Monday, January 23rd, 2012 at 9:00 am  |  150 responses

Carmelo Anthony Wondering if the Knicks’ Struggles Are His Fault


by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni

It was inevitable, really. Here were the Denver Nuggets, a cohesive and unselfish unit, strolling into the Garden to take on the mess that is otherwise known as the New York Knicks.

Denver’s crushing double-overtime victory handed the reeling Knicks their 6th consecutive loss, and created ever more panic for their dejected fanbase and increasingly cynical media. As for the players themselves, Carmelo Anthony finds himself in need of some serious soul-searching.

The former Nugget wondered aloud if he was to blame for the Knicks’ woes, and Anthony says that he would like for his co-workers not to be afraid to tell him if this is the case. From the NY Daily News and Newsday:

“There is a bunch of stuff that goes through my mind,” Anthony said after the Knicks lost their sixth straight, including four at home in six days. “What am I doing? What am I not doing? I have been in this situation before when shots don’t go in. Should I pass it more? I am sitting there thinking. Maybe I should take the blame for the games we are losing … our offensive struggles. I will take it [...] “I am hard-headed at times as far as them telling me to sit down some games,” he added. “I don’t know how to take that but maybe it is time to reevaluate that.”

“We as a team need to do a better job getting Amar’e the ball,” Anthony said Saturday. “I have the ball in my hands. Maybe it’s on me. Maybe I need to get him the ball a little bit more, help him out with that. Me and [Stoudemire] will talk, try to figure it out together. If I’m doing too much, I want him to tell me. I want the guys on my team to tell me if I’m doing too much. We handle it like that.” Anthony said there already have been “team meetings, players meetings.” But this one-to-one seems long overdue.

The blame game in New York has shifted from head coach Mike D’Antoni, to ‘Melo, the lack of a productive point guard and bench, and finally Amar’e Stoudemire. As Anthony points out, STAT hasn’t been aggressive on the offensive end this season (to say nothing of his shortcomings on defense and the boards.)

Carmelo Anthony is right in that needs to take a serious look in the mirror. But he’s certainly not the only Knick who should be taking that crucial step.

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  • smoove

    at least hes handling it like a man..respect

  • jayrose

    You guys need a bench and a point guard to run the show. Its pretty obvious. Shouldve kept chauncey.

  • Jono

    Yes it mostly is Carmelo. You demanded to be traded and hence the Knicks lost half their squad and a few solid role players, when you could easily have waited and signed during FA. You also don’t average 10 rebounds for such a big guy and don’t play very good D. This is the price you pay for being a lil b!tch and forcing a trade out of a good team in Denver.

  • J.C.

    Well, they took a chance. They could have kept Chauncey and continued to be a decent team that was never really in serious contention, or they could have let him go to sign Tyson Chandler. Maybe their offense would suffer for it, but maybe it would be the catalyst around which their defense would finally crystallize and allow them to take that next step towards contention. Obviously the former occurred and in retrospect it looks like a terrible move, but hindsight is always 20-20.

  • Dan

    shouldve waited for free aganecy to join the knicks. now ny doesnt have the team.
    + the knicks hired mike woodson one year too late.
    maybe letting him take over the knicks n fire dantoni could impact the knicks positively.
    plus stat and melo should do it like dirk and rest 3 to 4 games to improve their conditioning. they often look beaten up and flat footed. especially stat when he is clanging shot after shot.

  • http://yahoomail.com Paux

    yes… nyk is really a good team before you became a knick. kobe and melo has the same playing style… you see both team struggling.

  • Bravo

    Carmelo of course it’s your fault! Your scoring almost 30 points a night and not passing the rock! Amare needs to average 25 points if your team wants to great spot in the playoffs.

  • RunNGun

    Well, when the whole offense stops moving because the ball is in your hand, why isn’t it your fault?

  • ShiQ

    I love that EVERYTHING Coach Karl had been saying to Melo for like the last 5 years is not a priority of his re-evaluation. I, as a Nuggets fan had/have no hard feelings for Melo, he wanted to leave i wanted him to leave so we could move on.. But seeing My Nuggets play sefless basketball where ANYone on the team can be a star on any given night is WAY better than watching Melo have a maybe off night or hoping he is ALWAYS THE melo who makes (and takes) every shot. STAT needs the BAll pronto…However you’d have to pry it from Melo’s cold DEAD hands…I wish him the best ( of course i want him to lose tot he Nuggets) but unlike other fans..i have no hard feelings for a guy wanting to leave a city..but he says he left to contend for a championship..In NY? yeah right…he left a good Nuggets team with a GREAT HOF coach for fame and more notoriety… that’s all to it, and how he forced Denver’s hand is coming back like a KArma hurricane! but 10/30 is like ridiculous. When do you stop?

