When I last weighed in on the plight of the New York Knicks, they stood between what was then the low point of their season and the dawn of Linsanity. In the past few weeks, the Knicks have done a complete 360. First, they turned their season around through the emergence of a no-name point guard from Harvard who would commit some turnovers, but was an endless supply of positive plays. After those few games, he regressed and became a guy who would make a few plays, but is an endless supply of turnovers. Now that coach Mike D’antoni has essentially been fired, immediate speculation has ensued regarding the next steps that will be taken by the Knicks and whether or not coaching was really the problem.
The Knicks faced problems on both sides of the ball, from both a coaches and players perspective. D’antoni abandoned defense and left the responsibility of changing the team’s defensive culture to Tyson Chandler. Chandler has been excellent this season, but turning an entire team around is up to the coach and superstars of the team. The Miami Heat’s supporting cast did not know a thing about defense until Lebron and Wade made the concentrated effort to lead by example. The fate of our defense lies behind the willingness of Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire as leaders. They have the talent and athleticism to become lockdown defenders, which becomes contagious as playing defense becomes both fun and a source of offense at the other end of the floor. I believe that the lack of effort thus far originates from the poor relationship between Melo and former Coach D’antoni, whose system did not suit the ill-fitting superstar from day one. I do insist, however, that acquiring Carmelo was the best thing to happen to this franchise in some time, which is not currently the popular opinion. People attribute the fall of Jeremy Lin to Melo’s return, but I see a different story. Linsanity had a life expectancy and reached it. Melo’s return had terrible timing and he showed up just as the party was ending. Once Lin’s play ceased to amaze fans, they blamed the easy target. I never saw Lin as the point guard of the future but I acknowledge that he has been a pleasant surprise and can be a useful role player in the Knicks’ future. His skill set resembles that of an ideal sixth man and spark plug off the bench, but he is not the championship point guard we have been looking for.
I stand by Carmelo as the essential piece that can make this team work and I believe that D’antoni’s exit will finally give him his time to shine. Now that the slate is wiped clean, he can show Knicks fans how he intends to play the game and how he plans to make his role on the Knicks beneficial for both himself and the team around him. Linsanity was an exciting week of games that consisted of the Knicks playing energized and uncharacteristic defense against a few bad teams. Once the unstable nucleus itself, Jeremy Lin, stopped functioning at that high level, the wheels fell off of the entire operation and everyone else’s performance plummeted as well. D’antoni got so caught up in this sequence of events because he saw flashes of Steve Nash and had no adjustment ready for when he found out that Jeremy Lin, believe it or not, is not Steve Nash. That is why he is unemployed today, because of his reluctance to reevaluate his system based on the talent that he was given. Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has no idea what he is doing, but even he was smart enough to recognize the strengths of his two star players and installed what he referred to as an “Oregon football” style offense. The NBA is the only league that involves coaches making adjustments to the style of their players, which is sad but true. This is not the NFL, and if Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler somehow all make their way onto your team, you better figure out how to make that combination work or else the team will hire someone who can.
I last spoke of the lack of depth on the Knicks but that problem has disappeared and we arguably have the deepest team in the NBA with a legitimate nine or ten man rotation. It is amazing how such a convoluted situation could come down to the two remaining problems that we all knew about during the lockout. We still do not play any team defense and we still do not have a legitimate point guard. If Baron Davis elevates his play he can be that guy, but the easier fix is the defensive issue because the pieces are already there. Tyson Chandler is outstanding and is surrounded by capable athletes. In my opinion, defense is a much greater indication of a coach’s ability because defense is the simple combination of athleticism and coaching. When Lebron was in Cleveland he provided the athleticism and Mike Brown was an excellent defensive coach. Offensively, Phil Jackson could not go out there and shoot the ball for Kobe. The most coaches can do on offense is put their guys in the right positions. Defensively, doing that much and establishing those rotations essentially finishes the job. Speaking of Phil Jackson, we are going to go there. Anyone who does not expect the Knicks to at least make a legitimate attempt in his direction is fooling themselves. The number one priority for a Knicks coach is player relations and ego management. I think the guy who kept Jordan on a leash makes a perfect candidate. I refuse to believe the Melo-Amare combination cannot work if we somehow get Jackson because as I kid I saw the most volatile personalities win multiple championships together under his supervision. If Shaq and Kobe were compatible enough to make it work, so are these Knicks.
The players are far from perfect, but in this case the head coach did deserve the lion’s share of the blame. Before Mike D’antoni, defensive indifference was just a baseball term. I insist that Carmelo Anthony is still the right man for this job, but now is his time to prove it. Having a coach that does not accommodate you well is no excuse for the year that he is having, but either way that reasoning is gone now. In the few weeks that remain this season, Melo will be put to the test to determine whether or not firing D’antoni was the best decision for the Knicks present and future. While I believe it was the right move, it is now Melo’s turn to validate my opinion. To be honest, I am sick of hearing from both peers and the talking heads on ESPN that Carmelo Anthony is actually the problem that is preventing the Knicks from reaching their potential. We would not be better off without him, and his time to prove that starts tonight against Portland. I understand that point of view does put a lot of pressure on the struggling superstar, and that the move to fire D’antoni shifts all the attention to whether or not his play now improves. But if there is one thing we know about our main man, it is that he performs the best under that pressure and that if there is a time to shine for Melo, this will be it.
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