Carmelo Anthony out for Knicks, Wade a question for Heat
Tthe struggling Knicks are going to be without their leading scorer for at least a few days.
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Knicks vs Heat: How Will Carmelo Anthony’s Injury Affect NY vs. LeBron James?
Things have gone from bad to worse for the struggling Knicks. Their chances of beating the Heat in Miami just went from slim to none, as New York will be without the services of its leading scorer on Friday.
According to Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Carmelo Anthony will be kept out of action for Friday’s game against the Heat in Miami.
Carmelo’s shooting has been abysmal, but this is a terrible break for the Knicks, at least as it relates to their chances in this game. Anthony is far and away their best offensive player. More importantly, he plays a style that would have given the Knicks their only real chance at an upset.
Without Carmelo, New York will be stuck playing Amar’e Stoudemire’s running style against Miami. While that is extremely fun to watch, it will be a recipe for disaster in this one.
LeBron James is too fast to allow that to consistently beat them, and their offense is too good to give to give the extra possessions to. Now James and Chris Bosh will get the ball more, allowing Miami time to show off their superior overall team.
With Carmelo, they could slow the game down, play more of an isolation style, limit Miami’s possessions and grind out a win.
That is not an option anymore, meaning that this game will get ugly.
Now, I am not saying that the Knicks should go out and play Anthony. He is in a terrible shooting slump, and this injury could easily have something to do with that.
Their chances of righting the ship, getting back into the playoff race and then winning in the playoffs are going to be dependent on Anthony. If he isn’t at full strength, the Knicks might as well pack the season in right now.
So keeping Carmelo on the bench to give him time to heal is a good move. Forcing Anthony onto the court isn’t going to help his injury and could possibly hurt it long term.
But if we’re analyzing the Knicks’ chances tonight, they are nonexistent. Without Carmelo, this game is going to be a one-sided affair.
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Why Carmelo Anthony/Deron Williams Trade Works for NY Knicks, NJ Nets
If the NBA regular season were to end today, the New York Knicks would barely squeeze into the playoffs. And while it’s still too early to go into full-blown panic mood, it’s apparent the Knicks need to do something in order to become a contender for the NBA championship. And that something should be trading superstar forward Carmelo Anthony.
While Anthony is having a stellar year, leading the Knicks in scoring with more than 25 points a contest, the fact is this team is not making any noise in the east, with teams such as the Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls and even Philadelphia 76ers looking light years better than them. The Knicks have to trade Carmelo in order to improve because he is their most valuable trade chip, as Amar’e Stoudemire’s injury history makes him almost impossible to trade.
But you don’t just trade a superstar that wants to play for you for nothing, so the Knicks need to find a deal that gets them even value for Anthony.
In comes Deron Williams. Deron Williams is by all accounts a superstar point guard. However, he is stuck in New Jersey, where the Nets have been playing dismal basketball and his best teammate is rookie MarShon Brooks. With Brook Lopez’s injury, not only have the Nets been a worse basketball team, but it’s also affected their pursuit of Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard, as Lopez was the Nets’ most valuable trade chip.
With the possibility of Howard joining the Nets diminishing by the day, Williams seems more and more likely to depart when he is a free agent this offseason. This creates the setting for a league-shaking trade between these two East Coast teams. For the Nets, they get a superstar in Carmelo Anthony, who still has a minimum of two years left on his contract. Additionally, they don’t run the risk of losing Deron Williams this offseason for nothing. Those should be incentive enough for the Nets to go through with this trade.
For the Knicks, making this trade may be a tough decision, but no doubt the right one. The personnel in New York has to be considered when making this trade. First of all, Stoudemire has always been at his best when he has a great point guard to dish him the ball. For many years that point guard was two-time MVP Steve Nash while he was with the Phoenix Suns. Those Suns teams twice made the Western Conference finals, with Nash setting Stoudemire up for easy buckets all along the way. Williams can bring that kind of incredible passing that to New York and help Stoudemire to be even more of an offensive force like he was in Phoenix.
Additionally, no Anthony means more opportunities for Stoudemire to score the ball, something he has been successful at his entire career. Williams is no slouch scoring the ball, either, averaging slightly more than 18 points per game this season. The Knicks wouldn’t lose much scoring even without Anthony, and they would also be better at creating offense with a point guard like Williams.
A pairing of Williams and Stoudemire creates a team much better equipped for a long playoff run than the current superstar pairing in New York.
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Carmelo Anthony Should Have No Regrets about Joining the Knicks His Way
It’s time to leave Carmelo Anthony alone, y’all.
Not only did he know what he was doing when he forced the trade back east last year, he did the right thing—at least the right thing for Anthony, Saturday night’s Danilo Gallinari Garden party notwithstanding.
