The New York Knicks are 3-7 and dropped five in a row now. Including to Minnesota and a previously struggling Rockets team in the last two.
Knicks fans booed the home team Sunday after their latest loss. Amar’e Stoudemire told ESPNNewYork that he didn’t like that.“It’s definitely something that I’m not accustomed to. It’s not fun,” Stoudemire said after the Knicks lost, 104-96, to a Houston Rockets team that came into town with just two wins. “We’re a young team and we make mistakes but we can’t keep doing the exact same thing every night. We just gotta find a way to grow up….”
“I don’t understand why we’re not playing with the urgency. I’m not used to that,” the Knicks’ $100 million man said. “We’re not playing like we’re on a four-game losing streak, now five. We don’t have that sense of urgency. It’s almost as if it doesn’t matter and it’s not something I’m used to.”
“We just can’t have guys complacent and comfortable with losing,” Stoudemire, said with a look of pure frustration on his face. “I can’t stand that. It’s more attitude. It’s more heart. We have to show more heart and go after it.”
We’re quick to criticize fans for booing for no good reason, except Knicks fans actually have some reason. They were sold on hope — questionable, false hope but hope — and that has turned out not to be the case.
Shockingly, the problem is the Knicks offense — they are currently 25th in the NBA at 103.2 points per 100 possessions. And that is where the hope has failed.
The Knicks were going to take a step forward this year not just because of Stoudemire but because Danilo Gallinari was going to take a step forward — he hasn’t, he’s regressed, he’s shooting 36 percent overall, 32 percent from three, both down about 60 points from last year. He’s getting to the line more, he’s turning the ball over less, but at the end of the day he gets paid to knock down shots and he hasn’t.
But it’s not just Gallinari — Wilson Chandler is shooting 29.4 percent from three, Toney Douglas 28.8 percent from deep. Mike D’Antoni’s offense doesn’t work if the team is not shooting from three, and as a team the Knicks are shooting a sad 32.5 percent (25th in the league).
Add to all this that Anthony Randolph and Timofey Mozgov have not lived up to the hype, and you have a Knicks team that is not doing well on offense. (To be fair, Mozgov made his name in Europe as a pick-and-roll guy and Raymond Felton never gets him the ball in that situation, as Alan Hahn of Newsday has pointed out.) Somebody needs to start knocking down shots, and if it isn’t one of the guys on the roster, then Donnie Walsh needs to get somebody. The outside shots have to fall.
