Carmelo Anthony’s former coach (at Syracuse) Jim Boeheim thinks Carmelo Anthony needs a better Knicks supporting cast to win an NBA title.
Check out what he had to say about Melo and the rest of the team after the jump & let us know what you think…
Via ESPN:
Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim remains a big fan of Carmelo Anthony and closely follows the superstar NBA player who led his Orange to the 2003 national title.
But after Anthony’s latest ouster from the playoffs, Boeheim is convinced the forward will continue to fall short of a championship if the New York Knicks maintain the core of their current lineup.
“Not on that team,” Boeheim told the Syracuse Post-Standard over the weekend. “He did what he can do. He played very well the final game. Everybody’s killing him, butTyson Chandler just didn’t try to catch the ball.
“He threw him the ball and Tyson Chandler went like this,” Boeheim told the newspaper as he made a dodging motion in an office chair at the Carmelo K. Anthony Center. “He was wide open. He should have been looking for the ball right here. Kenyon Martinshould have been looking for the ball.
“They both went like this,” Boeheim said as he dodged again, according to the Post-Standard. “Carmelo gets turnovers and the announcers aren’t smart enough to even think, ‘Well, the guy should try to catch the ball.'”
Anthony capped the postseason with a 39-point performance in the Knicks’ Game 6 loss to the Indiana Pacers. His season scoring average of 28.7 fell just short of his career high of 28.9 during the 2006-07 season with the Denver Nuggets.
During this postseason, he shot 40 percent from the floor in 12 postseason games after making 45 percent in the regular season, his third with the Knicks. Anthony got beat up in the playoffs, suffering a left shoulder injury that will require an MRI, according to general manager Glen Grunwald.
Boeheim said the Knicks needed Anthony, Raymond Felton and J.R. Smith to play at the top of their games every game to have a chance at winning this season.
“Those guys weren’t great players where they were and now they’re asking them to be second and third options,” Boeheim said, according to the Syracuse newspaper. “In Miami the second and third options areDwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Your fourth option is Ray Allen, who is still in good shape. Your fifth option is Shane Battier, who is still a good player. The New York Knicks have who?”
But Boeheim’s focus was on Chandler — his former player 2012 United States Olympic team when Boeheim was an assistant coach — as the reason for the Knicks’ relative failures, saying “they’re getting nothing but older.”
“Tyson Chandler claims he never gets the ball. He doesn’t try to get the ball,” Boeheim said.