Mike D’Antoni’s New York Knicks currently are a disaster and, frankly, a chore to watch. What happened to that fast-paced, high-scoring offense for which his Suns were so notorious?
These Knicks have yet to shoot 50 percent for a game, six times falling below 40 in their first 16 contests.
In the last eight games (including their current six-game skid), the New York field goal accuracy has exceeded 42 percent exactly once—that tough double-OT loss to Gallinari’s Nuggets—while they’ve averaged 18 turnovers a night. Additionally, more than a quarter of their field goal attempts in that stretch were launched from three-point land.
And it may not get any prettier as Anthony and the boys begin a four-games-in-five-days road swing in Charlotte Tuesday. When the Knicks and Bobcats met two weeks ago, they combined to misfire on 97 field goal attempts as New York eked out an unattractive four-point win.
You’d think a guy would be kicking himself for becoming part, parcel, even poster boy for all this mess.
Yet, if the Knicks can maintain their current standing in the Eastern Conference through the remaining 75 percent of this screwy season, they will have earned entry into the NBA’s championship tournament—in all likelihood, joined by Gallinari and the rest of Anthony’s former squad.
Yup, the Knicks, with their 6-10, .375 start to the season, hold the eighth-best mark in the East, albeit tied for 18th league-wide.
With a handful of teams little more than cannon fodder these days, the East would be the most logical place to most swiftly resurrect a franchise. (Do you really think Dwight Howard would prefer to go to LA or Dallas? Really?)
It must be painful for Walt “Clyde” Frazier watching night after night as the likes of Toney Douglas and Mike Bibby masquerade as competent pro guards. (Abacus will cut some slack to rookie Iman Shumpert, who has shown some sporadic promise but lacks a good role model excepting maybe D’Antoni himself, a heady lead guard in his playing days.)
Does Baron Davis still have the nearly 33-year-old wheels to provide the on-court leadership to spur on a playoff charge?
Is there a deal to be made?
Time will tell.
While pulling an upset in a playoff series holds a good bit more challenge than unseating a second seed in the Sweet Sixteen during March Madness, Anthony has demonstrated a champion’s pedigree before.
That frontcourt of Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler probably has ol’ Clyde wishing he had some legs left.
Questions remain and there’s certainly work to be done on several fronts, but Carmelo Anthony has put himself in a good spot.
After all, he could have gone home to the Wizards.
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Howard consults Carmelo for career advice
NEW YORK Dwight Howard has dealt with unrelenting questions all season long about his future and where it might take him whether thats Brooklyn or Los Angeles or Dallas, or maybe even nowhere at all.
Monday in New York, he finally got a chance to ask some questions of his own.
While the Magic were in town to take on the Knicks, Howard talked with New York forward Carmelo Anthony one of the few other NBA superstars who knows what its like to request a trade in advance of free agency and Howard admitted that it was helpful to get some things off his chest.
It was great to hear from him, Howard said of his talk with Anthony, who last season requested a trade from Denver before eventually being dealt to the Big Apple in February. All he said it to do whats best for you, and whatever you decide, people are going to dislike you. But you have to live for you, and thats good advice. I just told him I want to do whatever I can to win.
When asked if he has made a final decision on his future, Howard reminded everyone that hes still in Orlando and made it crystal clear that his focus is on his current team, regardless of the abundant speculation over how much longer hell wear a Magic jersey.
We cant focus on any other situation, Howard said. Right now the focus should be one game at a time. We cant look ahead. Weve got to stay in the moment, and weve been doing a good job so far. We dont need to discuss anything that happens, trade talks or whatever.
Our job is to continue to get better, and so far weve been doing a good job of just coming in, getting our work in every day and playing good on the court.
On Monday afternoon, Howard scored eight points and had 10 rebounds as the Magic rallied for a 102-93 win at Madison Square Garden. The win was the fourth straight for Orlando, which now sits at 9-3, atop the Southeast Division.
Our minds are on winning and staying focused on the goal, which is a championship, Howard said. Were just going to go out every night and play, and its my job to lead our team. When we play the right way I think we can beat anybody.
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Carmelo Anthony Won’t Use Crutches for Swag Reasons
Carmelo Anthony sprained his right ankle in Thursday night’s loss to the Grizzlies and he’s recovering. The team apparently wanted Melo to use crutches to help recover, but he refused and went with a walking boot instead. His reason?
“Yeah I had a boot on last night. They wanted me on crutches, but it was messin’ my swag up,” he said after practice Friday.
Gotta love it. Melo’s always gotta stay fly. But you already knew how concerned with looks he was, so this isn’t really a surprise, is it?
If I were a Knicks fan or coach, I might be upset. Wouldn’t you be upset if your star player were recovering from an injury slowly because he cared more about his swag than getting healthy? Me too.
Chest bump SB Nation via Black Sports Online
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Carmelo Anthony Injury: Just How Banged Up Is Melo?
