Older Carmelo Anthony is pretty chill.
In past years, Carmelo Anthony has sugarcoated answers and thoughts more so than most. His brand-built persona has left him very wealthy, but, for a while, there was contrived distance that existed between him and fans of unfiltered truth.
Over the last year or so, though, Melo has become more outspoken about pretty much everything. His Twitter account is still impersonal—unless he’s voting for himself or Kristaps Porzingis to make it into the NBA’s All-Star Game—but he seems more apt to tell it like it is, both on and off the basketball court.
And on the basketball court, he knows that the 16-19 New York Knicks need to get their act together.
From the New York Post‘s Fred Kerber:
A few days ago, Knicks coach Derek Fisher called for better “effort.” He got it. Then he wanted “defense.” The Knicks responded.
So on Monday, as the Knicks prepped for a road trip against three winning, playoff-likely teams, the word of the day was, “consistency.”
Hey, if the Knicks find consistency and come back winners from a trip against the Hawks and Heat, both seven games over .500, and the Spurs at a ridiculous 23 games over, Fisher should make “Lamborghini” the next word of the day.
But all concerned will take consistency as the Knicks finish up a stretch of games against 11 consecutive opponents with winning records.
“We can’t keep winning one, losing one, winning one, losing two,” Carmelo Anthony said after practice in Tarrytown. “We can’t play that game. We’ve got to find a way to put some games together.”
Consistency has indeed eluded the Knicks all season long. Their campaign has been one of runs and varying levels of effort on either side of the ball. On some nights, they look like a playoff team; other nights, they play almost as poorly as last year’s disaster; and on a few select nights, they appear to be a postseason-worthy squad that devolves into a lottery-lost mess during the fourth quarter.
The playoffs aren’t yet out of reach for these Knicks. They’re three games back of the Eastern Conference’s eighth and final spot. But the race for that spot is fated to be tightly contested, and the Knicks can no longer lose four, then win four, only to lose one or two, then win another one or two. It’s encouraging that they’ve almost matched last season’s win total, and Porzingis’ development, while stalled, is a boon for the future. The Knicks now just need to find an identity. They hover around the bottom 10 of both offensive and defensive efficiency, according to Basketball-Reference, and Derek Fisher’s rotations unfurl like those of an oft-confused coach who has no idea who to play.
Truth told, the Knicks probably aren’t a playoff team, nor did team president Phil Jackson necessarily construct them to be one. They don’t yet have enough reliable talent. But the degree to which they’re losing, given the manner in which they’re losing (i.e. giving winnable games away), is nevertheless unacceptable.
