelo. 

In a familiar conundrum for the Knicks, poor decisions have swamped the payroll this season, so they will do their best under the new regime and await the 2015 offseason. By then, the four players named above should have absorbed the system and girded themselves for a real playoff run in 2016, unless, of course, the Zen Master swings another impressive multiplayer trade.