Already dealing with a bad back, Carmelo Anthony added to his injury woes. First he sprained his right wrist, then he sprained his right ankle. At that point he was more “all left” than all right which is why he left the game and didn’t return.
Without Anthony in the game the New York Knicks struggled and were essentially blown out by the Memphis Grizzlies.
So this of course leaves Knicks fans wanting to know, when does their MVP candidate come back? The answer isn’t likely to be next game if that’s what you want to hear. According to Anthony,
“We will see [today],’’ Anthony said. “Right now I’m real sore. I’m more concerned with getting my ankle right. I can deal with my wrist. I can wrap the wrist and play through that. A sore ankle is a bit more deal with.”
That’s a cloud that could have a silver lining though. While Anthony’s play has been outstanding, the rest of the Knicks roster, including Amar’e Stoudemire, have been struggling out of the gate.
Stoudemire has only been scoring 19.2 points per game, down six form last year’s average. With Anthony out it could give him a chance to step up his scoring and find his groove.
In fact, the entire offense, with the exception of Anthony has sputtered this year. While their defense is much improved, with the seventh rated defensive rating, their offense is only 21st.
If they can find a way to get their offense going with Anthony out, once he returns the Knicks could be hitting on both cylinders. If they can get their offense and defense playing together the Knicks could start looking like the team fans had hoped to see when Tyson Chandler was singed this summer.
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Carmelo Anthony Injury: Can the Knicks Survive Without Him?
New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony had a rough Thursday night in a Knicks loss against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Anthony injured his wrist early and then had to leave the game after spraining his right ankle.
While his status for Saturday’s game against Oklahoma City isn’t immediately known, you have to wonder if the Knicks could survive without their star.
That answer is yes, on a short-term basis.
For one, the Knicks are now only 19-19 in the 38 regular season games they have played since the Anthony trade. That number doesn’t include the 0-4 postseason mark.
While Anthony is certainly great, he hasn’t exactly had an impact in wins and losses yet.
While his injury isn’t serious, if the Knicks were to have to go without Anthony for any extended period of time, they have enough talent to survive.
Amar’e Stoudemire would become the primary option of the offense and the ball would certainly move more.
When the Knicks are moving the ball on the offensive end, they are dangerous. There are just too many options for opposing defenses to have to worry about. Someone is capable of making a play on each and every possession.
That is what they have to incorporate more of when Anthony is on the floor.
Too often the Knicks offense becomes stagnant, featuring nothing but isolation plays and while Anthony excels in that type of situation it also makes things easier for opposing defenses.
Getting point guard Baron Davis into the offense soon will hopefully create more of a flow in the Knicks offense. You just don’t want to have to stop and play one-on-one basketball when you don’t have to.
So while you never want to lose a superstar like Anthony for any period of time, even a couple of games, the Knicks have enough talent to survive for a short period without him.
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Carmelo Anthony Injury: New York Knicks Star Leaves Game with Nasty Ankle Injury
The New York Knicks‘ super tandem of Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire has barely been getting the job done this season, but it goes without saying that the Knicks can’t afford to lose either one of them.
Well, they have to tough it out without Melo for a day or two. He suffered an ankle injury on Thursday night against the Memphis Grizzlies, and he left the court in considerable pain.
If you didn’t get a chance to see Melo’s injury, you’re more than welcome to watch the video clip. It’s not the worst ankle injury ever caught on tape, but Melo’s reaction made it clear that it was worse than it looked.
TNT’s David Aldridge reported that Melo had suffered a sprained ankle, and that he would not be returning to action on Thursday night.
According to Howard Beck of The New York Times, Melo is also getting X-rays on his ankle. He and the Knicks are holding their breaths that those don’t reveal a worse injury.
Before suffering the ankle injury, Aldridge reported that Melo had suffered a sprained right wrist. He has also been dealing with a sore back in recent days.
Yikes.
Even if Melo can suit up for the Knicks’ next game (Saturday at the Oklahoma City Thunder), it might be a good idea for him to take a few days off just in case. The Knicks need him healthy, and there’s no point risking further injury this early in the season.
We’ll see, but the good news is that Melo is probably suffered the extent of injuries for the night.
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Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony sprains right ankle
New York forward Carmelo Anthony left the Knicks’ game against Memphis on Thursday night after spraining his right ankle early in the second half.
Knicks officials said Anthony wouldn’t return and that X-rays were negative.
Anthony, the Knicks’ leading scorer at 26.6 points a game, injured the ankle on New York’s end of the floor and immediately limped to the bench. He was taken to the locker room moments later.
He had 14 points and three rebounds when he left the game.
Earlier in the game, Anthony injured his left wrist. He had extra tape added during a timeout, but continued to flex the hand during the second half.
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