The New York Knicks don’t actually look too terrible so far, and Carmelo Anthony is excited about it.
The New York Knicks were simply hopeless last season. With 17 wins, they had their worst season in franchise history and finished with the second worst record in the NBA last season. Thankfully for the Knicks, the Minnesota Timberwolves were kind enough to bail them out from being the worst team by recording an even more abysmal 16 wins.
Last season needs to be well and truly forgotten, though. And with multiple moves over the offseason, the Knicks have potential to at least make a few steps forward.
Now, according to LeBron James (as Ian Begley of ESPN has reported), Knicks All-Star Carmelo Anthony is actually “excited” about what’s going on in New York right now.
LeBron James told Cleveland reporters that his close friend Carmelo Anthony is "excited about what’s going on right now" with the Knicks.
— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) November 4, 2015
A 2-2 record wouldn’t normally cause excitement. Even for the most excitable fans, it’s hardly that great. But for a Knicks team who are building from the ground up, with a very different team to a year ago and limited talent, excitement is a little more justified.
The 7-foot-3 star rookie named Kristaps Porzingis is showing flashes of real potential, Derrick Williams has provided solid bursts of scoring off the bench (11.5 points in only 16.3 minutes per game), and they have five players scoring in double digits (eight averaging at least 8.5 points per game). Even with Melo averaging 23 points while shooting just 37.2 percent from the floor and 30 percent from three, they could be worse off.
At this incredibly early stage of the season, the Knicks actually rank seventh in offensive efficiency with 103.7 points per 100 possessions. Again, it’s a decent start considering their adjustments around so many new players. In terms of their performance on defense, that’s still left much to be desired, as they’re much further down the rankings at 20th in defensive efficiency. Yet, if you surrender 122 points to the Milwaukee Bucks and 117 to the Washington Wizards, it’s bound to happen.
However, considering the fact that they ranked in the bottom three in the NBA in both those categories last season, their first four games should be a welcome sight for Knicks fans.
How much they can continue to improve this season, though, is yet to be seen. With two wins already (impressive by their poor standards), it at least looks like they can beat last season’s mark of 17 victories. Although, it will be hard for them to fail. You really can’t set the bar much lower than the Knicks did in 2014-15.
Maybe behind a healthy and excited Carmelo Anthony and any slight improvement from the rest of the team, they can slowly regain some respect in the East as they try and move up from the bottom of the conference.