New York Knicks: What Happened To The Carmelo Anthony & Amar'e Stoudemire Two-Man Game?

Mike D'Antoni loves it. Amar'e Stoudemire and Steve Nash were one of the best combos at it. Stoudemire and Raymond Felton were definitely respectable at it. So what happened?  What happened to the Knicks' two-man game, specifically the dependable pick and roll?

Or, if not that, how about a little forward-forward action off the strong side, then?  It just isn't happening. Why?  It's not all Carmelo Anthony's fault, but he bears some direct and indirect responsibility.  Same for similarly stubborn D'Antoni.

When it comes to the Knicks' two-man game right now, they don't work it more often because, well, they're neither good at it nor built for it.

High on all the Carmelo hype, Knicks fans' short-term memory faltered: They forgot how bad the Knicks' two-man game was at the beginning of the season—when the team was finding its way and the newly-landed New York players were figuring each other out.  Sound familiar?

After the Knicks got off to a 3-8 start back in November and the fingers started pointing, fans and the media concluded: The Knicks can't run the pick and roll effectively.  They practically trip over each other clogging up the middle. 

Who was Raymond Felton anyway—and the nine other new Knicks?

The excuse, then, and now, patently given by D'Antoni and the players?  The team needs time to gel.  Cliche', but it holds some truths.

The Knicks are still new, despite having played twice as many games (21) as that 11-game stretch.  Chauncey Billups, their starting point guard, a role critical in much of the two-man playbook, was out for six games almost before he checked in. 

New York has sported seven different starting lineups since the trade, none of which has taken the court more than five times.  Maybe they do need time to gel.  A consistent lineup would help. Ahem, Mr. D'Antoni.

It also might be taking longer this time because it was easier for role player Felton to adjust to a Stoudemire-D'Antoni setup.  Not so with Billups, who has a more symbiotic relationship with Anthony, who doesn't really play two man.

Anthony, frequently dubbed a superstar, was the absolute focus of an offense since day one in Denver.  He is, as Bleacher Report Knicks columnist Dan Favale rightly points out, an iso-oriented player. That could be good or bad.

For the Knicks and two game, it's been bad so far.  Carmelo has Allen Iverson syndrome.  If not a hog, he's been more hoggish than not.  He wants the ball at every important juncture and at the end of every game.  Sometimes that's good, and as of now, more times not so good.

There has been some Anthony-to-Stoudemire creation, but not enough and too often in last-ditch circumstances.  It's a shame they haven't been able to really get a forward-forward two-man game in the mix. 

I'm up for seeing STAT throw more screens for Melo. The other way around?  Don't hold your breath.  Anthony never really set picks for the Nuggets and that was true with Billups, too.

But it's not just the usual suspects.  Landry Fields is a factor, too, or should I say a recent non-factor. His minutes played are significantly down.  He's averaging only 25 MPG since the beginning of the losing streak. 

That's at least eight minutes less than his season average before the streak. Though the Knicks won last night (in a game that should not have been close), poor Fields was held pointless in 15.

Landry Fields is a stronger player to have on the weak side than Williams or Douglas or Jeffries, so two man suffers when he's on the bench.

Also, while Anthony is obviously a better player and greater danger away from the ball than Wilson Chandler or Danilo Gallinari, the latter two, once things got going, were more compatible with the PG-Stoudemire set.

For now, during this prolonged adjustment period, their absence continues to hurt the team.

Finally, the Knicks' opponents are onto them.  It's the rip-roarin', complex-shunnin' D'Antoni Express.  The total offense is hastily scrawled on five sheets of looseleaf (one sheet for defense). 

Everybody knows what they're up to.  Why not muck up the essential, stable two-man front and send New York scrambling? Which, if you look, is exactly what the Knicks have been doing.

Maybe D'Antoni is aware of all of the above and has been tinkering with the playbook, trying to find what works best with the 2010-11 Knicks version 2.0 and where the new strengths and weaknesses lie. 

Hopefully the newly-instituted home shoot-arounds involve some two-man drills.

They might be just in time for the playoffs.

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