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Melo And Knicks Can Look To Eli And Giants For Inspiration

By Jonathan Wagner

Mar. 27, 2013; New York, NY, USA; New York Knicks small forward Carmelo Anthony (7), shooting guard J.R. Smith (8) and small forward Iman Shumpert (21) smile on the court against the Memphis Grizzlies during the second half at Madison Square Garden. Knicks won 108-101. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports
Mar. 27, 2013; New York, NY, USA; New York Knicks small forward Carmelo Anthony (7), shooting guard J.R. Smith (8) and small forward Iman Shumpert (21) smile on the court against the Memphis Grizzlies during the second half at Madison Square Garden. Knicks won 108-101. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports /
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A rough, underachieving season last year. A superstar expected to run a new offense and make it work well for himself and those around him. A new coach calling plays for the first time. And the main star saying all the right things about buying in, and how he’ll be able to successfully integrate his new teammates into something

Sounds a lot like the New York Knicks, doesn’t it?

Well, it is. But it’s also the spot another nearby team, from a different sport, was in — a club the Knicks might be able to lean on for inspiration if they should go through some early growing pains once the 2014-15 NBA season begins later this month.

That team is the New York Giants, and the star and coach mentioned above are quarterback Eli Manning and rookie offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo.

So what can the Knicks and their own franchise player, Carmelo Anthony, and their rookie head coach, Derek Fisher, learn from the Giants?

If nothing else, perhaps a good lesson in perseverance and maintaining confidence if the changes the Knicks are attempting for the upcoming NBA season don’t initially go according to plan.

One month after the Knicks finished up their July summer league participation in Las Vegas, the Giants were struggling to make strides with their offensive overhaul, but were failing miserably during the NFL preseason in August.

That was after the Giants replaced Ken Gilbride with Ben McAdoo, even though Gilbride had worked with Manning from the inception of Manning’s pro career (first, as a quarterbacks coach, then as an offensive coordinator), and the two won a pair of Super Bowls together.

McAdoo had bounced around NFL and college ranks as an assistant before working with Aaron Rodgers as the Green Bay Packers’ tight ends and quarterbacks coach.

As an offensive coordinator for the first time, McAdoo brought a west coast offense to New York — a sharp departure from what Manning was used to under Gilbride — while working with a revamped offensive line and a new backfield.

Two games into the current season, it wasn’t pretty. The Giants scored just 14 points in each their first two games and followed up last year’s 0-6 beginning and a losing season with a 0-2 start after losses by 21 and 11 points, respectively.

But since then, the Giants have suddenly put it all together. Manning and several others have made McAdoo’s newly taught offense look good, and the Giants have produced three straight wins while exploding for consecutive 30-point home efforts (each resulting in double digits wins), sandwiched around a 45-point output in a 31-point victory.

Time will tell if the Giants — who at 3-2, are currently over .500 for the first time since the end of the 2012 season – will be able to continue their recent success.

But thus far, their story has been enough to provide the Anthony, Fisher and the Knicks with sufficient cause for optimism as they prepare to start their preseason on Wednesday, Oct. 8, against the Boston Celtics.

Like McAdoo, as a first-time coordinator bringing in the west coast offense, Fisher is trying to implement the triangle offense for the first time with the Knicks, as a new head coach, with new team president Phil Jackson overseeing everything.

As with the Giants redoing their offensive line, backfield, and tweaking their receiving corps, the Knicks have a new starting point guard (in Jose Calderon) and a new starting center (whoever will win that job in the preseason), along with a few other key pieces they’ve added to the mix.

And, similar to the way Manning was highly receptive to McAdoo’s drastic changes after a very successful, 10-year career that began in 2004, Anthony has thus far been just as open and excited to try a new system under Fisher after being one of the NBA’s top stars over the same length of time, after he was a rookie in the same year as Manning.

On several levels, the preseason parallels are there. It’s up to Fisher, Anthony and the rest of the Knicks to simply look across town (or, technically, to New Jersey) and see them, especially if the Knicks come to a later point where adapting to new roles and a new way of doing things gets off to a tough start before things might eventually improve — just like they already have for the Giants.

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