New York Knicks: Melo and Lin or Melo for Howard?
By A. Mazzolini
On the front page of
there is a poll asking people if they believe that Carmelo Anthony and Jeremy Lin can coexist in New York. Of the 13,426 people that have voted so far 86% were positive in their answer. I, on the other hand, was part of the 14% that do not see Melo and Lin being able to play together. But it might not be for what some people think. The small forward is known for two things since hitting the basketball spot light, the first being winning it all at Syracuse in his only season under head coach Jim Boeheim,
who stood up for his former player
in the “Linsanity” discussion, and secondly, the fact that he wanted to leave the Denver Nuggets to be on a bigger stage than that franchise could give him. For me neither of those will come into affect, but reality is that the Knickerbockers will be headed into a tough part of their schedule, if the New York franchise begins to lose the local and national sports media, as well as the fanbase, will look for a culprit. Melo could be the easy target in that.
In the last five game of this month the Knicks will face off against five more teams, three of them with winning records, beginning with Dallas today (on ABC), along with Miami and Atlanta. March will then begin with games against Boston, Dallas again, San Antonio, Philadelphia, Portland, Chicago and Indiana plus Philadelphia twice. Meaning that in the next sixteen match ups New York will be facing 13 teams above .500 and looking to make the playoffs. Of that group seven of the games will be on the road. as well as a couple against teams in their division. All of this is a lot rougher going that what the squad has been facing since “Linsanity” sprung in the metro area, and somehow I do not see this team going on any seven game winning streak during this stretch of the season. However, looking closely at the schedule, I could see NY losing seven in a row with this gauntlet of games.
For Carmelo Anthony, who wants to be the star of this team, had the front office of the Knicks give away most everyone to get him to the Big Apple, coming off an injury, this is the moment where he will have to show that he can lead by doing “more is less”. What do I mean? He will have to hold on to the ball less, get less shots, but make more with them by using Lin to find him for the open shot. If in this stretch of games Melo was to start playing the point forward and the team begins to lose more than win all I can say is “watch out” cause the boo birds would definitely come out in the mecca of basketball.
Since on this blog I promised to never stay on the fence let me ask you this: with Dwight Howard still on the market, if Melo was willing, would a trade Melo/Chandler for the Howard be a good move for the New York Knicks? Lin and Amar’e Stoudemire can play off each other with the pick and roll, while Melo needs the ball a lot more than he might get if head coach Mike D’Antoni does not give in and lets the second year guard keep being the floor general. Plus, for NY this move would also avoid another problem for them, the Nets getting Howard and having to deal with him each season for the next years.