Tyson Chandler is a good dude. He’s also a smart dude, aware of his station and lot in life after teams in Chicago, New Orleans and Charlotte have essentially given up on Chandler so far in his career, and his denial at a chance to become a member of the Kevin Durant-led Oklahoma City Thunder after failing a physical. As recently as last season, even, he was thought of as a contract albatross in New York.
Working back in Dallas at the age of 32, however, Chandler is clearly having a career year with the surging Mavs. Those Mavericks visited the sad state that is Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night, and following the team’s 20-point demolishing of the reeling Knicks, Chandler was asked if he had any of the sads for former teammate Carmelo Anthony.
“I do. I do,” Chandler responded when asked if he feels bad for his former teammate. “He’s a competitor. I laced it up and went to battle with him the last three years. I know what kind of competitor he is. I know he wants to win. I know he’s going to take a lot of this heat. It’s unfortunate because he’s a helluva player in our league. It’s unfortunate.
“It’s so tough. He signed a contract coming back here with expectations of doing everything in his power to take his team to the next level.
“Ultimately, I feel he will with the right pieces.”
Well, no, he probably won't. At least not for a few years, anyway, because the Knicks are playing like wet garbage right now.
Anthony is a competitor. You may take issue with his defense or decisions with the ball (while he isn’t stopping ball movement as much as he was last year, his hands are still far too sticky for this offense) or defensive decisions, but the guy does work hard and play through injury. One can quibble about the “competitor” aspect of things in reference to his off the court decision-making – Anthony could have turned down the Knicks’ money to play with a would-be championship contender – but for those two and a half hours on the court Carmelo attempts to bring it.
Carmelo took the money, understandably. Tyson Chandler knows the feeling – because he willingly left a championship team in Dallas this time three years ago to join a lower rung playoff team in New York, as the Knicks were offering him far more money than Dallas was. Chandler is lucky that Phil Jackson strangely decided to deal Chandler and Raymond Felton to a great team in Dallas last summer for a stopgap center in Samuel Dalembert and an upgrade in point guard in Jose Calderon. The triangle offense is usually averse to guards like Calderon (whose contract runs until 2017) that dominate the ball, so it was an odd deal all around.
Chandler is clearly happy to be out of New York, because while he may miss his one-time adopted hometown, the center is enjoying a healthy rebirth of sorts with a terrific Dallas squad.
The Knicks, meanwhile, are not terrific. They are terrible. And their rookie coach has had enough.
Frustrated with his team’s lethargic start on Tuesday night, Derek Fisher removed the entire starting lineup in one fell swoop with 5:20 left in the first quarter. They’d have entered even earlier had there been a dead ball opportunity, as the reserves were sitting at the scorer’s table for minutes prior to the whistle. The Knicks had been outscored by 16 points at that point, and Fisher was beside himself after the contest.
"I thought the start was not the right way to start a professional basketball game,'' Fisher said. "Those guys that were in there to start the game, that was a disappointment to their teammates more than anything. Guys that start the game have to mentally and physically be ready to play, and they couldn't put that out there.''
[…]
"They came ready to play,'' Carmelo Anthony said. "We didn't.''
The Knicks haven’t come correct all season. The group has lost 12 of 13 and its record currently stands at 5-22. They remain the fourth-worst defensive team in the NBA, and the ball is sticking with alarming regularity as the group half-heartedly works through its offensive sets. Phil Jackson and Fisher didn’t go into this season with championship expectations, but the team’s brain trust at least assumed it would compete while Jackson sorted through the salted crops.
Instead, things have stalled, bad habits continue, and even the team’s $125 million player is being openly pitied by a former teammate.
- - - - - - -
Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
from Yahoo Sports http://ift.tt/1sGDjCF
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire