Carmelo Anthony Means Bidness

I'm with you, Cran. I mean, he's eighth in assists among small forwards, so it's not like he's a black hole on offense. His position simply doesn't lend itself to assists as an accurate measure of selflessness/selfishness. I think he gets a bad rap because people want the Knicks to be so much better than they are.

As you noted, his teammates have never been championship-caliber. And it's absurd to think they were better off without him. They hadn't been to the playoffs in six years before he arrived and they made it three straight years upon his arrival. Aside from Anthony, the Knicks haven't had anywhere near the talent the Spurs, Heat, Mavericks or Thunder have had over the past four seasons.

 

The most inspired basketball that The Knicks played in the past 5 years was when Carmelo was hurt
and Jeremy Lin made The Garden electric for a few weeks. Everybody was involved in the offense. Fun to watch.
In the same week they beat The Heat and The Lakers.
Carmelo comes back and it's same old / same old. Ball goes to Carmello and everyone stands around waiting for him to
throw one up.

A lot of blame goes to Knick management and their continual missteps along the way. It all started when they started jettisoning
players to get under the cap for Lebron. I would have prefered that they kept Zac Randolph and David Lee and build a team
around them

 

Jeremy Lin is very available. Maybe Phil Jackson will agree that he was the answer for the Knicks and bring him back as a catalyst?

 

Right. Only a matter of time before someone dropped that comment. Obviously Lin on his own was not going to put The Knicks over the top but what
he did do was give Knick fans a brand of enjoyable basketball to watch. Something to build on. Look at Atlanta, look at Toronto and how they built their teams around
not just one player. I would have settled for the pre Carmelo Knicks with Chandler, Gallinari and Moskov. If they really wanted Carmelo they
could have kept those guys and signed him as a free agent after that season.

Even when Carmelo has had good players around him he did not win. Denver had good players around him. In 2007 he had Iverson and Kenyon Martin
and Marcus Canby

 

Iverson in 2007? Kenyon Martin?

How did he finsh 3rd in MVP voting, have the Knicks win 55 games and finish second in the East in 2013?

 

So despite being "a walking pall of disappointment" who gave the Knicks just"spotty effort, no hustle plays ever, and occasionally bad body language," the lazy bastard still placed second in the NBA in scoring and led the league in minutes per game last year? Imagine if he ever tries.

 

Knicks just waived Stoudemire. Is there anyone in the draft worth tanking for? Probably doesn't matter. Knicks haven't made a good draft pick in 30 years.

 

The perception really just doesn't mesh with the reality when it comes to Carmelo. He was drafted by a team that was 17-65, hadn't had a winning season in nine years and hadn't been to the playoffs in eight. The Nuggets won 43 games his rookie year, an improvement of 26 wins, and then went to the playoffs seven years in a row, including a Conference final, with Anthony as its centerpiece. Yet, he doesn't raise the level of play among his teammates?

He joined a Knicks team that hadn't been to the playoffs in six years before he arrived and they made it three straight years upon his arrival. They won 54 games two years ago and advanced to the conference semis with Mike Woodson at the helm and JR Smith as the second-best player on the roster.

 

The lazy narratives never change.

 

He obviously lacks the intangibles.

 

Lost them after college.