Knick fans woke up this morning again to the news that their team was 4-0 and probably assumed this was an eerily too real dream that they would rather be asleep for. Lord only knows how wide awake they were for those Isiah teams and those that played to the tune of no defense and not enough offense that left the Garden faithful talking up the team’s what ifs rather than what actually happened.
But the dream isn’t dead yet. Your Knicks may be this good. At the very least, we know this: when the effort is there, this team can and WILL compete in the Eastern conference. A conference that should you believe conventional wisdom is the Miami Heat and then everybody else. But conventional wisdom didn’t have the Knicks as the last undefeated team in the NBA either so let’s hold to what we’re seeing.
Currently the Knicks are holding opponents to the fewest points per game (87.5), have a point differential (+17) that’s a shade under 9 points better than the second best (+9.5), holding opponents to the worst shooting percentage in the league (.407), and are third in forcing turnovers (18) while being number one in terms of turning over the ball (only 11.3 a game.).
All those stats show the obvious proponent of this current hot start: their defense. But the real reason for it may be that their superstar Carmelo Anthony’s has a newfound dedication on the defensive side of the ball. Its easy to draw the conclusion that because the Knicks are being coached by Mike Woodson, a defensive oriented head coach, his influence is rubbing off on Carmelo. But in reality, whats happened could be traced back to the Olympics when Carmelo was able to watch the newly minted champion Lebron James work his way up and down that locker room and hold court as the best player in the league. Its obvious that this Olympic experience was far different for Carmelo from the perspective that he knew the focus of many people’s interest would turn to him, as he’s the final member of that famed quartet from the 2003 draft class still without a ring. Wade has 2, Lebron (finally) has one and so does Chris Bosh.
Much like Lebron in 2008, Carmelo’s Olympic experience was more about his own personal growth as a basketball player. Watching Kobe Bryant get up at 6 AM and work on his craft, having won 3 championships at the time (and on his way to 4 and 5), and yet still working on his craft as if he were ringless. The bar Kobe set was high, but perhaps that’s what was needed for Lebron to realize what he had to do in order to accomplish his goal of winning an NBA championship. Remember, also that Kobe had just come off a Finals loss to the Celtics, and was determined to get back and ultimately would and win back to back championships that year and the following one. That Olympics shaped and transformed Lebron. Remember, it was that Olympics that many conspiracy theorists believe that he, Dwayne Wade and Bosh decided to team up and come together in 2010. Lebron, Wade, Bosh, Carmelo and CP3 were good friends but became very close on that trip and yet, Melo and CP3 were left out of that super team. Of course that’s because Carmelo could only become a free agent the year after and CP3 was still only 2 years into the league and locked into his original rookie deal, but for anyone in a similar position, it could feel like you were being left out. That may explain CP3’s half joking/half serious intimation that he, Melo and Amar’e (who had signed a 5 year $100 million deal with the Knicks that summer) would band together as well to form their own super team at Carmelo’s wedding, days after Wade, Bosh and Lebron had revealed their plan to the world. But much like Lebron, this Olympic experience may have shaped his mind.
In 2012, he saw his close friend Lebron realize his dream of being a champion and yet Carmelo could only watch as he took his rightful place at the top of the game. There was no discussion any more. This was Lebron’s league and finally, to some, we could get to the business of cementing his legacy with a run of championships. The vultures had left South Beach and were headed Melo’s way.
But the talk circling Melo has always been far different from Lebron. Lebron has always been viewed as having the skillset to be the greatest ever, a discussion that will certainly heat up with all the hardware he accumulates. Melo is seen as just a scorer. The comparison would be Clyde Drexler and Michael Jordan. In the Dream Team book written by SI columnist Jack McCallum, Clyde Drexler expressed his belief, at the time, that he was as good as Michael Jordan. Drexler wound up winning a championship in Houston, but history shows that it was never as “the man”, that would be Hakeem. Michael, of course went on to win 6 championships and change basketball for the generation we’re watching now.
But I started thinking about Melo and, what sometimes could be perceived as, his steadfast stubborn nature to accept generally held beliefs about him. Case in point, when the idea was suggested to Carmelo that he should move from the 3 to the 4 where his athleticism and body could handle and overwhelm other 4’s, he responded as if someone had made the suggestion that he couldn’t play the 3. Despite overwhelming evidence that his game would benefit tremendously by playing in the paint, its come with Carmelo kicking and crying along the way, no way to act for a guy trying to shake the reputation that he’s NOT a team player.
But Carmelo has come out of the gate being aggressive and judging by some overly handsy defensive that resulted in some foul trouble, its clear that he’s still not completely comfortable. But I’ve forgiven Melo because its clear that his effort is turned up and he’s completely tuned in because of the offseason the Knicks had. It became clear why Carmelo is all in with Coach Woodson.
This offseason, fans were confused by the number of “veteran” players the Knicks brought in. Guys who were perhaps well past their primes. While Los Angeles added 2 superstars, and OKC was subtracting one, and Miami was adding stars, the Knicks went a very different route. They cut ties with their super nova point guard, Jeremy Lin and watched him go to Houston. They traded for point guard Raymond Felton who enjoyed his time in NY enough that he forgave the team for trading him for Carmelo in the first place. They traded for Marcus Camby, Kurt Thomas, signed Ronnie Brewer and stole Jason Kidd from the Mavericks. None of these moves really rocked the basketball blogosphere except for the excess of material for NBA writers to use to poke fun at the Knicks, an unusually favorite past time for most national reporters.
It might have seemed weird, but it became clear the message that GM Glen Grunwald was sending, and who he was sending it to. He was telling Melo that this was indeed his team and that the collective talent he had assembled was there NOT to take away from Melo’s star, but to make it shine brighter. No offense to Amar’e Stoudemire, the lone free agent from the famed 2010 free agent class, to sign with the Knicks, but it was an obvious nudge to him in the ever present power struggle that the two super stars wage to win over New York.
But it matters not. The average NBA fan knows who the better player is and finally Carmelo is getting his chance. Too many times his reputation was limited to: “great offensive player, but not willing to play within the construct of the team.” Through four games, he’s given his team points and more rebounds but also given his team a head turning statistic as well: blocks. This was his second game in the span of three that he’s blocked two shots, a statistic that if he allows it to trend will ultimately get him the kind of recognition that his Olympic teammate Lebron did: MVP. Finally we can begin to assess Carmelo fully and not just through the lens of just an offensive game. We can begin to take him seriously as a leader, and as one of the best players in the NBA.
Clearly the effort is there, and the record is there, the recognition will be soon to follow.
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