Carmelo Anthony can do only so much. His 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter of Friday’s loss to the Jazz was essential Carmelo Anthony. It was him just taking the ball, lifting up and draining the shot. Nothing more, nothing less.
That might be the ideal Anthony offense. He is the ultimate one-on-one player and can create his own shot from anything. There was minor controversy when he did not get the ball late in the Knicks loss to the Magic. Entering Sunday’s game against the Nuggets, the Knicks had lost seven straight games. The two wins for New York are over Charlotte and Cleveland, hardly pushovers.
So why are the Knicks struggling?
Some of it is certainly putting a square peg into a triangular hole.
Derek Fisher and Phil Jackson came into the basketball operations for the Knicks and seemed immediately intent on installing Jackson’s famous triangle offense. This offense is supposedly not difficult, although it is shrouded in lore thanks to the championships won with Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. Anthony, it seemed would be the next high usage start to find things click in this offense.
Carmelo Anthony is doing his best to run the triangle, but the personnel just may not fit. Photo by Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports
Anthony has not been himself as of late, averaging 23.5 points per game and shooting 43.6 percent from the floor, the lowest totals since his first year in New York. It is early of course. His assist rate is better than 20 percent though. If that keeps up, that would be just the second time that has occurred in his career.
The issue though is the rest of the Knicks do not seem to fit the offense Fisher wants to run. New York fans probably do not want to hear “rebuild” thrown around, but that is very much what Jackson has to do. And he has to figure out how to move pieces around while keeping the promises made to Anthony in free agency.
There is still plenty of time to judge Fisher as a head coach. There is still plenty of work left to do before we can judge Jackson as an executive in any way. But the one thing we can tell already is that the triangle is still a relatively simple offense and that the players are running through their sets successfully. The question is whether they have the talent to make those sets successful.
First, what is the triangle? Because it always seems like fans do not have a concept of what this offense entails.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ7QMNUFqMw
As you can see from the ESPN Sports Science explanation, the offense relies heavily on good spacing and cutting. Those are not necessarily the Knicks’ forte. It also requires a center willing to pass the ball.
So how are the Knicks running it?
Samuel Dalembert is the Knicks’ starting center at the moment. Dalembert has never averaged more than one assist per game in his career. This year, he his averaging 1.7 assists per game. That is a pretty huge bump up. But Dalembert is not going to confuse anyone for Luc Longley or Shaquille O’Neal, two solid passers out of the post for championship triangle teams.
Yet, the Knicks run their triangle pretty smoothly. The players are in the right spots, it just feels like the wrong personnel.
Dalembert had four assists in the Knicks’ loss Wednesday to the Magic. All of them were products of the triangle.
The Knicks possession early on here started with Quincy Acy flipping the ball to Carmelo Anthony and Iman Shumpert cutting through. Anthony reverses the ball quickly to Shane Larkin as he comes off a screen from Acy. This is how the Knicks will set up their triangle. Dalembert establishes post position as Acy cuts through and Shumpert makes the diagonal cut to the corner, a hallmark of the triangle.
Larkin sends the ball to the corner to Shumpert who feeds Dalembert in the post (you can see Dalembert could also have been an option with such deep post position). Shumpert moves the ball into the post and waits to see how the defense reacts.
Evan Fournier has turned his head and Shumpert makes the correct read. He cuts backdoor and Dalembert feeds him for the easy dunk.
This is such a basic triangle set up. But there are missed opportunities here. Why is Acy, the power forward for all purposes, the one initiating the offense. Could Dalembert have gotten the ball and scored with the deep post position? What happens if Fournier does not lose Shumpert for that brief second? Could the Knicks reset?
This, as you can clearly see, was early in the game. So here were the Knicks starters making this play. This one was executed well. But not all were.
Who is there to spread the floor? J.R. Smith hardly keeps his discipline in running an intricate set like these. This is the basis of the offense.
Pablo Prigioni is averaging 1.0 turnovers per game against 2.0 assists per game. Shane Larkin is at 1.0 turnover per game against 2.8 assists per game. The Knicks, as a team, are averaging 13.4 turnovers per game which is better than last year. That compares to 21.6 assists per game, also up from last year.
So why are the Knicks struggling so much early on this season?
New York is shooting 44.1 percent from the floor which is slightly down from last year. It is hard to put a finger on where New York is going wrong. Defense certainly plays a role. The offense is not producing at the same rate as last year. That much is for sure.
The talent level is lower and there simply are not the shooters or players who understand the reads that become necessary in an offense like the triangle.
Eventually, Fisher’s offense will work for this team as Jackson brings the players in that he needs to run it. This year’s team is not a fit for this offense. Not even close. They try to run and execute the offense as best they can, but there are going to be rough times ahead for this franchise as they make this transition. It will take a few shrewd free agent moves or trades to get this roster back into shape.
