No one was going into the season expecting the New York Knicks to light the world on fire. They don’t exactly have the best roster but they do have one thing. A bonefide star in Carmelo Anthony.
With Melo being the focal point of the Knicks offense all eyes are drawn to him, including those of the NBA’s referees.
Lately, Melo has voiced his frustration with the lack of calls he gets in games and he doesn’t understand why it happens.
Following from Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News before the Knick loss to the Utah Jazz on Wednesday.
Two days after he picked up a technical for arguing about a non-call from Lauren Holtkamp, Anthony vented about the circumstances while revealing the common explanation from officials, “that I’m the most difficult player to referee in the NBA.”
“I always get fouled. That’s what frustrating me. You play so hard, work so hard, then you don’t benefit from that. Then you kind of look at other guys and you touch them, you look at them wrong, you get fouls,” Anthony said Wednesday before the Knicks’ 106-85 loss to the Jazz. “So that’s the frustrating thing for me as a guy who likes to go to the basket, as a guy who likes to go to the paint and be physical and play physical.
“I don’t know. It’s really nothing I can say about that but I’m human. Those frustrations kick in at times. Especially when you’re down there banging and you know you’re getting banged on. I don’t know what else I can do. I don’t know how to play any other way.”
Then, Anthony said the following, again courtesy of Bondy from the New York Daily News, after a controversial finish against the Sacramento Kings on Thursday.
Anthony, who spoke Wednesday about his level of his frustration with the officiating, didn’t seem to have his mind changed in Sacramento Thursday.
“Did you see it?” Anthony asked. “Let me know what you think about it, let me know in Portland (where the Knicks flew after the game).
“That was the shot that was there. It was still a clean look. I got the ball up there. Other than that, I’d rather not talk about it.”
Melo isn’t getting any calls, in his opinion, and he has every right to be upset about it. He cant’t change anything about it and the only thing he can do is continue to play his game but there is something he can change. The way his team plays. The Knicks have a ton of slow guys, including three starters in Jose Calderon, Robin Lopez and Kristaps Porzingis. They do have some speed in Langston Galloway and Arron Afflalo but beyond that, it’s just a bunch of slower players.
To add onto Melo’s frustrations, it appears that he’s also upset with the slow pace of the Knicks this season. Ian Begley of ESPN has the report.
Anthony hasn’t offered many specifics, publicly, for why he thinks the Knicks (10-13) have struggled lately. But, privately, sources say Anthony has expressed frustration to teammates with the Knicks’ slow pace of play.
After a recent home loss, Anthony told teammates that the Knicks needed to play faster in an effort to get easier baskets in transition, sources say.
“He felt like they were stuck in the half court too much,” one source said Thursday.
Early in the regular season and dating back to the preseason, the Knicks were playing at one of the NBA’s fastest paces and it’s something that head coach Derek Fisher wanted to do but they’ve considerably slowed down as the season has gone on. They entered Thursday’s game against the Sacramento Kings ranked 23rd in pace. It’s more than just pushing the ball and having the right guys in the game. They may also be able to increase their pace if they created more turnovers and limited opponents’ offensive rebounds. They enter play Thursday forcing just 12.5 turnovers per game which is good for the second fewest in the NBA and they also are allowing 11.5 offensive rebounds per game which is tied for the fifth-highest total entering Thursday’s games and rank 24th in defensive rebounding rate.
The Knicks have dropped eight of their last 10 games and the frustration with Melo and the Knicks is obvious. It’s not something that is going to change over night but if the Knicks want to contend for the playoffs, they’re going to have to change something, and fast.
