[Photo Courtesy of Bleacher Report]
Oh, Melo. Silly Melo. This is what Carmelo Anthony gets for being a distraction in his final year as a Nugget few years ago. His missed shot that could have sent the game to overtime was karma for orchestrating his departure to New York few years ago. Instead, the Nuggets and their fans celebrated an ugly 97-95 victory over the Knicks last night.
His missed shot summed up everything that has gone wrong for him as a member of the Knicks.
His Knicks tenure has been a nightmare to say the least. The Knicks haven’t won under him, and he hasn’t made big shots for the Knicks when it mattered. He missed three game-tying shots this season against the Bulls, Pacers and Nuggets. He’s one for his last 15 on game-winning or game-tying shots in the final 30 seconds. He also had guys that he didn’t like out of town in Donnie Walsh, Mike D’Antoni and Jeremy Lin.
Since the former Nugget came to New York, the Knicks are 108-84 and the Nuggets are 122-66. What should bother the Knicks superstar is his old team has done well without him while he and his team have underachieved.
Melophiles will be happy to talk about his winning record as a Knick and how he led the Knicks to the second round this past spring. What they don’t realize is he was acquired for leading the Knicks to a championship. He was acquired to beat LeBron and the Heat. He has failed to do so.
Melo’s Knicks tenure has been one and out in the playoffs twice, and his team underachieved against the Pacers in last year’s second round of the playoffs. In other words, it has not been a success. It would have been successful if he and his team were playing the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals last year.
One has to wonder if last year was his zenith. It’s certainly not going to be this year. The Knicks stink, so it’s hard to believe they are a playoff team.
The Knicks lost eight in a row, and they are 3-12 for the season. They have played like one of the worst teams in the basketball by merit. They don’t play defense. They are not running the offense well. They have too many guys who are hurting in Raymond Felton, Amar’e Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler. J.R. Smith is off to a horrible start. Iman Shumpert is playing like he wants to play elsewhere rather than try hard for the Knicks. The coaching has been horrible.
It’s not only those guys, but Anthony has been horrible. He is not shooting well, and he has done a terrible job of navigating the Knicks out of this funk. He is certainly not playing like a leader.
Already, Stoudemire and Shumpert indirectly called Anthony out for not passing the ball enough and trusting his teammates in the process. In turn, the Knicks superstar called out his teammates for not playing defense.
This is certainly not happiness in paradise with the Knicks these days.
With the way things are going for the beleaguered Knicks team, it’s easy to wonder if they are a playoff team. It’s looking like that’s not the case. They are that bad this season.
That goes back to the Anthony trade. The Knicks gave next year’s unprotected draft pick to the Nuggets. That becomes valuable now. The Knicks are so bad that they could get a high pick of next year’s draft, and that is valuable considering that pick could be a franchise player next season.
Considering how the Nuggets couldn’t find that go-to guy that make shots in last night’s fourth quarter, they could use Aaron Gordon or Marcus Smart next year. That’s why the Nuggets are happy to see the Knicks imploding. That’s why the Nuggets could be the winner of the Anthony trade next season by getting a pick they can build around for the next eight years.
For the Knicks, the Anthony trade could be a disaster in the end. There’s a 50 percent chance Anthony is bolting to the Lakers next season being that he is a free agent. Considering he is not happy with the way the Knicks are losing and being a circus in the process, he could get out in time.
If Anthony bails out on the Knicks, it means he is a quitter. He would bail out on a team that is a lost cause rather than be a solution. It would mean he would join long list of athletes that could not play in New York.
It used to be a lock that Anthony would resign with the Knicks. Now with the losing, all bets are off. One has to wonder if he wants to be part of the New York fishbowl.
Anthony knew playing in New York was going to be tough. He admitted that in his introductory Knicks press conference, but he did not think it would be this much trouble. It shows that an athlete can talk about how playing in New York is tough, but until he experiences it for himself, he does not know what it’s really like.
Anthony did not notice he would be scrutinized for every move he made in New York. He did not think he would have this much blame for every losses.
It’s hard to feel sorry for him. He wanted this, and he has to deal with it for this season.
He can always bail out when he is a free agent just like he did when the going got tough in Denver.
History says he will do exactly that with the Knicks this coming summer.
Contact or Follow Leslie Monteiro: @LightRodWriter
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Leslie Monteiro
Leslie is a contributor for Lightning Rod Sports. He covered high school sports in Bergen County out in North Jersey, and has written op-ed columns on sports such as Bleacher Report and NY Sports Digest.
