Do The New York Knicks Need Carmelo Anthony To Become A Stronger Leader?

Having a primary, vocal leader isn’t always necessary for an NBA team to achieve success. But more often than not, the best squads have at least one such player who holds others accountable.

Michael Jordan was never afraid to do that with the Chicago Bulls. Kevin Garnett was famous for it with the Minnesota Timberwolves and especially the Boston Celtics. Kobe Bryant has always said what was needed with the Los Angeles Lakers. And the same for LeBron James, with the Cleveland Cavaliers or Miami Heat. The list certainly doesn’t stop there.

Yet some stars, like the New York Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony, are more reluctant to take that stance — not because they’re not competitive or don’t want to win badly, but simply because it’s not be in their personalities to follow that approach.

However, maybe it’s time for Anthony to become that type of leader if the Knicks are ever to get to the championship level that their franchise player hopes they can reach.

Last year, that certainly would have helped, as New York’s season unraveled one year after Anthony played at a near-MVP level while leading the Knicks to a 54-win season and their first division title in 19 years.

Although Anthony does a great job of leading on the court and letting his play speak volumes, he’s a lot more passive than some of the aforementioned stars when things are going wrong and teammates are in need of hearing a respected voice coming from someone in a sideline huddle wearing a jersey rather than a suit.

Despite the usual perceived consensus that Anthony is too much of a selfish, finesse player who’s more concerned about getting his shots and points over winning, Anthony actually doesn’t receive enough credit for his normally passable (and even sometimes good) defense, toughness and other areas besides scoring in which he provides solid production.

Even in his 11th season, while suffering through a very tough 37-win season during that fell well short of expectations last year, Anthony made it a point to contribute well in other ways than doing what he does best (putting the ball in the hoop).

While averaging the fourth-most points (27.4 per game) of his career, Anthony played through nagging aches and pains at times, to appear in 77 games while posting career highs in total rebounds (8.1), defensive rebounds (6.2), blocks (0.7) and free throw percentage (84.8 percent) last season.

Additionally, he shot over 40 percent (40.2) for just the second time in his career, after continuing to hone his craft and improve drastically upon the mid-20s he was shooting from behind the arc over his second, third and fourth years in the league. Anthony also willingly got into the lane and invited more contact last season, even with his dangerous perimeter game working as well as ever.

So when it comes to what he contributes while the scoreboard clock is running, Anthony does a lot. Perhaps the only thing other than improving his defense from decent to good, that he can improve upon, is to willingly share the ball with greater frequency and trust more in his teammates. The introduction of Phil Jackson’s triangle offense via a full staff of handpicked disciples such as head coach Derek Fisher, Jim Cleamons and others, might help take care of that as well.

But where Anthony can step up his game is when the action isn’t occurring.

That’s not to suggest that Anthony hasn’t privately spoken to teammates when there was a need to do so, because he has. He talked to J.R. Smith after the guard was up to his ridiculous shenanigans with doing things like untying opponents’ shoelaces during games, after Smith missed the first five games of last season for a drug violation, after he delayed knee surgery until after he signed a new contract. There were also other times when Anthony got in the ears of teammates.

However, getting in their ears is one thing. Getting in their faces is another.

That’s something which Anthony doesn’t appear to have the makeup to do. It’s seems that just isn’t in Anthony’s DNA the way it was with Jordan and still is with Garnett, Bryant or James — or the way it was with someone like Rasheed Wallace, who during the Knicks’ successful season two years ago, took on that role far more than Anthony did, despite being a role player who due to injury, appeared in just 21 games that season.

Of course, it doesn’t always have to be that way to win. Neither Tim Duncan, Tony Parker nor Manu Ginobili are fiery, even though they lead well in their own ways. But that didn’t stop an unassuming, modest, young forward like Kawhi Leonard from becoming last year’s NBA Finals MVP while learning from that trio.

Then again, a team like the San Antonio Spurs are always a lot more together in the first place.

A club like the last year’s chemistry-challenged Knicks on the other hand, with Smith, Raymond Felton’s off-court problems, Tyson Chandler battling with head coach Mike Woodson, and Beno Udrih wanted to be traded as Metta World Peace wanted to stay (but each getting bought out), and so much more, could have use some fire from their best player — especially during inexcusable times like when New York inexplicably followed up 30-and-38-point wins (in Brooklyn and over Orlando) with a 41-point home loss to lowly Boston in a span of three days in December.

That type of thing simply won’t be acceptable any longer under the Knicks’ new regime. But it’ll take more than Jackson or Fisher and his staff to hammer that point home. It will mean Anthony actively ensuring that doesn’t happen again, even if it means going outside of his normal comfort zone and grabbing Smith by the jersey once in a while for making a selfish, poor decision; yelling at Iman Shumpert for not being more active at the offensive end; or chiding a newcomer like Jose Calderon for possibly allowing an opposing point guard to get past him too much.

Sometimes, it’s what true leaders have to do.

Garnett once gave a whole new meaning to the nickname “Big Baby” when he made his ex-Celtics teammate Glen Davis cry after Davis’ lack of effort forced Garnett to go back into a game he thought was a laugher:

As analyst Jeff Van Gundy pointed out, Garnett’s methods, though harsh, might have been necessary.

"“Whether you like to hear the message or not, if [head coach] Doc Rivers is always the one having to tell the truth, you will not be a championship team,” Van Gundy noted. “Kevin Garnett risked being a truth teller, maybe at the expense of a friendship… I respect that about Kevin Garnett.”"

In a different way, James once sent a message by going after former Miami Heat teammate Mario Chalmers and later apologizing:

"“That’s great leadership,” analyst Doug Collins said of what James did. “For him to look at that in that situation and say, ‘I was wrong,’ speaks volumes to his teammates and his coaches.”"

Thus, even if a player isn’t always right, it can still pay for a team’s top star to speak up and get on teammates when he feels it’s the right time to do so.

As pointed out by the way James dealt with Chalmers, a player like Anthony might command even greater respect in the long run for acting in the same manner. Such actions would only serve to keep everyone on the same page, which is ultimately an essential ingredient for any team trying to attain success.

There are other moments when a star might have to call out teammates, even publicly, if that gets them to perform to the level that’s expected of them, at least in terms of effort if not execution.

Kobe Bryant has been known to do that several times, such as the when the Lakers were embarrassed during a playoff game in Denver in 2012, which sparked a typically fairly heated ESPN First Take debate between Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless:

That can be a precarious way to go, as it can quickly fracture team chemistry, sometimes beyond repair. But if a club is going to lose anyway because a star’s complementary pieces fail to give maximum effort, is it really that much of a risk for the star to be that honest?

Perhaps that’s where Anthony can learn from other stars that are more willing to go that route.

In the wake of the executive, coaching and roster changes the Knicks have made this offseason, and with other key player changes yet to come (when New York hopes to legitimately start contending in the Eastern Conference next season), maybe now, in the midst of a newly developing Knicks era, is the perfect time for Anthony to begin leading in other new ways besides what he shows in NBA box scores.