The New York Knicks Mess: Carmelo Anthony, Time to Go; Jeremy Lin, Time to Grow

The New York Knicks have reverted to their shabby, shoddy, and shirking basketball ways. 

And, most importantly, they have reverted to losing.

Thought to be on the rise only a few weeks ago because of the revelation that was Jeremy Lin, the Knicks now look discombobulated on all cylinders. Suddenly a team which seemed to have a workable rotation and some burgeoning cohesion looks instead like a team of Abbott and Costello not knowing who’s on first or what’s on second.

You’ve heard the expression: one step forward and two steps back.

Case in point? The New York Knicks.

You’ve also heard of the refrain everything old is new again.

Case in point again? The New York Knicks.

Unfortunately for the Knickerbockers, they’ve once more got to admit that their free-agent plans have gone awry. Bringing in Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony seemed like a good idea at the time—and it was good for the excitement meter—but it hasn’t worked. 

And there are no valid excuses: the dual experiment has been given enough time.

Thus the Knicks should repent of their mistakes and trade one or both.  Anthony has more value. ESPN’s Chris Broussard has hinted at a tantalizing deal that has the Knicks shipping Anthony and Tyson Chandler to the Orlando Magic for Dwight Howard.  They could further sweeten the pot by throwing in, say, Landry Fields in exchange for J.J. Reddick.

If this scenario is not feasible, Pau Gasol's so obviously available that he's probably already put his LA home on the market. The Knicks could get Gasol for Anthony straight up, then ship Stoudemire and others somewhere for a solid guard and a tough, scoring forward.

Wishful thinking is nice, but the Knicks are going nowhere as presently constituted. 

Anthony said after the team’s last loss, coming at the hands of the San Antonio Spurs: “On paper, we have a lot of guys on this team. It’s a matter of putting it all together on the court and winning some basketball games.”

Anthony has been singing this same song for over a year now, and the music has gone flat. If he was the true superstar he thinks he is, he would have reversed the Knicks' course by now. Instead, Anthony has shown time and again that he's not nearly the player Knick fans envisioned.

Anthony is a straight up and down, one-dimensional scorer. He has no flexibility in his body to do much else on the court. He cannot stop good players on defense. He’s mediocre in the clutch. And his game is not dynamic for four quarters. 

Worse, he is a player who needs to be liked. He—shudder—requires pampering.

Suffice it to say, there are too many nights when Carmelo Anthony is just not very good.

Speaking of which, Jeremy Lin has not been very good of late, and it’s become obvious that he is a work in progress.

Said Lin about the same San Antonio loss: “They [the Spurs] run everything with speed…They spread us out and picked us apart. They were very patient on offense and were a tough team to guard.”

Nowadays Lin says practically the same thing after every defeat to a good team.

It’s patent that Lin himself is not up to NBA speed. The fantasy of “Linsanity” was fun for eight games or so, but now its over—the Knicks have lost six of their last nine games. Some of that has to do with the selfishness and limited abilities of Anthony and Stoudemire, but its also partially the league catching up to Jeremy Lin.

A nationally televised game against the Miami Heat just before the All Star break proved that Lin cannot cope with the best NBA athletes yet. His basketball skills are not refined enough at this point in his career, but that is to be expected. He’s not a miracle worker.

It would behoove Lin, instead of singing the blues after each lesson, to show more toughness along the lines of the killer instinct he showed during the height of “Linsanity.”

Lin seems frustrated. Anthony seems like a song-and-dance man.

The Knicks need real cornerstones for their franchise, and they don’t have them now. They should begin making efforts to put those pieces into place, the sooner the better.