You may have heard that the circus is closing, but it is being revitalized every night at Madison Square Garden. Die-hard fans are paying money to see superstars such as Carmelo Anthony, Kristaps Porzingis, Joakim Noah, and Derrick Rose, but they might as well pay to see clowns do magic tricks. Knick fans have also been treated to a disappearing act by Derrick Rose to contribute to the circus theme of the year. The beginning of the year showed promise, passion, and desire but that quickly crumbled when the team went from the third seed in the eastern conference all the way down to eleventh in a matter of two weeks.  

The Knicks troubles have mainly come from poor defensive effort throughout the year. The Knicks as a unit have suffered from lackadaisical offensive and defensive rebounding, excessive fouling, poor transitional defensive, and allowing points off turnovers. We all know that Anthony is a brilliant scorer, but that is all he does. Anthony has the ability to lead by example on the defensive end but he just doesn’t have the will and the drive to exert himself when it comes to stopping the other team. Rose is gifted at getting to the basket, but he becomes unwrapped and unraveled when opposing point guards drive down Broadway. Noah has a lot of defensive ability but it seems that he has left all that ability in Chicago, along with his younger years. Kristaps Porzingis has improved on his rookie campaign, but he has not yet developed into a defensive presence in the paint. Kristaps has been more of a shadow when it comes to defending the basket. Bench players such as Brandon Jennings, Willy Hernangomez, Ron Baker and Mindaugas Kuzminskas have showed promise both offensively and defensively, but it hasn’t been enough to really make a difference.

When you look at the Knicks roster, you see a lot of offensive talent, and any casual basketball fan could tell you that scoring shouldn’t be a problem for them. Well that’s the problem, each individual player on the Knicks tries to carry the scoring burden by themselves. Anthony gets the ball at the beginning of the shot clock, puts ball over his head, takes a few jab steps, dribbles and then shoots with about ten seconds left on the shot clock. The shot either goes in or rolls out and the Knicks just deal with the outcome. There is no ball movement, the offense becomes very stagnate at times, and there is no visible chemistry on the court. Rose does not pass the ball and administer assists like a true point guard should. He is just trying to prove that he is healthy again in order to get a max deal next summer. He has already shown that he is not loyal to the Knicks organization by going AWOL and I don’t know any team that is going to pay someone that does that. Porzingis has become engulfed in the spotlight and wants to show everyone that he is an elite scorer. He does this by displaying the skills into becoming a point guard instead of showing the opponent that he is a seven foot three forward/center. He has to be in the paint on every single possession on both sides of the ball. He must be an intimidating presence in order to be successful in today’s NBA.

The Knicks troubles as a franchise can all be fixed by blowing everything up and rebuilding through the draft. They have to hand off the keys to the franchise to Porzingis. This might sound simple but there is one thing holding them back, Anthony’s no trade clause. Without his approval, the Knicks cannot trade him and start all over. The fans are growing tired of his isolation act but he feels the need to stay. A source close to Knicks president Phil Jackson has even said that the front office wants him out, so I ask you Anthony why stay in a place where you’re not wanted? We all know you want a ring, and New York is not the place where you’re going to get one.