Knee issues during a losing season aren’t to be taken lightly.
With the New York Knicks better positioned to win the NBA lottery than make the playoffs, Carmelo Anthony needs to take time off and heal his body.
In the offseason, the Knicks signed the 6’8″ 240-pound 30-year-old to afive-year contract worth $124 million—the organization must take precautions with its most valuable asset.
Although he’s scoring 24 points per game and has a player efficiency rating of 21.47, Anthony is laboring in each outing as New York struggles to maintain relevance.
Why He Needs a Break
Via Marc Berman of the NY Post, Anthony is hesitant to rest since the season is still young, “We’re dropping further and further, but we’re in December it’s hard to for me to take it easy and sit out and see what happens.”
But Anthony’s knee isn’t improving with him logging heavy minutes. He’s feeling the effects of his injury, and it’s wearing on his ability to contribute as well as he can:
Throughout the month of December, Melo is playing 39.2 minutes per game—far too many for someone on a losing team who is battling an injury.
Via Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com, head coach Derek Fisher said the following, regarding Anthony: “He doesn’t like to sit out, he doesn’t want to be away from the team but he also has still a bright future in front of him that he shouldn’t jeopardize as well and I think he’s savvy enough to make the right decision at the right time.
Of late, with Anthony averaging close to 40 minutes and playing 43 minutes against the Washington Wizards on Christmas Day, Melo‘s health may be in jeopardy. Although Anthony can compete through this injury, with New York positioned with the league’s worst teams, it makes zero sense asking him to play through pain and risk this issue degenerating into a more severe problem.
If Rested and His Knee Heals
With some time off, Anthony’s knee should improve and if it does, it is perfectly fine that he returns on a minutes restriction.
The franchise may be in serious disrepair at that time, but with Meloon the court, at least some chemistry will develop and he’ll grow more familiar with the triangle offense. Anthony will also have more consistency at that time with the way his knee feels than he does currently.
Via Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com, Anthony said, “Some days it feels like I can go. Some days it feels like I have everything. The other day it was a little sore in the first half and I didn’t have no lift in my shot, and in the second half the lift came back a little bit. It’s going to be off and on like that.
The constant questioning and sporadic soreness he’s dealing with at the moment would be much less of an issue with Anthony taking time off.
Once the discomfort ceases, the All-Star can return to the court and contribute in a more efficient and effective manner than he has thus far.
Pushing Melo to play through this injury as the team flounders and appears to be inadvertently tanking is illogical.
Anthony and the Knicks need to see the big picture and do what’s in the best interest of the franchise and himself moving forward. This season is a lost cause, there isn’t any reason to put his performance during the duration of this contract in jeopardy to salvage a few meaningless wins in the present.