Carmelo Anthony: Why He's Not Fitting in with the New York Knicks

As the "Big Three" experiment in Miami has shown, the NBA is still a league driven by great teams, not great players. 

Many NBA analysts praised the Knicks after acquiring Anthony, but New York is just 7-11 since acquiring the All-Star, while Denver is 11-4. 

Why is Melo not fitting in?  He is averaging 24.9 points per game with the Knicks, and New York has quality wins over Miami, Atlanta and New Orleans. 

But New York has also lost to Cleveland and Indiana...twice each.  Their losing streak now sits at six games and the Knicks are again back under .500 for the first time since November.  

A week after telling media that "the problem is we're not having fun...we've just got to relax," Melo backtracked from those comments, calling tonight's game against the Magic a "must-win."

It seems things are spiraling out of control in New York. 

However, Knicks fans should not overreact.  The Melo experiment is failing because New York just doesn't have enough pieces to build around Anthony. 

True, Melo is having a more difficult time adjusting to New York's offense than expected.  

He has not worked particularly well with forward Amare Stoudemire, whose playing style is very similar to Anthony's.  

And New York's lack of great outside shooters has left Melo and Amare constantly double-teamed. New York must find a way to hit outside shots to turn around this losing streak.  

But New York has two of the best 10 players in the league; things should be better than a 7-11 record, right?

The truth is, New York simply does not have enough talent outside of Melo and Amare to win now.  

The Knicks have tried to find a consistent starting lineup since the trade, but nothing has seemed to work. 

They have tried to go small starting small forward Shawne Williams and playing Amare at center, and they have tried to go big playing Melo at small forward and Ronny Turiaf in the middle. 

New York certainly has enough scoring: they average 105.9 points per game, third-best in the league.  

But they allow 105.6, third worst in the league.  New York is right now a soft team that needs some tough, physical big men to do the dirty work down low while they run sets for Melo and Stoudemire on offense. 

New York now has to play Turiaf, Bill Walker and Anthony Carter significant minutes, despite the fact that none averages more than five points or three rebounds. 

New York was not a deep team before the trade, and now post-trade they are having to rotate in cast-offs from Denver and players who sat on the Knicks bench before Melo arrived.  

You've seen it with the Heat: No matter how talented your primary scorers are, if you surround them with lesser talent, things won't work out.  

Much like Eddie House, Joel Anthony and Carlos Arroyo did not cut it for the Heat, Bill Walker, Ronny Turiaf and Anthony Carter won't cut it for the Knicks.  

New York still has time to add talent, maybe even point guard Chris Paul this offseason to create their own Big Three. 

But for now, Knicks fans have to be patient.  Be content with your first playoff appearance since 2004, and look for a championship in the following seasons.