As bad as things are (they have lost 9 straight), the New York Knicks are still Carmelo Anthony’s team — and the franchise will pretty much sell their firstborn to keep ‘Melo happy and re-sign him this summer.
So if you get in an argument with Anthony... well, that’s a step toward the door.
Iman Shumpert — who was already being shopped around by the Knicks — vented at Anthony on the bench during the team’s Sunday loss to the Pelicans. Shumpert then was benched for the fourth quarter (video above courtesy SLAM). Rookie Tim Hardaway Jr. got the minutes and put up 21 points on the night.
As the New York Post reports, everyone tried to play the incident down after the game, with Shumpert just calling it “a miscommunication” on defense.“Of course I wanted to play,’’ Shumpert said. “Tim was making shots. J.R. [Smith] had it rolling. We were just trying to get a win....’’
Anthony declined to talk about Shumpert, who has been on the trading block since the middle of last month.
This plus Hardaway’s play is just greasing Shumpert’s path out the door, the Knicks are just looking for a deal they like. Which could take a while as teams are not offering near what the Knicks think is fair right now.
As for the play in question, the Knicks have switched a lot of pick-and-rolls lately and Anthony seems to do that here but both he and Shumpert both go with the ball, there are no rotations and the end result is an open three. This is really a team thing — either the Knicks need to be clearer about switches and rotate better or not switch so much. Right now they are getting killed trying to switch.