Carmelo Anthony just isn’t that into you.
But he’s definitely into the triangle offense.
Part seven of Charlie Rosen’s Phil Files dropped for ESPN.com, and in this edition, New York Knicks president Phil Jackson talked shop on the team’s individual players. And when it came time to rap about Melo, he not only compared him to Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, he pledged the 31-year-old’s allegiance to the triangle offense:
“He has an extensive rehab program [after undergoing left knee surgery] and he came back at full strength from a similar operation on his other leg. He’s a quick healer so I don’t expect him to be anything but 100 percent by training camp.
“Like Q, Melo is a leader by example, not by exhorting his teammates. He’s also very into the triangle, and with a better supporting cast he has every chance to be the MJ and Kobe of our offense.”
I’m just going to let the Kobe and MJ bit slide. Melo isn’t the playmaker either of those two were in their prime. He can be a better passer than people give him credit for, but he’s never, no matter the supporting cast, shown glimpses of being able to function as a primary setup man. Mike D’Antoni envisioned using him as a point forward back in 2011-12, something Melo resisted, which ultimately factored into Magic Mike’s departure.
Instead, let’s spend some time on Melo being “very into the triangle.” He’s only played 40 games in that offense, and things didn’t go well. The Knicks ran the equivalent of a top-10 attack while Melo was on the floor last season, but the system’s steep learning curve gave way to seemingly incurable warts by campaign’s end.
Maybe things are different if Melo stays healthy. They would have to be, at least to some degree. He would have made the Knicks, bad as they were, better from top to bottom.
But it wasn’t like he was having a career season. His three-point success rate was the lowest it’s been since 2011-12, and while Melo passed the ball more, a lot more, it didn’t translate into a markedly higher assist rate.
Any concerns can potentially be quelled by playing alongside a better supporting cast, like Jackson said. But this commitment to the triangle probably won’t last—by design. The Knicks strayed from some of its more convoluted tenets during the summer league, electing to run more pick-and-rolls while giving their point guards freedom to attack the rim. Chances are they’ll continue moving away from it as their lifeline next season. That doesn’t make Melo’s systematic fervor irrelevant, but these interviews didn’t happen this week, or last week, or the week before that, or even the week before that. Things have changed.
The Knicks are going to look different next season. They’re already different on paper, and the on-court product is going to deviate from the flawed mess they deployed a year ago. They can only hope Melo is as “into” the triangle hybrid as he was to the triangle itself.
