Do not say the word tanking in front of Carmelo Anthony, he does not want to hear it. The New York Knicks are not good and at 7-36 they are nowhere near making the playoffs this season. However, Anthony is making it clear that does not mean the players have simply given up on the season. As team president Phil Jackson prepares for more roster moves, Anthony wants to make sure everyone is on the right mindset.
The Knicks got their second straight win after beating the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night. The 98-91 win was hardly a blowout, but a win is a win at this point for New York and Anthony will take it. The Knicks veteran stressed that this certainly helps improves the mentality of the players.
"I don't know how to have that mindset," Anthony said, via ESPNNewYork.com. "Having that mindset as a basketball player, as a competitor, it's just hard to do unless you don't care about the game, what happens and your performance. To say that we're going to go out there and we want to lose a basketball game, I think that's a bad mentality to have."
The Knicks are currently fighting for the worst record in the league with the Minnesota Timberwolves and the 76ers. According to ESPN, the Knicks have a 25 percent chance of landing the top pick in the NBA Draft, but that is far from everyone's mind right now. Head coach Derek Fisher made it clear the team was not tanking the season for the draft picks while he was simply focused on the current roster players and nothing more.
According to ESPN's Marc Stein and Ian Begley are still reporting that Jackson is preparing as many roster moves as possible. After dealing away JR Smith and Iman Shumpert, a trade for Jose Calderon appears to be the priority. Despite his less than ideal contract, the point guard holds a lot of respect in the league and would get the Knicks the most in return. There are also reports that either Amar'e Stoudemire and Andrea Bargnani will have their contracts bought out before the deadline.
The Knicks are doing all of this in preparation for a big free agency in 2015. The Knicks like everyone from LaMarcus Aldridge, Marc Gasol, Greg Monroe and Goran Dragic. Nothing will happen though if the Knicks cannot win a game.
