Carmelo: “I Need To Not Take So Many Shots”

How does one tell a shooter to not shoot as much? I don’t know and neither does Knicks head coach Mike D’Antoni. Instead, he chooses his words carefully and says things like “I thought ‘Melo played amazing.” That’s the problem when you have two superstars on your team, you do everything in your power to not criticize them for fear of retaliation and the possibility of losing your job. Well, after last nights loss at home to the Denver Nuggets (Anthony’s first game against his former team since the trade), D’Antoni might not make it through the week. And if he does, he better hope they beat the Bobcats on the road this Tuesday.

Carmelo’s a scorer, we all know that. He’s been that since he was just a young cat playing ball in the streets of West Baltimore. His career average of 24.9 points per game and an average shot selection of 19.4 make it impossible to argue against it. But even he, at times, knows he shoots too much. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t trust his teammates — how long did it take Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant to trust theirs? — or maybe in his mind he believes every shot he takes is going to be a swish.

The Knicks are playing Wizards basketball right now. Their record of 6-9 is terrible considering how stacked they are with Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler. Even Iman Shumpert is showing play that is not of a normal rookie and Landry Fields is still Landry Fields (although he’s better in the up-tempo game). With all that fire power, there should be no way New York is ranked 24th in the league in Offensive Efficiency (96.2 points per game) but despite what we see on TV, their defense is better than advertised when compared to most teams (giving up 98.7 points per game).

His 25.7 points a night are incredible numbers, but he is struggling. Mightily. He’s taking 21.3 shots a night and is shooting the lowest field-goal percentage of his career (40.4). He’s averaging 4.7 3s a game but only connecting on 32.4% of them. In the Knicks last four home losses, ‘Melo is 35-of-105 (33 percent) from the floor.

Maybe it’s the wrist injury or maybe it’s a sense of urgency to try to get the job done because he feels other teams around him are miles ahead when it comes to competing for an NBA title. After all, New York doesn’t have a point guard that can lead them past teams like Chicago or Miami out East. Hell, I don’t even see them beating the Celtics easily unless Danny Ainge breaks up the Big 3.

‘Melo isn’t sure what’s wrong himself, but he did some contemplating:

“Maybe I need to not take so many shots. I don’t know,” he said. “There’s just a bunch of stuff that goes through my mind. Just [trying to figure] out ways to make other guys better. Should I pass it more?”

In Anthony’s defense, he is averaging a career-high 4.2 assists a night but according to Hoopdata.com, his Assist-to-Turnover Ratio is at 1.29, which places him at 72nd in the league amongst players who are qualified (Kevin Durant is dead last with 0.90). So yes, maybe ‘Melo should try to pass the ball more but only in the right situations. There’s no reason for him taking 30 shots against Denver while Amar’e only took 9 ALL GAME, even in DOUBLE overtime.

That’s just ridiculous.

The shots that Carmelo’s taking are ones he’s always made, the ones he constantly works on in practice. They’re just not falling right now. I’ve watched him play since Oak Hill — been my favorite player ever since — but I know when he’s not healthy, and right now he isn’t. His first-step burst isn’t back yet, which leads me to believe his ankle isn’t fully healed. I can tell his wrist is bothering him because he’s altering the way he shoots to fight through the pain.

Maybe he needs to take one out of Kobe’s book and use a cortisone shot every night?

Melo’s never been the one to ‘sit out’ during games unless he really feels it’s necessary but the Knicks simply aren’t winning right now with him playing hurt.

“I’m kind of hard-headed sometimes [when trainers tell] me to sit out games. I don’t really know how to take that. But maybe it’s time to re-evaluate that,” he said.

Yes, Carmelo, it is time to re-evaluate that because when a guy who isn’t a superstar takes 11 fewer shots than you and leads his team to victory behind his 37 points (Danillo Gallinari), something isn’t right. Trying to squeeze 66 games in a shortened season is no easy task, but it also makes it harder to recover from injury if you keep trying to play through it, too.