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During Isiah Thomas’s tenure with the Knicks he made several awful impactful decisions. Personnel moves by Thomas left the Knicks as a down and out franchise for several years. The signing of Carmelo Anthony was a move expected to bolster their prospects as a team on a year to year basis. After strong signs last year the regression has taken its course in a drastic fashion.
The season is hardly two weeks old and the Knicks have lost at home to the Bobcats, Timberwolves, and the San Antonio Spurs. The losses to the Timberwolves and Spurs were horrible blowout losses. Mike Woodson who is a defensive coach has to be burning with frustration. His team may be the worst in basketball currently at playing defense.
They gave up 120 points to a Spurs team Sunday that played their second unit in preparation of their back to back matchup. Rotation defensively on pick and rolls and cuts to the hoop by the Spurs were an embarrassment. It looks as if the Knicks were not prepared if Tyson Chandler would miss any time this season.
Bench depth at the power forward and center position is non-existent. Amare Stoudemire is attempting to perform on his bad knees, but clearly is at the end point of his solid career. Mistakes with the Knicks boil down to their offseason signings, it’s as if they want to make Carmelo Anthony have an easy decision to leave the New York Knicks.
Andrea Bargnani could be a complimentary offensive asset but with Chandler out he is the biggest defensive liability in basketball. He can’t rebound at all and is too flat footed to control the paint. Woodson has to rethink his lineup to get a big man in the middle that can disrupt penetration somewhat. If not teams will continue to score over 100 points a game against the Knicks.
The other poor acquisition was the signing of Ron Artest. Has Ron Artest aka Metta World Peace ever taken a shot on the offensive end that makes sense? His strong skill is still defensively but even that isn’t near what it was five years ago or even two years ago.
There just isn’t enough balance offensively to offset this team’s horrific defense. For fantasy basketball teams Carmelo Anthony is shooting the basketball at just 41 percent, far below his career average. In rotisserie leagues you may want to pick your spots at inserting Melo and hold off on any other Knick until they develop a win streak above two games.