What’s Rotten In The Big Apple
So far in the NBA playoffs we’ve seen a lot of things. We’ve seen the Heat play like we thought they would in October. We’ve seen the Spurs play like the Heat did play in October. We’ve seen Derrick Rose cement his MVP status. And we’ve seen the Thunder prove there among the leagues elite teams. But most of all we’ve seen that New York is not a championship caliber team. Not even close. They played Boston close in the first two games. It was cute. For a second you almost thought they might win a game or two.
Then they got blown out at home Friday. Followed by a sweet Sunday, and we were all reminded of the truth. New York doesn’t have a “Big Three” like Miami, Boston, San Antonio and the Lakers do. And they don’t have a “Big 2 + 3 role players” like the Thunder, Bulls, and Magic do. They have a “Big 2 + 1 guy passed his prime + 2 guys who look so lost on the court they need a map just to find their way to the bench”. They just don’t have the talent in their starting line up. And they don’t even have something that remotely resembles an NBA quality player on their bench.
You may do alright in the regular season with that. But it’s not gonna get you far in the play-offs. Especially when your two stars do as good a job playing defense as Michigan did during the Rich Rod era. Here’s what there missing. Role players. A sharpshooter. Or a rebounding machine. Or a lockdown defender. They don’t have any of the above. They have an aging point guard. A ball hogging small forward. A coach who seems to think his NBA Live style of “shoot a bunch of times with your best player” is a surefire way to bring home the title. And a power forward who supposedly can play great when he’s healthy, I can’t be sure of this because I don’t think he’s been healthy since high school.
Off the top of your head name a player on the Knick’s who comes off the bench and consistently contributes. Don’t worry, I’ll wait. The Celtics have Glen Davis. The Heat have Eddie House. The Knick’s have…..Landry Fields? And to add to that problem, there is absolutely no proof that Amare and Carmelo are guys who can come through in the clutch. They just plain quit in Game 3. Not a great sign of what’s to come.
I know everyone was excited when Carmelo came to town. He is a big time scorer and a great one-on-one player. But everyone seemed to ignore two key facts. First, Carmelo and Amare are both guys who love to have the ball in there hands and love to take a lot of shots. Which works great in say, morning shoot arounds, but not quite as well when there is usually the number they play with in games. And secondly, Carmelo does not fit at all in Mike Dantoni’s fast paced offense.
He likes to slow it down, isolate, and break you down. And he is the best in the league at it. Slight problem, Dantoni likes to do the exact opposite thing. His philosophy is simple: Shoot. Yet they were so intent on getting a big name immediately after losing out on the LeBron sweepstakes last summer, they took Carmelo instead of waiting and signing a better fitting big name in a year like, oh I don’t know, Chris Paul maybe. That would’ve given them a new version of the Nash-Stoudemire combination, which worked out pretty well for the Suns.
Now instead of having a team they have 12 guys who happen to be wearing the same jersey. I’m not saying there is no hope. There is. This summer bring in some older vets chasing a ring. Bring in a Peja Stoiakovich, or a Mike Bibby. Hell, call up Sheed and see if you can talk him out of retirement. Because what they have now isn’t going to cut it. Not in the age of dream teams. So unless they’re content with being a mediocre team for the next decade who gets lucky and wins a playoff series or two, something needs to change.