  • Wiltmj23

    Melo, slows down the offense ( the most stagnit offense I’ve seen on a d’antoni team), Amare as usual ain’t playing d ain’t grabbing boards, no bench no point guard. They were better off w/o melo. They were a deep team with Felton, wilson Chandler, and gallinari, they could have saved some money, still got Tyson Chandler, and picked up even more key peaces for a championship run. Instead the organization cared more about marketing and big names

  • Wiltmj23

    *pieces, o and d’antoni deserves alot of the blame as well, even though he needs a productive pg to run his offense, he’ll never win with no defense.

  • Heals

    Maybe it’s just me, but it seems that nationally the NYK’s are getting a huge pass for how bad they’ve been. Maybe it’s getting overshadowed by the Giants playoff run, I dunno. This team was full of talk, high expectations and it’s NY, yet not much criticism for Melo, STAT and the suits. @ShiQ, guess the grass wasn’t green, eh…

  • jimmer

    cosign J C: absoluteky spot on, they took a chance, and hindsight is chrystal-clear 20/20. But back to the present day and they are in a terrible situation now. ‘Melo’s stock is through the floor, as is Amare’s. One is a team killer, who isn’t going to miraculously transform his style and personality after 8 years in the L, the other’s a 10 year vet, bust-up knees, never one to work hard and has now shown he’s not willing to do it even with his team flat out struggling. Who would trade any of their franchise pieces for these two? How long are they locked up for and for how much? Genuine question, anyone know?

  • Mooney10

    They all need to play better, its never on one guy, but yeah 10-30 fg aint helpin. Get the ball inside and get to the line, Melo has to start learning how to come off screens and use that jumper more effectively. Amare gotta start playin! You don’t need the ball to be effective! Play d grab boards and run!!

  • http://anyoldthing Ugh

    @Jimmer: http://hoopshype.com/salaries/new_york.htm
    The fault lies in management – principally James Dolan. He apparently knows nothing about basketball and apparently forced the trade for Melo who doesn’t, couldn’t and won’t ever fit D’Antoni’s coaching style. Unlike all the players who they traded to get him. Dolan’s incompetant, but will never sell the team because they’re alway profitable, even when the stink.

  • DeeDre

    Its not 100% anyones fault. Yeah Carmelo demanded a trade but the Knicks gave away ALOT of important pieces to get him. I was a firm believer that they were alright without Melo but Knicks hit the panic button too soon. Then they amnestied Billups and are now without any kind of point guard. Pretty soon Melo is going to have to be the proverbial point guard of the team. As in coming up the court with the ball more (his b handling is pretty good for a guy his size). Can’t rely on a Shumpert guy who constantly takes bad shots. Melo is by far the better and smarter playmaker for this team, even if he takes most of the shots himself

  • DeeDre

    Amare is more of a motion offense kind of player and you can’t do that without a solid point guard who knows the system and can pass the rock. He constantly looks for the pick n roll and rarely if ever demands the ball in the post. So what are you gonna do when everyone expects you to take the last shot?

  • http://redoftoothandclaw.ca/ niQ

    Haven’t watched that many Knicks games this season but saw the one vs Bucks and Melo’s D was awwwwful. And yes, I do agree with some of the above comments that they had a BETTER team pre-Melo trade.

  • bull22

    mike d’antoni will be fired before the season is over.. his NY experiment is done..glad we never got this fool in chicago.

  • Jono

    @Heals Exactly, I don’t understand why when Miami lost, everyone was on LeBron/Spoelstras a$$. Now the Knicks, who have a lil b!tch in Melo, lost 6 straight or something and you don’t see ESPN hammering them like they did on Miami last year. Can somebody explain this???

  • J.C.

    As far as I can tell one of STAT’s biggest problems isn’t just Melo, it’s having Tyson on the team as well. He’s spent his whole career on the receiving end of pick-and-rolls from Steve Nash and while he has a decent mid-range jumper, that’s pretty much the only way he knows to get his shot. Now those screen/roll plays are run for Tyson because he can’t create a shot at all on his own, and Amare is left struggling to find his own shot. This whole team is totally out of sorts, I feel like they either need a good PG, or would benefit from a coach with a different offensive system. (The triangle would work pretty well for them – they have a pair of rangy, play-making forwards in Melo and STAT and it doesn’t rely that much on a PG.)

  • DeeDre

    @Jono Not taking up for them but Miami had MUCH higher expectations last year then the Knicks. Plus the Knicks didnt joke about winning 8 championships before the season started. The media takes offense to boasts i noticed and they’re looking for any weak points to exploit you on how wrong you were. They do it all the time. If the Heat would have won they would have had 1 segment the day after about “if the Heat can repeat like they said?” and after that, nothing.

  • meloman@2.0

    Ok first of all, the reason Melo didn’t wait until free agency is because he wanted to help the Nugets out. He wanted to find a way for everyi=one to win: Knicks get their guy, Melo gets his money, Nuggets get their players. It was a much more generous act than LeBron or Bosh if you ask me

  • meloman@2.0

    and Melo had that 10-30 shooting nigh… which is awful. But you people act like he shoots that way every game. I’ve seen worse shooting performances from certain players before.. and Before he went down with his injury, Melo was shooting 45% from the field.

  • http://Slamonline.com nbk

    This is like walking in on a Knights who say knee meeting.
    .
    .
    *grabs shrubbery and walks away*

  • http://www.yahoo.com The Fury

    Hey Melo, that should be Dolan’s line.

  • http://www.yahoo.com The Fury

    …and the Knicks’ point guards have shoot first mentalities.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    STAT is averaging 8 boards a game. That’s not great, but it’s not horrible either. I mean, when was the last time Dirk got eight boards a game?
    The problem is the ridiculous drop in his shooting percentage. And I think that’s a direct result of the Knicks deciding that Tyson Chandler is a better option to run pick and roll and Amare should spot up on the weakside.

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    2009

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    Amar’e is shooting 41% from the field. That’s the real issue (aside from lack of defensive skill altogether).

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    2008

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    2008-09. You call it 09.

  • Jono

    @DeeDre Agreed that the Heat hyped themselves out. But didn’t the Knicks enter this season saying they “expected big/great things”, didn’t Melo say they had the best front court etc. It’s not the same as LeBron sayin they gonna win 7/8 championships (which was a joke btw, don’t know why people keep repeating that, DWades knees will hold up for 3-4 more years max), but they still warrant some level of abuse and they have received almost none. Imagine if the Heat lost 4 straight at home or 6 in a row, Spoelstra would be sacked right away and D’Antoni for some reason is still hanging on there after God knows how many years playing more basic defense than my amateur Saturday league.

  • Jono

    @DeeDre Agreed that the Heat hyped themselves out. But didn’t the Knicks enter this season saying they “expected big/great things”, didn’t Melo say they had the best front court etc. It’s not the same as LeBron sayin they gonna win 7/8 championships (which was a joke btw, don’t know why people keep repeating that, DWades knees will hold up for 3-4 more years max), but they still warrant some level of abuse and they have received almost none. Imagine if the Heat lost 4 straight at home or 6 in a row, Spoelstra would be sacked right away and D’Antoni for some reason is still hanging on there after God knows how many years playing more basic defense than my amateur Saturday league.

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    because that’s when the majority of the season takes place and that’s when the season actually ends.

  • quest

    …. and all the knicks point guards are mental.

  • ShiQ

    @ Meloman@2.0 you’re kidding right? He wanted to Help the Nuggets?!?! NO seeing it first hand it was apparent that he wasnted out of Denver and handled it pretty horribly. It was more than messing up the team chemistry and as A nuggs fan all my life and def a Melo fan it was CRYSTAL clear that he wasn’t intrested in helping the team…man it was a melo-dramamtic mess…the team, the work ethic…it was Yikes borderline stupid..Not that i’m complaining but it made me smh when they gave up what they did for him..melo was going to NY a FA anyway, but with the impeding lockout ( which became inevitable ) changing CBA and the nervousness of all the players ( and teams) it seemed that getting “his way” was in jeopardy so he did (as he said ) WHAT WAS BEST FOR HIM AND HIS FAMILY…in no way was “what’s best for the Denver orginization ” a thought for this dude. With that said, melo is still a great player. Just a selfish one. And not selfish in Kobe Bryant type way. Kobe can be selfish. He’s Kobe. Melo cannot be. Kobe can still create offensive runs…Melo stops them..He stops teammates and he cannot make them better, he can only improve his offensive stats. ( which are great can’t ignore that) And that’s it. As much as I hated to see him Take C Billups with him ( Colorado’s own) Nuggets got THE best out of this trade!! NO doubt about it….@Heals ya dern skippy!! haha

  • meloman@2.0

    Oh really? Melo telling the office where he wanted to go didn’t help the Nuggets? So I’m assuming you wanted to lose him in free agency like the Cavs lost Lebron and the Raps lost Bosh? I’m pretty sure if that happened the Nuggets would be fighting for the number 1 pick in the draft right now

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    How can you argue what Melo did, didn’t help the Nuggets? They are better now then before he left. Which is obviously better then losing him for nothing. Who gives a sh*t about the drama and your unhappiness as a fan, it helped the franchise by telling them you wanted out rather then leading them on. Some people need to realize your feelings as a fan are 100% irrelevant if you care more about happiness then the success of the franchise.

