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Overall
Win/Loss Record (as of November 30th): 3-12, fifth place Central
Division
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7
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This Month:
30
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Team
Statistics and League Rank
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Individual
Statistical Leaders
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SDH’s Worst of the Month: +Carmelo Anthony
 He may lead the Knicks in scoring, rebounds and minutes played, but Carmelo Anthony has been far from spectacular as he leads an under-perfoming team that is currently at the bottom of the Eastern Conference and should be considered more of a hindrance than a help for his team. His team leading 26.5 points per game has come from rather inefficient offensive production as has been shooting a woeful .429 from the field and .306 from beyond the arc. In the month of November, Carmelo shot under .400 percent from the field in seven of the Knicks' 13 games while taking a lion's share of the team's shot attempts. Add the fact that his poor defense has allowed his opponents to score just as many, if not more at a more efficient clip, does not make Anthony's supposed stellar numbers that much impressive either. If the Knicks continue to struggle as they have thus far, both the team and Carmelo may have to think long and hard on whether or not their rocky relationship will continue as Anthony will be an unrestricted free agent at season's end. | SDH’s First of the Month: Andrea Bargnarni Despite having been run out of of the previous city he had played, Andrea Bargnarni has proven to be the sole bright spot on what has otherwise been a sad looking Knick team. After a slow two game start in October where he posted 7.8 points and 1.5 rebounds per game off .438 shooting, Bargnarni stepped up his game the following month posting nearly 17 points per game off of .474 shooting, which was the best field goal percentage for the entire Knicks' starting five. He certainly proved to be a more efficient offensive producer than his teammate Carmelo Anthony and has also shown a greater proficiency on the defnsive end as well, leading the team in blocked shots per game. Although his rebounding still remains well below par for a player his size at just under six per game, Andrea's performance certainly give Raptors fan second thoughts about giving up on him. |
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The team had come into the 2013/2014 with so much hope for the future after it not only notched its first 50 plus win season in more than a decade, but its first playoff series win since 2000, and it seemed as if this would be the start of the Knicks' return to upper echelon of the NBA. They had entered the season with many from last season's team and had also brought in additional fire power during the offseason to make the team even stronger than it ever had been before. They brought in a bevy of veteran talent which included local product and 2010 NBA Champion Metta World Peace along with sharpshooting guard Beno Udrih and the number one overall pick of the 2006 NBA Draft Andrea Bargnarni to their already strong core of returning players which included All Stars Carmelo Anthony, +Amare Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler. Add the return of last season's Sixth Man of the Year JR Smith and Kenyon Martin who was instrumental in the Knicks' playoff run last season, +Madison Square Garden looked to be once again the basketball Mecca that it had once been. Sadly, however, all the champagne wishes, caviar dreams, and visions of ticker tape parades dancing in the heads of New Yorkers' will soon go up in smoke as their home team would crash and burn upon the arrival of the regular season. The season started oddly enough rather flat with the Knicks winning three of their first seven games, but that did not really worry many New Yorkers as it was just the start of the season and they expected their team to storm through the rest of November as they had done the previous season. Unfortunately that did not happen as their Knicks would continue to lose dropping eight straight to finish the month at 3-12 leaving Big Apple fans shocked and dismayed to see their once mighty team come crashing down right before their eyes. Shock and dismay soon were later followed by shame and disgust as fans were forced to witness their Knicks team lose one game after another and playing sluggishly and completely out of sync. What was once a high octane offense that scored up into the hundreds last season completely dried up as their ability to not shots and score points had completely eluded them while at the same time they seemed completely lackadaisical on the defensive end as they allowed their opponents to score at will on them. Although most of the losses were by relatively small margins, it certainly did not look like the same Knick team that won the Atlantic Division last season and was projected to challenge the +Miami HEAT for the Eastern Conference crown; instead, it looked as if all the accolades of the past quickly disintegrated as fast as they materialized leaving Knick fans deflated and dejected. It would not have been the case if New York had managed to pull out wins in the close games against the +Chicago Bulls (10/31), +Houston Rockets (11/14), +Indiana Pacers (11/20), or even the +Denver Nuggets (11/29) where the Knicks lost by a total of nine points. It would have certainly cushioned the impact of being manhandled at home by the +San Antonio Spurs by a whopping 30 point margin (11/10), or their two equally poor showings on the road against the +Portland Trail Blazers (11/25) and +Los Angeles Clippers (11/27). Unfortunately, not only did they lose those games, but those heartbreaking losses were also compounded by the fact that they lost by far lesser caliber teams such as the +Charlotte Bobcats at the start of the season (11/5), the +Atlanta Hawks at home by 20 points (11/16), the +Detroit Pistons (11/19) and +Washington Wizards (11/23) on the road. Had the Knicks have a possession or two going their way and their opponents missed a shot or two, they could have gotten at least three of those games making their rather embarrassing performance much easier to stomach as they would have been a somewhat more respectable 6-9 instead of a morbid 3-12. Sadly that is not the case as the Knicks are stuck in a hole in which they may no longer be able to get out of and it is sickening not only their fans, but those who follow the NBA to the point of vomiting. What is even worse is that there is very little the Knicks can do in terms of changing their roster because they are well over the salary cap and have little or nothing to offer in a case of a trade. They already have 70$ million committed to just four players--two of which who are either out of commission such as Tyson Chandler, or injured and a non factor on the court in Amare Stoudemire; plus, they have no first round draft picks as they have sent them to the Denver Nuggets to get Carmelo thus tanking the team will not do them much good either. If they chose to simply chalk the season up for a loss and throw away the rest of the season, the only ones who will benefit will be the Nuggets as they will receive the Knicks' pick in this upcoming draft so New York has no choice but to press forward, salvage what's left of this season, and try to make the playoffs. Fortunately for them, despite their dire predicament, the door has yet to close shut on the Knicks' hopes to reach the post season as they are just three games shy of first place in the Atlantic Division and about two short from the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Thankfully they reside in a rather sad Eastern Conference making it far less surmountable to stage some sort of comeback and return to playoff contention; however, even with so much still going for them, it will still be a tall order for the Knicks, especially with the way that they have been playing, to be capable of even reaching .500 let alone manage to return to playoff contention. So all Knicks fans can do right at this moment is wait and hope for the best because their team is essentially lodge in between a rock and a hard place; however, it remains hard to stay optimistic for a team that has fallen so low on expectations and looks as if they have lost all the fight that is left in them. It does not help that the team's leader, Carmelo Anthony, will be an unrestricted free agent by season's end and the team will have to decide whether to extend him for four more years at the tune of 110$ million or simply just let him go his own way. With the current state of the team, both parties would definitely be apprehensive of locking themselves to any long term agreement which will also add insult to injury if the Knicks would not be able to resign him--especially considering what they gave up to bring him there in the first place. For now at least, both have thus far kept quiet on the future as they both look to remedying their current situation and with the East in the sad state it is currently in, it is not far fetched that they can somehow make a run and return back to respectability. In spite of their poor production thus far on both end of the floor, they still manage to be among the best in the league at protecting the ball and forcing turnovers so if they can possibly build on those strength then perhaps there is a chance for a comeback despite being in such dire straights. |
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Tuesday, December 10, 2013
SDH Presents the NBA's Worst to First for November: 30. New York Knicks
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