Carmelo Anthony and New York Knicks Left Speechless
Before Carmelo Anthony was officially a New York Knick, all anybody could talk about was who the Knicks would sacrifice in order to get Anthony at all.
They originally did not want to dissemble the cast they had already manufactured at Madison Square Garden just to add another offensive threat to the team. Eventually, however, they caved in and released Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari and Timofey Mozgov to the Denver Nuggets.
If the deal was so dire to the success of the New York organization, why has Anthony's arrival only produced a 7-9 record, which the Knicks probably would have had without him?
Everyone involved forgot one simple fact: Carmelo Anthony is offensively-minded.
Anthony is a pure scorer. The quality of his game is not questioned when it comes to making baskets, but when your team is struggling with ball movement and defense, one would think that it is time to switch up your game play a little bit. Chauncey Billups seems like the best chip that has fallen into the Knicks lap out of all of this.
Amare Stoudemire may be spreading positive thoughts on camera, but I doubt he is as happy as he was when he first learned that Anthony would be a Knick. The only time Carmelo has shown a glimpse of being able to play heavy defense was against the Miami Heat, when his pressure caused LeBron to miss a few key shots to win the game.
While Stoudemire was present as well, the two men combined achieved what one Perkins or Bynum could have done alone.
The collapse against Boston shows that when it comes to playing against the more equally spread teams like Boston or Los Angeles, the Knicks will not survive.
No matter how great or grand they started, the team just could not put together even a mediocre finish the close the game out against Boston and walk away having defeated the best team in their conference.
Two losses against Cleveland should give them shivers enough, but knowing that they do not have the size or mentality necessary to achieve in the postseason may be leaving them the Knicks bit speechless.
Carmelo Anthony sure is.
