Ranking the Biggest Disappointments of New York Knicks' Season so Far

The New York Knicks' 2014-15 season has been a disaster all around so far, as the team continues to dwell near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings.

Going into the year, there was an understanding that this was a rebuilding team, but even so, fans have a right to be discouraged about just how bad the Knicks have been.

Admittedly, there have been a handful of bright spots. Iman Shumpert came out of the gates strong. Amar'e Stoudemire is still producing efficiently off the bench, and New York being worse than expected could end up being an advantage when the draft lottery comes around.

Still, the narrative of the season has undoubtedly been a negative one, with plenty of reasons to be disappointed in the Knicks' play.

6. Carmelo Anthony's Production

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While Carmelo Anthony has limited talent around him and is still in the process of adjusting to the triangle offense, it's still disappointing to see his scoring numbers drop in 2014-15.

Melo is averaging just 24 points and 6.6 rebounds per game, down from the 27.4 points and 8.1 rebounds he averaged in 2013-14. Via Basketball-Reference.com, his player efficiency rating has also dropped from 24.4 to 21.4. That's not the kind of change you expect to see take place when you give a player a $124 million contract.

Anthony's production isn't a long-term concern. Again, his drop in numbers can be attributed in part to the lack of quality players around him and the new system. It is, however, a disappointment and a symptom of the Knicks' overall problem—a severe lack of supporting talent.

With the Knicks co-hosting the 2015 NBA All-Star Game, the hope would have been that Melo could at least put up huge numbers on his own regardless of his teammates. He should still be an All-Star starter, but the fact that even he is struggling to produce individually is a sign of just how bad New York has been.

5. The Lack of Viable Long-Term Talent

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While many expected the Knicks would be bad this season, the hope was that there would be a few bright spots to come from the play of their long-term prospects.

As it turns out, only Iman Shumpert and Tim Hardaway Jr. have given the Knicks any real reasons to be excited for the future, and even they aren't showing us much more than what we're used to from them.

Shump started the season in great fashion, averaging 14.5 points, 4.3 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game while shooting an efficient 53 percent from the field in his first 10 games. His numbers have since dropped to a much less impressive 9.3 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game on only 40 percent shooting.

Since mid-December, Shumpert has been out with a dislocated shoulder, adding a worrying list of injuries so early in his career that already includes a torn ACL.

Meanwhile, Hardaway ranks third on the Knicks in total points this season (with 329), behind only Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire, but he has been shooting an inefficient 39 percent from the field, down on the 43 percent he shot in his rookie year.

Elsewhere, no one else has stood out from the Knicks' young players. Shane Larkin showed flashes early on when starting in place of Jose Calderon, but he swiftly came back down to earth. There's also a good chance the Knicks will be letting him go anyway after declining to pick up his team option in October. The likes of Quincy Acy, Travis Wear and Cole Aldrich have shown little at all, even simply as potential rotation players.

4. Samuel Dalembert at Center

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While the primary reason the Knicks traded Tyson Chandler was to upgrade the point guard position and get something in return for a player they were going to let go in free agency, there was in part a hope that Samuel Dalembert could lighten the blow of losing such an important defensive player.

There was never a scenario in which Dalembert was going to replace Chandler completely, but many expected that he'd at least help out a little defensively and make some kind of impact on the court. As it turns out, however, Dalembert is averaging 3.8 points and 5.3 rebounds per game—his lowest numbers since his rookie year in 2001-02. His PER is also at a career-low 11.6, via Basketball-Reference.com.

Dalembert has also been playing just 16.9 minutes per game, and frankly, whether he's even worth that much time on the court is questionable. The likes of Jason Smith and Cole Aldrich aren't particularly impressive prospects, but they at least have a chance to make long-term contributions in New York.

Ultimately, Dalembert's play doesn't change the fact that the Knicks needed to let go of Chandler, but it certainly makes the package they received from the Dallas Mavericks look a lot less impressive.

3. J.R. Smith Not Making the Most of the Fresh Start

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Beyond the benefits of the triangle offense, one of the major positives of the Knicks bringing in a new regime was that it would give certain players a chance for a fresh start after struggling in Mike Woodson's final year.

For some, that has worked out well. Iman Shumpert looks a lot more comfortable in this new system; he has taken 2014-15 as an opportunity to re-establish himself as a key prospect for New York.

For others, like J.R. Smith, the regime change hasn't changed anything.

To be fair, he hasn't been acting up this season after the infamous shoelace incident in 2013-14. But that doesn't change the fact that his production has been way below par for his standards.

Smith is averaging just 10.3 points per game on 41 percent shooting, with just an 11.6 PER, via Basketball-Reference.com. Just two years ago, he won the Sixth Man of the Year award, scoring 18.1 points per game with a 17.6 PER.

Given the Knicks' logjam at shooting guard, Smith's poor play has made him a primary candidate to be traded. According to Marc Berman of the New York Post, they were shopping him as early as October.

Smith is definitely a talented player, and at his best he could definitely play a significant long-term role for New York. It's just a shame that the regime change hasn't brought that level of play out of him.

2. Derek Fisher's Coaching and the Triangle

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It makes sense that Derek Fisher is struggling. He's a rookie coach of a team that is severely lacking in talent; he's tasked with turning around a franchise that was already coming off its most disappointing season in recent memory.

All things considered, we can't make any major judgments of Fisher's coaching ability for at least couple of years, but it has still been disappointing to see him struggle in 2014-15.

While the Knicks were always going to be bad, for them to be the worst team in the NBA outside of the Philadelphia 76ers is unacceptable. The roster has enough decent players to at least make a run at the eighth playoff seed, especially in the weak Eastern Conference.

Part of the problem has been injuries and incompatible pieces, but it would be disingenuous to argue that Fisher's coaching struggles haven't also contributed to the poor record. His players aren't putting in the effort defensively, and for the most part he's struggled to find a rotation with any kind of chemistry.

The Knicks have also lost 10 games this season by five points or less, which in a lot of cases is an indictment of Fisher's late-game decision-making.

His struggles don't mean that he isn't the man for the job, but in his rookie year, he's definitely been part of the problem for New York.

1. Defense

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The biggest issue of all for the Knicks this season has been defense. It makes sense that they'd struggle offensively given the new system, but to be allowing 108.5 points per 100 possessions—good for 27th in the league, according to ESPN.com—is unacceptable.

While the offensive struggles have come down to a dearth of talent and a roster without the skills to have success in the triangle, the defensive problems are more effort-based. There's no reason the Knicks shouldn't at least be mediocre on that end of the floor, with players like Iman Shumpert, Samuel Dalembert and Quincy Acy in the rotation.

Plenty of players on the roster simply have no accountability on the defensive end. The likes of J.R. Smith, Amar'e Stoudemire and Jose Calderon have never really learned to play defense, and given how important they are offensively, that's a major issue for the Knicks. And there's no excuse for it.

Admittedly, it's not like the Knicks defense is holding them back from something special. Offensively, they're averaging just 94 points per game, which puts them 28th in the league. It's just that the offensive struggles are fairly easy to comprehend when you look at the quality of players available in the rotation.