i can't find a link to a story on it, but heard the audio this morning. chandler basically saying that woodson got outcoached by kidd and joe johnson and when he was asked if the knicks should be playing a rotating style of defense, chandler flat out said no.
i took a minute to look and see if there were any articles about this but didn't see. has anyone seen any, yet?
the dark clouds are moving in...
Knicks' Carmelo Anthony certainly has the look of someone who wants out
Free agent to be has been Knicks most consistent player. While he refuses to give up on the season and is hardly dogging it, the fact that team lacks 'fight' seems to be wearing on him.Carmelo Anthony says his Knicks lack 'fight' in a loss to the Nets Monday. Team brass may have a hard time convincing him he is close to a championship if he stays in New York.
The look of sheer disgust was obvious on Carmelo Anthony’s face when Andrea Bargnani missed a defensive rotation − shocking, right? − and allowed Deron Williams to make a wide open jumper.
Right on cue, ESPN cameras caught Anthony’s immediate and telling reaction from the bench.
The Knicks’ franchise player, who is no doubt counting the days until free agency begins on July 1, bowed his head and shook it in disgust. Melo hadn’t looked this miserable since, say, last week’s embarrassing loss to the Indiana Pacers.
The one difference is that before you could scream “he’s outta here,” Anthony’s reaction was being posted on the website Deadspin for all the world to see over, and over and over again.
In the instant information age, you could that say Anthony was already on his way to Los Angeles and a new NBA life 11 minutes before Brooklyn’s impressive 103-80 victory became official Monday.
“I didn’t think we would be in this situation,” Anthony would say after the Knicks’ fourth straight loss. “I don’t really know how to deal with situations like this. I’m learning. This is the first time for me.”
The Knicks arrived at the halfway point of their season to nowhere with a 15-26 record that puts them on pace for 52 losses one year after Mike Woodson’s team posted 54 wins. That record is bound to stand as the high-water mark of the Melo era in New York, especially if Anthony leaves as a free agent, which is a distinct possibility with each successive loss.
Anthony is far and away the Knicks best player this season, but he may be doomed to a fate he can't control if the team does not improve around him.
The general feeling among NBA players and coaches is that Anthony will walk, even if it means leaving $30 million on the table. LeBron James took less money to secure a championship future in Miami and Anthony has already been quoted this season as saying that James was “smart” to make such a move.
James Dolan and Steve Mills have a serious problem on their hands and the Knicks’ two highest-ranking basketball officials may only have until the Feb. 20 trading deadline to figure it out. Barring a deal for a legitimate second star − preferably a point guard − it will become increasing difficult to demonstrate to Anthony that his best chance of winning an NBA title is here at Madison Square Garden.
By no means is Anthony giving up on the season. He’s been the team’s best and most consistent player. He isn’t dogging it by any stretch of the imagination. But he wonders about the rest of his teammates, many of whom lacked the prerequisite fight against a crosstown rival.
“That’s the only thing that kind of bothers me: today we didn’t even fight,” he said. “I felt like we didn’t fight as a team. Those guys from the jump ball just came in and it felt like they owned us.”
Anthony’s spirit has been crushed. You saw it against the Pacers last Thursday and you saw it on Monday as the resurgent Nets, Dolan’s arch- enemy, played harder and more unselfishly. Come to think of it, they looked like last year’s Knicks.
“I don’t want to believe (we’re are 15-26),” said Anthony, who watched the final minutes seated on the floor with a towel draped over his shoulders. “I don't want to accept that. I won’t accept that. If anybody’s being complacent with losing, that’s not the mentality we should have as a basketball team, and we shouldn’t be okay with losing basketball games.”
Anthony looks and sounds like he desperately misses the leadership and guidance Jason Kidd provided last season. He clearly isn’t alone. The Knicks stood in a receiving line to embrace the Nets’ coach after Kidd’s team spanked them. Had Dolan been in attendance, the boss would have been mortified.
Anthony hugged Kidd at center court and afterward talked about Kidd as if were the best coach he’s ever had in New York.
“They played to the mismatches,” Anthony said of the Nets. “That’s something that Jason does well, even when he was here. That was his big thing: play to the mismatch.”
Anthony avoided criticizing Mike Woodson maybe because there was no reason to pile on. The unrest in the locker room is growing. Tyson Chandler had already said “they outschemed us” and that he “personally don’t like” switching on defense, which is Woodson's strategy.
“I think switching should always be your last resort,” added Chandler, who won a title in Dallas with Kidd.
Kidd and Chandler were supposed to help Anthony get his title. Same with Amar'e Stoudemire, Kenyon Martin, Marcus Camby, Kurt Thomas and Rasheed Wallace.
The 2012-13 season is looking like the golden year for Anthony and the Knicks, a team that hasn't won a title since 1973 and went 13 seasons without winning a playoff series.
Anthony knows Dolan will pay to keep him in New York, but Carmelo also seems to have reached the conclusion that he'll never win here.
You can see it in his face.
