Carmelo Anthony is a fan of the team around him and despite a 4-6 record, he believes the Knicks‘ roster will stay intact, George Willis of the New York Post writes.
“Right now this is a group we could be seeing for a long time, at least this whole season and a couple of years after that,” Anthony. “This is something we can build on. We’re just talking about the first couple of weeks of an NBA season. Hopefully, when January comes along we’ll be sitting back and looking at these games and seeing how much better we’ve gotten.”
Here’s more from New York:
- Anthony has bought into the culture that president of basketball operations Phil Jackson has instilled, Ian Begley of ESPN.com writes. “What we’ve seen is I think a willingness to kind of fit into what we’re trying to do,” coach Derek Fisher said. “[He’s] trying to give other guys space to operate out there.”
- The Knicks added scoring options this offseason, but the team is still relying too heavily on the offense of Anthony, Begley writes in a separate piece. “We’re trying to make sure that [Anthony] and the guys understand that just giving [Anthony] the ball and saying go make a shot, that’s not the way we’re going to win games in the fourth quarter,” Fisher said. “It has to be done through all five guys. And that goes both ways, and that’s not easy to do. Melo’s been asked to do that on a lot of teams that he’s played on. We’re asking everybody not to play that way, first through fourth quarter, but it’s just not easy to do.”
- Rookie guard Jerian Grant has struggled lately because teams have figured out how to defend him early in the season, Brian Lewis of the New York Post writes. “It’s just called welcome to the NBA. People watch us play, the same way we watch them play,” Fisher said. “Some guys have made adjustments to how they’re defending him. He’ll learn how to still do what he does best in terms of getting penetration. Becoming a part of this league — and certainly sustaining it — allows you to embrace your weaknesses, the things you don’t do so well.”