New York Knicks: Why Carmelo Anthony Would Be a "Big" Mistake

The fanfare around Carmelo Anthony has been about whether he will end up a New York Knick. Through all of that talk though I'm surprised a simple question has not come to the surface more often. Should the Knicks want him?

Let's dispense with the obvious statement first. Yes, Carmelo is a rare scoring talent and this year he's upped his rebounding as well. But the question isn't whether Carmelo is good, it should be, does he meet what the Knicks need?

While the Knicks are one of the premier scoring teams in the NBA, ranking second only to the Denver Nuggets, they are fourth to last on defense. While some of that is a matter of pace on both sides, even if you look at offensive and defensive rating, they are eighth and 23rd respectively.

Particularly when you look at what happens in the paint, there's a glaring weakness, and it's arguably the Knicks biggest one. They give up 42 points in the paint a game, only Toronto and Phoenix give up more. Furthermore they are 23rd in offensive rebound percentage, and 27th in defensive rebound percentage. 

Their need is not to add a wing man. Their need is to get a rebounding and defensive presence in the middle. Anthony is not going to give them that.

If they really want to use that money Curry's expiring contract is going to bring them; if they really want to strike fear in the hearts of the Eastern Conference, the best thing they can do is forget about Anthony and go after Dwight Howard. 

Think about it. Howard has an option in his contract. The Magic made a big move to get more overpaid players that leave him to play defense by himself. He wants to win a championship too. He's not saying anything to settle talk about the possibility of him leaving. Now all the talk is whether he's going to bolt for L.A. 

What if the Knicks threw a wrench in those works though? Imagine a front court of Howard and Amar'e Stoudemire. Raymond Felton has shown he's more than capable of facilitating a high end offense. Adding Howard to that fray sure isn't going to hurt his assist numbers. If teams have to worry about defending both Howard and Stoudemire in the paint, they are going to be leaving a lot of room for the Knicks to drain all those threes.

Offensively they would be a terror. 

That's not all though. Adding Howard to the mix is going to seal up the paint like only Howard could. The biggest weakness the Knicks have would become a strength. Stoudemire could defend the power forward position, which he's more equipped to do. The shot blocking would be a terror with those two in the paint. Those two together would seal off the paint. 

Let the dreams of Carmelo Anthony go. Start dreaming bigger New York, and I mean that literally. As a Chicago fan I'm reluctant to bring it up because honestly, nothing could be more terrifying. Adding Howard to that team though would even have Miami shaking in their basketball shoes.