New York Knicks: Why Carmelo Anthony Must Facilitate More to Win

Carmelo Anthony needs to be a team player instead of handling games on his own. (Flickr.com photo by Keith Allison)

Carmelo Anthony is the leading scorer for the New York Knicks, to no one’s surprise. This year’s scoring champion still has extraordinary momentum, as he leads the team with 33 points a game in the playoffs. However, his scoring prowess won’t last. Carmelo Anthony must facilitate more to win.

In other words, Carmelo Anthony needs to pass the ball more to his teammates.

Anthony had two assists in the first three games of the Knicks’ series with the Boston Celtics. Granted, his scoring streak worked out at that point. Game 4 was a different story.

Anthony scored 16 in the first half of Game 4, leading to a 36-point performance. He only recorded two assists that game and also turned over the ball seven times.

How can a team win with one player scoring the majority of the points? It’s not possible.

2013 New York Knicks Playoff Leaders per game

Rk               Player G   MP   FG  FGA  FG%  3P 3PA  3P%  AST TOV  PTS
1       Carmelo  Anthony 4 40.8 11.5 28.3 .407 2.0 5.8 .348  1.0 3.3 33.0
2        Raymond  Felton 4 40.5  7.5 15.8 .476 1.5 4.3 .353  5.3 1.8 17.8
3            J.R.  Smith 3 30.7  6.7 15.3 .435 1.7 5.3 .313  1.3 2.3 16.3
4         Iman  Shumpert 4 26.0  2.3  6.5 .346 1.5 3.5 .429  1.5 1.3  6.3
5         Kenyon  Martin 4 22.3  2.3  4.5 .500 0.0 0.0       0.5 1.3  5.5
6        Pablo  Prigioni 3 25.3  1.3  4.3 .308 1.0 3.0 .333  2.7 0.7  4.3
7        Tyson  Chandler 4 26.0  1.5  2.8 .545 0.0 0.0       0.3 1.3  3.5
8           Steve  Novak 4  9.8  1.3  2.3 .556 0.8 1.5 .500  0.0 0.0  3.3
9            Jason  Kidd 4 30.3  0.8  3.0 .250 0.8 2.5 .300  3.3 1.0  2.8
10          James  White 3  1.3  0.3  0.7 .500 0.0 0.3 .000  0.0 0.0  0.7
11   Quentin  Richardson 3  2.7  0.0  1.0 .000 0.0 0.7 .000  0.0 0.0  0.0
12       Chris  Copeland 3  8.0  0.0  1.7 .000 0.0 1.0 .000  0.0 0.3  0.0

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com. View original table

In Anthony’s defense, the Knicks aren’t doing so well scoring the basketball. Raymond Felton and J.R. Smith are the only ones averaging double digits other than Anthony. Smith is averaging 16.3 points in the series, while Felton is at 17.8 points per game. The next leading scorer is Kenyon Martin, who is averaging 5.5 points in this series.

It continues to only get worse. Iman Shumpert, averaging 6.3 points in this series, is shooting 34.6 percent from the field. Chris Copeland and Quentin Richardson haven’t contributed at all in the series, which is especially disappointing from the once-surging Copeland.

Maybe Anthony has to do it all on his own, right? Wrong!

Anthony’s committed 13 turnovers in the series. The next most is Smith with seven. Turnovers are not the issue, as the Knicks rarely turned the ball over. The issue is distributing the ball.

Just look at his play in Game 4 as an example. Anthony drove the ball between a sea of defenders instead of passing it to an open Shumpert, who was open behind the 3-point line. That was one of the few occurrences that worked.

Anthony is a scorer first and while commendable, he can’t win on his own.  Basketball is a team sport, and we know it take a whole team to win a series. Game 4 of the Knicks/Celtics series saw Felton and Shumpert step up in huge ways. It’s time for Carmelo Anthony to help his team in a different way: pass the ball.

*chart courtesy of Basketball-reference.com