Where Can New York Knicks Find Carmelo Anthony More Scoring Help?
On the NBA's offensive scale of frigid to fiery, New York Knicks scoring forward Carmelo Anthony grades out as inflammable.
The 30-year-old is as lethal as point producers come at this level, a 6'8", 235-pound machine with three-point touch, a powerful post game and a vast array of weaponry at all areas in between.
But the Knicks need more than Melo. As this franchise traverses its seemingly unending road to relevance, its first scheduled stop is a familiar one: respectability. There are too many defensive gaps to hope for anything higher, and even this checkpoint could prove hard to reach if the Knicks can't reignite their supporting cast.
Alarm sirens blared throughout the Big Apple amid last season's 37-win debacle. There were defensive, coaching and character concerns raised along the way, but too little attention was given to the one area that may well have cost this franchise its playoff ticket: offensive execution.
There's a reason the struggles at that end of the floor were easily to overlook. New York's defense was disastrous (106.5 points allowed per 100 possessions, 24th overall), while its offense checked in as an above-average attack (105.4 points per 100 possessions, 11th). It feels like nitpicking to zero in on a few clouds of smoke while a full-out grease fire is raging at the opposite side.
However, the Knicks can't afford to be decent offensively. Until team president Phil Jackson can address some of his defensive sieves in free agency (next summer at the earliest), the Knicks need to dominate where this roster was built to work best.
When New York rattled off 54 wins in 2012-13, it was hardly an immovable object. The Knicks finished that season ranked 17th in defensive efficiency, allowing 103.5 points per 100 possessions.
They might have worn the unstoppable-force layer, though. Only two teams deployed a more efficient offensive attack than the Knicks group that put up 108.6 points per 100 possessions.
What's really troubling about these figures is the fact that Anthony, the league's scoring champ in 2012-13, showed no signs of regression last season. In fact, he had a better offensive campaign the last time around in nearly every statistical category.
| 2012-13 | 28.7 | 44.9 | 37.9 | 83.0 | 2.6 | 112 | 7.5 |
| 2013-14 | 27.4 | 45.2 | 40.2 | 84.8 | 3.1 | 113 | 8.1 |
Gotham's problem isn't Batman. It's finding a serviceable Robin and a stellar supporting cast to complement that dynamic duo.
So, how can the Knicks address this issue?
Clearly, the biggest change inside the Empire State will be the transition to the triangle offense led by Jackson and first-year coach Derek Fisher. For a team plagued by ball-stopping isolations in recent years, a move to a team-friendly system that mandates movement—both of the ball and the players on the floor—should be a welcome change for all parties involved.
That doesn't mean it will be a simple switch, though. It's a complex offense that will take time to implement and longer to learn, and one weak link can break the entire chain.
"It's not about really me, it's about everybody else," Anthony told reporters, including ESPN New York's Ian Begley. "If everybody's not on the same page in the triangle, then the triangle is not going to work. So it's about everybody coming together, playing their role and doing what they have to do to make it work."
So, will Anthony's teammates buy into that message? They definitely should, as this offense can cater to each of their strengths.
J.R. Smith, Sixth Man of the Year in 2012-13, has all of the tools to be New York's second option. He's quick off the dribble, deadly from distance and explosive going to the basket.
That's the good J.R. Smith, at least. He's the one who sprinted down the final stretch of last season, posting 16.6 points on .448/.417/.609 shooting in 30 games after the All-Star break.
Of course, if there's a good J.R. Smith, that means there's a bad one too. Off-court issues—and on-court headaches—aside, the bad J.R. did perhaps his most damage 44 games before the All-Star break: 16.6 points on .389/.374/.609 shooting.
Focus seems to play a major part in his production. With his plans to "be a leader," as he told ESPN New York's Ian Begley, it seems like his head is in the right place.
"We have all the confidence in the world that [Smith] will come back and be focused and locked in the way he was at the tail end of the season," Knicks general manager Steve Mills said on the MSG Network, via Begley.
If Smith has found the right frame of mind, the next challenge for the career 42.5 percent shooter will be finding efficiency.
This offense should take care of that for him. It should help control his tendency to overdribble, while emphasizing a catch-and-shoot game that is already among the best in the business.
Of the 21 players to attempt at least four catch-and-shoot threes per game, only Atlanta Hawks sniper Kyle Korver converted a higher percentage of those looks (49.9) than Smith (46.5), via NBA.com's SportVU player-tracking data.
If Smith struggles in the Robin role, the Knicks could lean on their old Batman, Amar'e Stoudemire.
While his injury history rivals that of Cavity Sam, the 31-year-old remains an effective, efficient weapon when healthy. Stoudemire's per-36-minutes production last season (19 points, 7.9 rebounds) nearly rivaled his career marks (22.3, 9.0), and his field-goal percentage (55.7) ranked as the sixth highest in the league.
He shot 44.1 percent from 10 feet out to the three-point line, so he has the touch needed to thrive on the high-post chances this offense creates. Stoudemire also produced at a top level as a pick-and-roll screener (1.22 points per possession, 11th overall) and an off-ball cutter (1.38, 25th), via Synergy Sports (subscription required), and this system can utilize both of those weapons.
Whether the Knicks view Iman Shumpert as a piece of their future or their biggest trade chip, they need to tap back into the production that earned him All-Rookie first-team honors in 2011-12.
The swingman set career highs in points (9.5), assists (2.8) and field-goal percentage (40.1) as a rookie. His numbers have declined since, partly due to the torn ACL he suffered in April 2012 and also to the way he has been used. Just 29.4 percent of his field-goal attempts were threes in his debut season; that number has been 46.2 percent or higher the last two years.
Not only does his career 34.2 three-point percentage make him an awkward fit as a shooting specialist, but the role also prevents him from making use of his supreme athleticism. With off-ball movement such a vital piece of this attack, Shumpert is understandably excited to get moving again.
"It's constant action going on. So I think that I'll be able to capitalize on that and I'll be able to use my athleticism a lot more than standing in the corner," he told ESPN New York reporters Ohm Youngmisuk and Ian Begley last month. "I know this year in the offense I will have a lot more opportunities to cut and get to the basket."
Every player on this roster has something to add to this offense.
Tim Hardaway Jr. should thrive as both a spot-up shooter and slasher. Andrea Bargnani, Travis Outlaw and rookie Cleanthony Early will help stretch the floor. Samuel Dalembert and Jason Smith are both comfortable firing from mid-range. Quincy Acy's energy and aggressiveness could work wonders in the screen-and-roll game.
And it's hard to imagine a better point guard than Jose Calderon to call the shots, particularly when considering where New York's point guard minutes went last season.
"Not only is Calderon a much better ball-distributor than former Knicks point guard Raymond Felton, but he's a much better shooter as well," wrote Bleacher Report's Dylan Murphy. "It's this versatility both as a shooter and ball-handler that will serve Calderon well in the triangle offense."
You could copy and paste that section to describe Pablo Prigioni as well. His shooting slash (.461/.464/.917) and per-36-minute production (7.1 points, 6.4 assists, 1.7 turnovers) look strikingly similar to Calderon's (.456/.449/.825; 13.5, 5.5 and 1.5).
Even Anthony has plenty to gain in the different roles he'll fill in this offense, as he observed, via Begley:
The Knicks aren't short on avenues to offensive improvement.
Whether those paths prove navigable could be the key in New York's long climb back up the NBA ladder.
With Anthony at the helm, the Knicks shouldn't struggle to score. But anything short of elite offensive production won't be enough to mask the defensive deficiencies sure to persist for the foreseeable future.
Unless otherwise noted, statistics used courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.
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