Are Knicks Better Without Carmelo
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- Category: Sports
Knicks Win Again With Anthony On Bench
Who said injuries are the single biggest problem an NBA team could face in a season? Lose your best player, and lose your season right? Well don't tell that to the New York Knicks who have won a fifth consecutive game all while their marquee, all-star, face of the franchise sits on the bench nursing an injury. With Carmelo Anthony out, the Knicks have been doing something they are not normally accustomed to doing: winning. And the reason for this is because of the unexpected and dominating play from a player who spent his nights sleeping on his brother's couch!
Jeremy Lin is a player who up until only a few days ago was playing on a contract that wasn't even guaranteed! The Knicks were basically paying him in popcorn and bubble gum before they finally inked him to a league minimum deal. What this player of Taiwanese decent (yes Taiwan!) has done is turned the Knicks from a "watch one guy shoot then run back on defense" team into a "get everybody involved and play together" team. He has been remarkable, and his team has been winning.
After Lin out-worked Kobe Bryant in the infamous Madison Square Garden, Bryant's long-time playpen, many sports analysts began wondering if the Knicks could actually be better without their high-paid superstar players. If the Knicks were better, with dare I say it, Carmelo Anthony in sweats!
"What this kid is doing is incredible, and his story is truly one of those wonderful never give-up tales", explained a GPS fleet tracking specialist and Knicks fan at GPS Tracker Shop. "His story is great for the city of New York, Knicks fans and the Asian community."
Here are the basketball facts:
- Carmelo Anthony was an electrifying player on the Denver Nuggets
- After the trade, the no-name Nuggets played as a cohesive unit and continued to win
- The Knicks are a below .500 team with Anthony in the line-up
- The 38-points scored on Friday night by Jeremy Lin against the Lakers were the most by a Knicks player all season
The problem the Knicks have is that when Jeremy Lin, a guy making the league minimum, is running the offense they are winning more games than when Carmelo Anthony, a max contract guy, is orchestrating the show. The team is responding to a no-name rather than a big name. The Knicks actually beat the Lakers after ten straight losses with a line-up that looked like it could have been seen in the development league!
Clearly, the Knicks aren't going to cut or trade Anthony, but they will need to figure out how to shift the offense to make it more guard-friendly now that Lin-sanity has taken over New York.