Despite Carmelo Anthony playing a similar role to Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant in the triangle offense, New York Knicks team president Phil Jackson seems to think he needs to get rid of the ball faster.
“Carmelo a lot of times wants to hold the ball longer than… we have a rule: If you hold a pass two seconds, you benefit the defense,” Jackson told CBS Sports' “We Need To Talk.”
“So (Anthony) has a little bit of a tendency to hold it for three, four, five seconds, and then everybody comes to a stop,” Jackson added. “That is one of the things we work with. But he's adjusted.”
This has been Anthony's mantra during his entire career — a dominant and versatile scorer, but one that needs to control the ball in a one-on-one scenario in order to succeed.
“He can play that role that Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant played,” Jackson said. “It's a perfect spot for him to be in that isolated position on the weak side, because it's an overload offense and there's a weak-side man that always has an advantage if the ball is swung.”
Anthony's role has been virtually reduced to an elbow isolation player, which directly corresponds to his decline in scoring numbers since winning a scoring title in 2012-13 (28.7 points per game).
The use of the triangle offense has been minimal during the Knicks' last 10 games, in which they're 7-3 — including the four-game winning streak they ride into Wednesday's matchup against the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers.
“It's always a little bit of a pie-in-your-face type of thing to say that (the triangle offense) has been the reason for winning,” Jackson said. “The reason for winning, obviously, is good players. And when good players want to play together and they join in a form or a format to play together, then really good things happen.”
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