phil.mushnick@nypost.com DELAY OF GAME
No one talking Knicks' real problem: Carmelo holding back KP growth
AS A practical basketball matter, let’s go back to the 2015 NBA draft, when we might have heard, “With the fourth overall selection, the Knicks select 7-foot-3 Kristaps Porzingis.” “Wow! Tell us more.” “Well, he has one specialty.” “What’s that?” “Outside shooting.” Perhaps it has something to do — or a lot to do — with the presence of Jim Dolan, but practical basketball solutions to issues that always swirl within and around the Knicks are always the first to be sacrificed to secondary considerations, especially media debates.
In the case of 21-year-old, twoyear NBA vet Porzingis, he and his brother/advisor apparently feel that the good and welfare of his career lies in backing frequent malcontent Carmelo Anthony, while defying the minimal wishes of Knicks’ management to show up for a season’s end chat.
We therefore wonder if it has dawned on the Porzingis Brothers that two seasons of subservience to Anthony’s game has prevented Porzingis from developing into more than a 7-foot-3 shooting guard.
After all, if Porzingis’ inside game has improved — as it, by now, certainly should have — how would we know? He has spent his first two NBA seasons loitering on the outside, because that is where the ball is and from where it is shot as per Anthony’s presence.
When is the last time, for example, the Knicks ran a baseline screen to free Porzingis inside? How often did we see Porzingis hit with an inside pass off any kind of pick? How often did he post-up inside against defenders, most far shorter than he?
Porzingis couldn’t be found inside because he was outside, playing catch with Anthony in pursuit of the same 3-point shot with 3 seconds left on the shot clock that could have been had with 18 seconds left on the shot clock.
Last season, Anthony averaged six 3-point shots per game; Porzingis averaged five. How did that work out for the Knicks?
At 7-3, 21-years-old and agile, why has Porzingis, two years in, presented no worries, let alone an occasional threat, to opponents as an inside scorer? Why hasn’t Porzingis helped — or been able to help — the Knicks become a better team?
When, other than when those incredible three weeks forced Jeremy Lin to drive the team bus instead of Anthony, did the Knicks beat or even frighten a team with easy layups or a fast break? The Knicks, throughout the Anthony Era, have lived but mostly died with outside shooting.
But that is the kind of practical matter that is lost early then forever as the Porzingis/Anthony/ Phil Jackson “thing” is reported, updated then beaten on sportstalk radio like an old rug on a clothesline. This shouldn’t be a matter of loyalty, but practicality.
Why, at 7-3 and 7.2 rebounds per game, was Porzingis last season just the 35th-best rebounder in the NBA? Why, at 7.3 per, was he 41st the season before?
Why hasn’t his game developed beyond the obvious, bringing aid and comfort to opponents?
How many times must we have to hear MSG’s Clyde Frazier suggest Anthony, ejected three times last season, stop complaining to the refs and instead run back to play defense? How many times has the final, decisive shot been predictably taken by Anthony far from the basket against up-closeand-personal double teams?
By now, Porzingis should have at least developed into a pretty good small forward.