NBA Rumors: Latest Misses in Free-Agent Market Spell Doom for NY Knicks

The New York Knicks have an amazing frontcourt, possibly the best in all of the Association. Now about that backcourt. 

The Knicks had a few plans lined up as any good franchise would. But plans A through Dire have all be gobbled up by other teams with more money and flexibility to offer. 

Chris Paul was always a pipe dream, but at least it was a dream. Now they have to dream about point guards who are merely competent. The last couple days have been awful for the Knicks, leading them to actually settle on a plan that may prove disastrous. 

After also swinging and missing for Jamal Crawford, the Knicks have no other players who could come in and lead the backcourt with near All-Star acumen. 

Ian Begley, writing for ESPN, reports the Knicks have settled on the roster they have in respects to a very shaky backcourt. They plan on taking a page from teams like the Lakers, when they had Lamar Odom, and the Cavaliers, when they had LeBron James. 

They will run a big out there to control the team, and that means a whole lot of Carmelo Anthony with the ball. 

As Begley writes: 

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The Knicks have penciled Toney Douglas in as their starting point guard. But Mike D'Antoni has said that Carmelo Anthony will get an opportunity to facilitate the offense, much like Larry Bird did in Boston. 

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Begley does well to caution against such actions. As he points out, Melo is a ball hog by nature, and that's a good thing, normally. 

When you run a point-forward, you want that player to have a pass-first mentality, which is counter to who Anthony is. It's the same reason you wouldn't want Kobe Bryant running the offense and giving up the ball most of the time. 

The ball needs to find Kobe just as much as it needs to find Melo. So it seems that Mike D'Antoni has his work cut out for him as he tries to put together half a team. Granted, one half of the starting lineup is All-Star caliber, but the other part will serve to derail a fanciful season. 

We are about to see how important that pesky backcourt really is. I am confident the answer is that it's most definitely important. 

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