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With his Knicks already reeling, Carmelo Anthony may have to sit with a bum knee
At some point, when discussing the woes of the New York Knicks, you feel as if you’re piling on. New York isn’t the only terrible team out there right now, but they do feel like the NBA’s biggest disappointment in the squad’s current state. Even if most only expected the Knicks to approach .500 this season.
Most also only expected the play of Carmelo Anthony to drop off toward the end of the five-year, $124 million contract he signed last summer, but that was the expected price to pay for the right to employ Anthony through his prime – presumed to be the next couple of years. Anthony has faltered this season, both because of his team’s miserable offensive play and injuries; first a shoulder malady, and now a lingering knee issue.
With Anthony’s Knicks stuck at 4-19, tied with Detroit for the most losses in the terrible Eastern Conference, Anthony may decide to scale it back a bit. He may decide to interrupt his season in order to undergo surgery on that troubled left knee.
From Frank Isola at the New York Daily News:
“At this point, it’s evaluating and seeing," Anthony said. “Some days are better than others. It’s a matter if I want to continue to play on it and the pain threshold. The flip side to that is we are losing games. I hate it, I hate to sit on the sidelines and watch my teammates.
“At this point, sitting down with trainers and coaches and seeing what’s best for everybody. If it’s best for me to sit out, take some time to get it right, then that’s a decision we’ll have to make. But they’ll have to pull me out.”
Anthony did sit out Wednesday's game against the San Antonio Spurs, but could be back in the lineup as soon as Friday. It is believed that if in fact surgery is needed Anthony could postpone the procedure until after the season but his most recent comments reveal a player who is concerned that his knee is not improving. Throughout his career, Anthony has shown a willingness to play hurt, including the finishing the playoffs two years ago despite suffering from a partially torn labrum in his left shoulder.
Anthony is not suspected to have a ligament or cartilage tear, which means the surgery could be a relatively minor one. It is true that sometimes cleanup treatments reveal further, unexpected damage and result in a debilitating microfracture procedure, but Anthony doesn’t have the sort of balky knee history that would leave one to suspect that things are worse than what Carmelo is letting on.
Still, this has to be a low point. Right?
Isola also confirmed an ESPN report that suggested that the Knicks are already sick to death of the approach rookie coach Derek Fisher is taking on both sides of the ball. From Chris Broussard’s report:
"Nobody's taken a swing at anybody, but there's a lot of arguing and cursing each other out after games," one source said.
In addition to the Knicks' lack of chemistry, sources say the players believe coach Derek Fisher's insistence on running the triangle offense is another key reason for New York's struggles.
Broussard referenced a mixup that Anthony and Tim Hardaway Jr. reportedly had in a loss to Brooklyn last week, but the real news here is that Knicks players don’t like the turn the franchise has taken under Fisher and new president Phil Jackson.
Boo-hoo.
So the Knicks have to pass the ball now. They have to screen properly and move without the rock. They can’t over-dribble and they’re being asked to employ proper spacing and movement instead of running the sort of isolation sets former coach Mike Woodson loved to employ. Defensively, they can’t switch everything and they’re being charged with actually being responsible when it comes to covering their man.
They’re being asked to play like a real basketball team, and they’re failing at it. Woodson’s offensive and defensive philosophies may have produced more wins initially, but his systems merely concocted fool’s gold in the long run.
Fisher and Jackson’s ideals? They’ve only produced coal so far, but Derek Fisher and Phil Jackson don’t really care about winning the wrong way just for short term wagon-circling. They care about establishing a system that will eventually produce more than the sum of its individual parts. Whether those parts are star-laden, or middling as the Knicks are currently staffed.
“Well you’re seeing guys get into position on the court,” Jackson said. “Spacing is one of the keys and what we preach about. There are seven principles involved. Ideas like getting penetration and running the court correctly; moving the basketball to any of your four teammates. And all of those things that go along with it.
“But even in the early part of our season, guys didn’t run the court correctly. They didn’t know their spacing and find the spacing that’s important. Now we’ve developed that. Now we’ve developed a kind of system where we’re starting to move the ball. And understand how to work the actions that are incredible. And they’re able to now start to take options from those instead of having to go through memorization so they’re getting some flexibility to that. I think that’s where they start playing with what I call soft brain instead of being so hard focused that they’re not able to think fully in the moment.”
The Knicks’ defense and offense has fallen off considerably this season under Fisher, and their won/loss record has followed suit. This is what happens when you have to dig out the root of the weed, though. Had Woodson and his schematics hung around, the Knicks would likely have a better record, but playing basketball that way allows for only so high a ceiling. The Knicks' overreliance on long 2-point jumpers and the team’s inability to get to the line is not the triangle offense’s fault; it’s the fault of the players for failing to properly execute it.
Most of these players aren’t long for New York, as Jackson waits out the failings of his predecessors. This was always going to be a fitful season full of growing pains in New York, but nobody could have predicted the Knicks would be the first NBA team to hit 20 losses, with their star player stuck on the mend after knee surgery. Both could very well become a reality soon.
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is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops