Carmelo Anthony
As New York Knicks small forward Carmelo Anthony is set to turn 32-years of age next month, the clock is ticking on his chances of winning an NBA Championship. Anthony is set to wrap up his 13th NBA season and this is a guy that has only made it past the first round of the NBA Playoffs twice. In 2011, Anthony was able to make his way to the Big Apple when he forced the Denver Nuggets to trade him to the Knicks. Anthony’s arrival in New York was met with a hero’s welcome as the Knicks needed a new face for their franchise. But after the Knicks went 54-28 during the 2012-2013 NBA season which resulted in the team’s first trip to the Eastern Conference Semifinals since 2000, it has been a step backwards for New York who haven’t come close to competing after that. The Knicks lost a franchise worst 65 games last season, and as they’ve already been eliminated from the postseason race for this NBA campaign, they are wasting the scoring ability of Anthony.
Phil Jackson
It’s been two years since Phil Jackson became the Knicks team president and whereas he vowed to turned things around for the team that he helped to win their only two NBA Championships as a player, the losing that has plagued New York for the majority of this millennium is still in place.
In the summer of 2014, Anthony opted out of his contract with the Knicks to become an unrestricted free agent. And even though that Anthony had lucrative offers on the table from teams such as the Houston Rockets and Chicago Bulls, he decided to stay with the Knicks due to the fact that could they offer him more money than any other NBA team, while Jackson also sold him on his long-term vision. But how long must the City of New York wait for Jackson’s vision to come around?
Kristaps Porzingis
The Knicks and Jackson did use the fourth overall pick of last year’s NBA Draft wisely when they selected power forward Kristaps Porzingis who is in the running to be the league’s Rookie of the Year as he is averaging 14.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per contest which are both second to Anthony on the club. But as Jackson appeared to have found a building block for the future in Porzingis, the losing continues as there is still a possibility of the Knicks losing 50 games for the second consecutive year which falls into the lap of Jackson who has done a disservice to both Anthony and the basketball fans in the Big Apple with the team that he puts on the court at Madison Square Garden on a nightly basis.
Yes, it took nearly $130 million of Knicks owner James Dolan’s money to keep Anthony in New York, but it was more of Jackson’s gift of gab as he told the nine-time NBA All-Star that he would build a championship team around him. Anthony and Knicks fans took the bait and there is absolutely nothing to show for it at Madison Square Garden but more losing.
What has hurt Jackson so much is that he is hell bent on forcing his “triangle offense” on people along with only hiring head coaches that are familiar with his system. Anthony is not a player that fits into Jackson’s triangle system due to the fact that he is more of an iso-player which is the equivalent of mixing oil and water.
Jackson has already fired Derek Fisher as the Knicks head coach after he led the team to a 38-96 during his stewardship. Fisher was deemed as Jackson’s protege who was going to be groomed by the “Zen Master” into being the next great NBA head coach. But Fisher’s off-the-court immaturity led Jackson to firing him which prompted him to promote assistant coach Kurt Rambis to become the Knicks interim head coach.
Under Rambis, the Knicks are 8-16, and in spite of having a career record of 56-146, Jackson will probably give serious thought to making him New York’s full-time head coach for next season which doesn’t resonate of a celebratory situation. Along with Rambis, you can expect to hear the names of current Golden State Warriors assistant head coach Luke Walton and former Denver Nuggets head coach Brian Shaw thrown around as possible candidates to sit on the bench for Jackson next season as they are also disciples of the triangle.
But with the Knicks not possessing a first-round pick for this year’s NBA Draft, Jackson must make some big time moves this summer in free agency which will be hard to do with Oklahoma City Thunder small forward Kevin Durant expected to be the only marquee name on the market, and the Knicks don’t need another small forward.
Although that Jackson sold Anthony a bill of goods to come back to New York, he doesn’t deserve a free pass as he had enough time to analyze the situation for each team that was interested in his services. And as Anthony’s knee is not going to get any better which will further diminish his ability as a perimeter shooter, his title chances will continue to evaporate. But even with that, Jackson has not done Anthony any favor by putting a subpar team around him for the past two years which simply reeks of typical Knicks dysfunction.
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