New York Knicks: Should Carmelo Anthony Be Shut Down?
By Owen Sanborn
Let the tankapalooza begin for the New York Knicks!
ESPN.com reported Friday that Carmelo Anthony has been advised to “shut himself down” for the foreseeable future.
"“I have multiple people say kind of just shut it down. Or just take time off. But at the end of the day, it’s hard for me to just do that right now in the midst of what’s happening with the team and this season. So just trying to be smart about that.”"
Read between the lines of that quote and you can see the preliminary stages of a tanking strategy beginning to take shape. Is it time for the Knicks to — as Jalen Rose so eloquently puts it — “Beg More for Okafor?”
The Philadelphia 76ers, of course, have been the leaders in the clubhouse the entire season in terms of Tankapalooza 2015. The Boston Celtics then threw their hats into the ring with their recent dismissal of Rajon Rondo (I actually don’t think they made out too terribly unlike the majority of the population).
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But the Knicks are right within striking distance because of their dismal 5-23 record (second worst win percentage in the league).
Phil Jackson has reached a certain tipping point with the Knicks that he now deems it acceptable to tweet down to his haters.
Derek Fisher has neglected to deviate away from the triangle offense and is still choosing to air on the side of patience when it comes to the roster.
Carmelo Anthony has looked like a shell of himself all year because of his bum knees, poor shot selection and controversial ESPN magazine piece in which he stated his off the court aspirations of becoming a business mogul.
Since the chances of Melo getting the opportunity to pitch his next great business venture to the sharks of ABC’s Shark Tank are basically equivalent to the Knicks’ title hopes this season, I don’t think shutting himself down for awhile would be the worst thing in the world.
Obtaining a top 5 draft pick gives a team great flexibility. The Cleveland Cavaliers are an excellent example of this, as they parlayed their lottery luck and other young assets this summer into the services of Kevin Love from Minnesota.
The fascination of super teams amongst today’s players makes it increasingly difficult for smaller market teams to keep their stars if they do not see the groundwork for championships (excluding Oklahoma City of course… for now).
Obtaining a top 5 pick in next year’s draft would give something to dangle in front of other general managers within smaller markets.
A pick in the upper echelon of the draft is usually able to net something of worth and New York could acquire a third or even fourth banana to pair with Melo and whichever impending free agents they dream of signing (Marc Gasol? Rajon Rondo?).
As long as Phil Jackson is in the front office and Carmelo Anthony is on the roster, the Knicks will be in win now mode, making a supremely young prospect utterly useless to them for the time being. New York knows this, the rest of the league knows this, hell, even Spike Lee knows this.
The hypothetical scenario where the Knicks end up with Rondo, Gasol, Melo and a top-five pick will most likely prove to be a pipe dream. But, even for all of the risk involved, it may be the only way out of the hole that New York finds themselves in right now.
For all of these reasons, I believe Melo should sit back for awhile and take a brief vacation. Get himself right both physically and mentally.
His best contribution to the Knicks right now may be helping them secure pole position in the Tankapalooza 2015 sweepstakes.