Sunday, August 22, 2010

Carmelo and the Knicks? Why?

By Eric Engberg

The hot topic this week in the NBA was that Carmelo Anthony has no interest in signing the extension the Nuggets have offered and will leave Denver one way or the other. This, of course, sparks speculation that he wants to and will end up going to New York to play with the Knicks.

The thing I do not really get is why is Carmelo Anthony that fired up to go to the Knicks? I mean, sure, they have Amar'e Stoudemire and sure, they play the up-tempo type of game 'Melo likes, but let us face facts here. Stoudemire is one of the most overrated players in the league and Mike D'Antoni is one of the most overrated coaches going.

Sure, the Knicks would be a force to be reckoned with in the East if they were to add Anthony to their current roster, but the thing is they have no winners on that roster. D'Antoni excelled at getting the Suns to the playoffs, but he did little else with them. His career postseason record is only 26-25. His record when getting out of the first round is only 13-17. The series in which his teams were eliminated never went seven games and typically only went five.

Simply put, D'Antoni's system is good enough to get teams into the postseason, but is not good enough for postseason success simply because he refuses to acknowledge the notion that teams need to play a little bit of defense to win a championship. D'Antoni is his generation's Don Nelson. His teams are entertaining and he wins a ton of regular season games, but they always come up short in the postseason because they are finesse teams that play little defense and lack an overall toughness teams need to win when it matters in the NBA.

Then there is the question of who is going to lead this team. Amar'e? 'Melo? Neither of those guys are really leaders. Amar'e has never been one to rally the troops or a guy his teammates rally around. He has a rap for being a bit of a soft player who tends to disappear in big games at times.

Do not get me wrong, Carmelo is a great ball player, but he is not a leader. Is it merely co-incidental that the Nuggets never got out of the first round in the playoffs until they got Chauncey Billups? Guys like Billups and Kenyon Martin are the leaders in Denver and Anthony is merely along for the ride. Anthony is arguably the best scorer in the game, but he does little to elevate his teammates around him the way championship players do.

The thing the Knicks need to realize is it takes more than rolling a bunch of guys who can score the basketball to win championships. They need guys who can defend the basketball. They need guys with some heart and toughness who teammates can rally around. They need guys who can rebound the basketball and are not afraid to mix it up under the basket. With or without Anthony, who is going to do that for the Knicks?

Which leads me to ask why is Anthony eager to go to New York for in the first place? It is not like D'Antoni is a better coach than George Karl is. It is not like the Knicks have a better supporting cast than the Nuggets currently do. What in the world is so attractive about being Amar'e Stoudemire's running mate? It is not like Stoudemire has a track record of winning big games himself. For that matter, it is not as though anyone on the Knicks current roster has a track record of winning in the postseason.

The Knicks and Carmelo Anthony are both focused on the shiny object in the room and not taking into consideration whether Anthony is really a great fit for the Knicks' goal of winning a title, and Anthony is not taking into consideration whether the Knicks really have the right framework in place to seriously contend for a championship.

If Anthony goes to New York, he will not meet with significantly more success than what he has had in Denver. The Knicks would be a definite playoff team, but I am not sure adding Anthony makes them any better than the Hawks or the Bucks right now. They definitely are not as good as the Magic, Celtics, or the Heat.

Maybe the Knicks, or rather the city of New York, is the right match for Carmelo Anthony. He has always struck me as a guy who is more interested in style over substance since coming in to the league anyway.

Republished with permission from PopPickle.