Carmelo Anthony desperately needs a new milliner, but not nearly as desperately as he needs a coach who can put together a real offense.
Monday’s 91-85 loss to the Atlanta Hawks was a microcosm of the New York Knicks’ problems: The more Anthony gets his, the less likely it seems the Knicks are to win.
It’s even led to Knicks president Phil Jackson getting into a little tiff with NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who made the rather innocent (and highly accurate) observation that the Knicks might be “still learning” Jackson’s triangle offense.
“I wasn’t so humored by the commissioner actually jumping in on top of that, too,” Jackson told reporters, via the New York Daily News. “He doesn’t need to get in to that. There’s enough focus on the triangle. It’s not anything. It’s a system. It’s simple basketball.”
“Simple basketball” has produced a 2-6 record and the league’s worst per-game scoring offense. Anthony’s own scoring is down to 20.3 points per game, but the criticism directed at him hasn’t tapered off. The book on him in his 12th NBA season has been written — that he gets points, not wins.
Let’s not forget that Anthony was once pretty good at one time, under a Hall of Fame-worthy coach in George Karl who challenged the star to do more than score. There was even the long-forgotten hot take, from when Anthony led the Denver Nuggets into the playoffs as a rookie, that Anthony was the winner, and LeBron James was the stat-stuffing loser. When he’s engaged, Anthony is an excellent rebounder for his position, and he can be an efficient scorer when he’s not playing 1-on-5.
Thus far, though, coach Derek Fisher hasn’t shown much reason to inspire confidence that he can make any of those things happen.
Other loose balls from around the NBA:
— Anthony Davis arrived as a bona fide star last season, but he might have taken another step into being a top-five player in the league. The 21-year-old (!) power forward is averaging 24.8 points, 13.0 rebounds and 4.2 blocks per game. His New Orleans Pelicans are only 3-3, but considering they have already played the Cleveland Cavaliers, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and Memphis Grizzlies, that record is not too shabby.
— The most ridiculous thing Charles Barkley said in the first two weeks of the season wasn’t that he would stop eating until the Los Angeles Lakers won. It was that he thought the Detroit Pistons would be a good team.
The Pistons are atrocious. With Andre Drummond, Greg Monroe and Josh Smith, they encapsulate the expression of a whole being less than the sum of its parts. The Eastern Conference is bad, but it’s tough seeing Detroit coming anywhere close to fulfilling Barkley’s prediction it makes the playoffs, especially with the Cavs likely to move into the field.
— Speaking of the Cavs, their shaky start should lend greater appreciation to what Erik Spoelstra was able to do with the Miami Heat the last four years. Spoelstra didn’t just roll the ball out and let LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh win championships. Spoelstra did well to develop a system that highlighted all three of his stars and his solid role players, something Cavs coach David Blatt is still working on as a rookie coach in Cleveland.
Photo via Brad Penner/USA TODAY Sports Images
