Melo could be doing a better jobs as a player (Leading by example, staying positive on the court, dealing with the media, moving the ball, getting back on defense.)

Despite all that it doesn't make sense to try to pin the blame for the Knicks recent woes all on one of these guys' shoulders.

This guy's take makes sense.

The Knicks are top-heavy, with Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire and Chauncey Billups headlining an otherwise woeful roster. They lack a legitimate starting center. Their starting off-guard, Landry Fields, would be a reserve on most teams. Among the reserves, only Toney Douglas is a reliable producer. They have no 7-footers, no shot-blockers and no perimeter stoppers. The tallest Knick, Jeffries (6 feet 11 inches), is one of the N.B.A.’s least productive players. He has started 8 of the last 11 games.

“I just think they’re flawed,” said an Eastern Conference scout who has watched the Knicks several times since the trade.

The scout listed defense and ball movement as the Knicks’ greatest weaknesses. But the lack of talent was a close third.

“You have no depth,” he said. “You’ve got five good starters and a sixth man in Toney Douglas and who is the next guy? Jared Jeffries is your next-best player?”

Beyond the top six, the Knicks fall into two categories: specialists (who have one notable skill) and space-fillers (who have none). Shawne Williams, Roger Mason Jr. and Bill Walker are capable 3-point shooters who do little else. (And Williams is reliable only from the corners — meaning even his one dimension is one-dimensional.) Jeffries is a decent help defender who has a knack for drawing charges.

But consider their recent history: Jeffries was waived by the Houston Rockets, who barely used him. Williams spent the 2009-10 season out of the N.B.A. Until recently, Mason could not break the Knicks’ rotation. Walker has fallen out of the rotation entirely.

The rest of the Knicks are space-fillers — a category the scout bluntly called “Can’t Play.” That includes Shelden Williams, Renaldo Balkman, Anthony Carter, Andy Rautins and Derrick Brown.

The Knicks might have the worst bench of any playoff-bound team (assuming, of course, the Knicks make the playoffs. They host Orlando on Wednesday, when a loss would drop them below .500).

An analysis provided by the NBA.com StatsCube illustrates the point. The Knicks’ most-used bench unit (at least three nonstarters), post-trade, has played only 23 minutes together: Douglas, Fields, Walker, Shawne Williams and Ronny Turiaf.

The Dallas Mavericks’ second unit, by contrast, has played 341 minutes together. The Chicago Bulls and Oklahoma City Thunder each have three unique bench units that have played at least 100 minutes together.

According to the StatsCube analysis, the Knicks’ various second units share a fairly consistent trait: better defense, worse offense. The Knicks were not fantastically deep before the trade — for the season, they rank 29th in bench minutes a game — but the rotation became thinner because they gave up four everyday players (Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Timofey Mozgov) and gained only two (Anthony and Billups).

Gallinari and Chandler were dual threats, able to shoot the 3-pointer and drive to the basket. Defenders had to pay them much more respect than they do to, say, Mason or Shawne Williams, who have to be guarded only at the arc. Opponents ignore Jeffries entirely, leaving them free to double-team Stoudemire and Anthony.

We all know the Knicks to spend this off-season shoring up the 5 and 1 (especially if Billups doesn't right himself and TD doesn't suddenly get his head straight) AND bringing back the depth that was shipped off for Anthony. It's why I hope Donnie stays at least through next season to finish rebuilding...which was set back by the Melo deal.

I think Amare and Melo will do well together, but they need players and time...but not too much time.

GodSaveTheKnicks wrote:doesn't seem to be a duh for everyone calling for MDA's head or pronouncing the Melo trade a failure

That's just reactionary stuff. People were calling on his coaching well before the trade, so the current lack of winning only compounds that. The people really going off on the trade? Well, most of them were against to begin with, so that's a whole lot of nothing as well. All you had to was be watching the team to know that the depth was traded away, and watching them since the trade only magnifies that obviousness. This is just filling space to me. It's accurate and more about basketball than a lot of the other crap being covered about the Knicks, but it's not "news" to anyone watching the games or even just reading summaries and looking at the box scores.

grillco wrote:

GodSaveTheKnicks wrote:doesn't seem to be a duh for everyone calling for MDA's head or pronouncing the Melo trade a failure

That's just reactionary stuff. People were calling on his coaching well before the trade, so the current lack of winning only compounds that. The people really going off on the trade? Well, most of them were against to begin with, so that's a whole lot of nothing as well. All you had to was be watching the team to know that the depth was traded away, and watching them since the trade only magnifies that obviousness. This is just filling space to me. It's accurate and more about basketball than a lot of the other crap being covered about the Knicks, but it's not "news" to anyone watching the games or even just reading summaries and looking at the box scores.