George Karl Sees a Talent Adrift as Carmelo Anthony’s Knicks Fade
Let’s assume, for the moment, that Carmelo Anthony will decide to re-sign with the Knicks after what has so far been a dreadful season. That the extra money along with ownership guarantees of a roster upgrade will be enough to quell whatever wanderlust Anthony may have.
The remarriage will surely be accompanied by vows of renewed championship contention. Then what?
How do the Knicks, after failing to maximize team achievement since his 2011 acquisition, build around Anthony’s formidable offensive skills?
Will they go on another fishing expedition for whichever free agent they can lure, or for actual talent that fits the complementary profile? And a question that continues to be more of a conundrum: Who, exactly, would be best matched with Anthony, one of the N.B.A.’s more enigmatic stars?
This seemed like a natural subject to discuss with George Karl, the one coach to make a prolonged playoff run with Anthony when their Denver Nuggets reached the 2009 Western Conference finals before losing in six games to the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers.
“He always wants to think like a coach, but he always doesn’t want to sign the contract with the coach,” the former Nuggets coach George Karl said about Carmelo Anthony, center.CreditAdam Hunger for The New York Times
Not surprisingly, Karl, now an ESPN analyst after his exit from Denver last season, began with fond memories of the veteran point guard Chauncey Billups, who was acquired by the Nuggets in 2008.
“He had that championship mentality from Detroit that my team didn’t have,” Karl said in a recent telephone interview. “It’s hard to define what that actually is, but I think it’s a combination of things: the leadership, the calming of a locker room, the peer pressure of making sure the right stuff is being talked about.”
In how that related to Anthony, Karl added, “He’s got to have that mental toughness around him for when he gets a little selfish.”
We can have a healthy debate about whether Anthony is a selfish player, or merely so adept at scoring that he firmly believes he is the best option under most circumstances, including those when he isn’t. I tend to believe he is not greedy by nature — he passes out of double teams, though often after holding the ball too long — but more a prisoner of his Amateur Athletic Union upbringing.
Karl didn’t disagree that Anthony might best be described as the prototypical A.A.U. showcase player in that he generates the most energy and passion when he has the ball. Case in point: He is one of the game’s most ferocious offensive rebounders, but mainly when pursuing his own missed shots.
“There’s no question that he wants to win and his I.Q. for the game is actually very good,” Karl said. “He always wants to think like a coach, but he always doesn’t want to sign the contract with the coach.”
Asked what he meant by that, Karl said: “I think Melo respected me and I think he respects Mike Woodson. But I don’t think Melo understands that coming to work with the best attitude every single day is a precious commodity when you’re the best player. That’s not the same thing as playing hard. That’s bringing the total package, 100 percent focused on all the little things. Those are rare breeds. Kevin Garnett. Michael Jordan. LeBron didn’t always have it, but he has it now.
“Melo doesn’t get an A in that department — maybe not much more than a B-minus. It is, in a sense, the A.A.U. mind-set: We worked hard yesterday, maybe we can take a day off today. That’s why he really needs that player — the point guard or someone who takes on that role — to be the bridge from the coach to him.”
Billups quickly became that player when he joined the Nuggets. By their second season together, Karl believed the Nuggets were playing the best ball in the league until he took a leave of absence in early 2010 to be treated for throat cancer. That stretch convinced him that Anthony could be the best player, or at least the primary scorer, on a championship team.
But it’s a tricky proposition, Karl said, because putting Anthony in optimal conditions will most likely demand having a player who is not as prolific, not as much a brand-name star, but one who holds more sway in the daily operation of the team.
He said that the combination of Tyson Chandler and Jason Kidd provided much of that tonic of intangibles as the Knicks won 54 games last season. Kidd, like Billups, might have been the ideal stylistic player for Anthony, as opposed to the more scoring-minded lead guards.
“I think Melo would have to know there’d be games when he didn’t have to be the star,” Karl said. “I don’t know if he’s learned that, but I also don’t think he’s that far from learning it.”
Turning 30 in May, Anthony would seem to have a better chance of enhanced self-discovery away from Madison Square Garden, where he has carte blanche and the organization treats him like Jordan. But where would losing Anthony and getting nothing in return leave the Knicks?
Given the complexity of their options, including a cap-clogging contract for Anthony that would carry him to 35, perhaps no worse off than if they started from scratch.
