With all that's speculated to occur in the summer of 2014, Carmelo Anthony said Tuesday that he believes this year's New York Knicks team is better than they were last season and looks forward to the challenge ahead.
Anthony, who was a guest speaker at the Bloomberg Sports Business Summit in Midtown, also admitted that he'd take more of a scoring mentality than he did last season when he won the scoring title.
"We were the top two seed last year'' Anthony said. "I think nobody expected that. This year we expect to do the same thing. I actually see this team be better than last year's team. I won't get into all the details [why]. But we feel that. We feel we have improved as a unit."
The Knicks finished last season with a 54-28 record, thus winning the Atlantic Division but were booted out the playoffs in the second round after losing in six games against the Indiana Pacers.
This year's newly refined roster will see the additions of Tim Hardaway Jr., Metta World Peace, Andrea Bargnani and Beno Udrih. However, despite the new talent acquired the Knicks are still projected to drop to fifth in the Eastern Conference.
Anthony also touched on the ever increasing rivalry between the Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets, saying:
"I love it" Anthony said. "I think it's a great for sports. I think it's great for us as a Knicks organization. To have somebody we can compete with on a consistent basis four times a year I think it's going to be the best rivalry in basketball for a long long time.''
Although Anthony seems excited about the upcoming season, there still remains the rumors that he could opt out of his contract in order to explore free agency in 2014. Anthony has since downplayed the rumors but has also admitted that his "window is closing" and that he's "trying to bring a championship to New York ASAP."
"As far as ruling anything out, I haven't even, to be honest with you, thought about anything past today," Anthony said. "My mind is not even thinking about next season, next offseason right now. I'm just trying to do what I do this offseason to get right, work out, train and get right and prepare myself for this season. When that time comes, I'll deal with that."
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