  • http://nyill.wordpress.com/ O

    Let’s keep it real, Melo is WAY more clutch than Stat. Even though he basically sank the Knicks by missing 20 shots, he was the one that took the Knicks into overtime twice on Saturday night. If it’s his wrist that’s messing up his shot or his personal problems – who knows? But he’s necessary if the Knicks want to win a title. There’s a rumor that should Dwight NOT sign with the Nets, D-Will wants to be traded to NY or Dallas. Dallas isn’t gonna give up much for D-Will, but the Knicks WOULD give up Stat for D-Will. I love Stat for taking on the challenge that is NYK, but a team of Chandler, Melo and D-Will seems like a more balanced team.

  • Cartel

    They just simply dnt have ALL the right pieces…No true pg until they hopefully get a healthy BD…The bench is weak. And the coaching sucks…A real coach would have been worked the mechanics of who should get the ball, and when and where they’ll get it…Would Phil Jackson allow a team to play at that level???…Bottom line, The Knicks traded a bunch of REALLY GOOD pieces to get 1 OUSTANDING piece (2 if they woulda kept Billups)…They never seem to have a COMPLETE team…

  • jimmer

    @ UGH, so the knkicks are in to these two for $136M over the next four years. wow. @ J.C (font of knowledge?) very good call on the triangle, they better start using it if they want to see any return, whatsoever, on that considerable/laughable outlay. That means getting mike ‘give the ball to steve nash for 4 years = collect 8 years of NBA salary WTF!?’ D’antoni out the door, SHARPISH.

  • jimmer

    sorry, $162M. clowntown.

  • truballer

    should”ve kept billups..!!! the KNICKS go and disrespect MR. BIG SHOT
    KARMA SUCKS..

  • ShiQ

    The fact that the Knicks stupidly traded away all thier team doesn’t mean that Melo cared to help the orginization. I was ready for Melo to go and didn’t really care how he went. OUR fron office got that deal done with the bluffing help of NJ and the pending CBA scaring NYK and quite possibly Melo. My only point IS that he didn’t want to “Help” denver. He had a choice ( a rightful choice that I DO NOT argue was his nor was it spiteful) I don’t think melo was being mean spirited or had hate for Denver in ANYWAY…but chill on the “wanted to help denver”..he would have Easily walked as a free Agent while double talking saying he was still considering denver. Please stop the madness I hear those interviews on the local news nightly.. Had he always said “I loved denver I grew here blah blah now it’s time to move on” I MIGHT agree with you. But since it was “say one thing in interviews do another thing in meetings” It was clear that Melo made this choice ( for him) AND BY THE WAY I DO NOT FAULT HIM! just as i don’t fault Bron for leaving Cleveland… thier choice and freedom to do so…But “helping Denver” jsut seems like the wrong statement a bit too misleading to base that argument on. I still like Melo, but I was ready for him to go when I sat COurtside at that Nuggets scrimmage in OCT and he said I’m “still considering denver” uhmm yeah right. He demanded WHERE he was going and if not WHERE he’d walk to at the end of the season.. If anyone,Masai Ujiri HELPED the nuggets.. thank you very much.

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    There are 3 coaches alive who can & know how to coach the triangle. Phil Jackson, Brian Shaw (no head coaching experience), Kurt Rambis (not an effective head coach). Putting any hope in the Knicks adopting the triangle anytime soon is the same as putting hope in Tupac still being alive.

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    He helped by giving the Nuggets enough time to put together a package that was close to (or greater than in this case) equal value. He told the Nuggets which team(s) he would be willing to sign an extension with (thus HELPING the Nuggets find a team they can get THE MOST out of). If he was only interested in himself, he would have waited till the summer and forced Denver into a sign & trade with New York, just like LeBron James, and Chris Bosh did to Cleveland and Toronto. So yes, Melo clearly HELPED the Nuggets by letting it be known where he wanted to go before hand. Clearly.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    THEY STEADY SCREAMING TUPAC BACK

  • Jose

    I really did like NYK better when Amare ran the show. . .

  • ShiQ

    again I reitterate that my feelings are 100% with the success of the franchise which is why i wanted ( eventhough I knew the guy was GREAT) for Melo to leave..His uncertainty was affecting the whole organization and as a bball fan and Nuggs fan but highly rational person, i realized that him leaving was best, and I was sad to see Billups go but knew it had to happen to gain all that we did. Now being in the postion we are in any hard feelings i had ( which are none) would be gone. I stil think NYK is anything to sleep on..They Have Melo..he’s a star…Once they get a pg they wil be relevant..I don’t think that pg is Davis…no way no how…Maybe D will, maybe they shoudl trade EVRYTHING away again and try for Dwight…all i do know is seeing Melo play the way he plays out of a Nuggets jersey makes me realize…gee good Riddance. this is still team ball and stopping an offense ( as he so effortlessly does) is cause for concern.

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