New York Tanking: Knicks Could Shut Down Carmelo Anthony Soon

With the New York Knicks struggling for wins and failing to get respectability in the 2014-2015 NBA season, the franchise and their franchise player, Carmelo Anthony could be considering tanking— by resting their star forward— moving forward in what is another lost season for the Big Apple squad. First year head coach Derek Fisher admitted that the said development is part of their conversations recently and that resting “Melo” would be a smart move to make considering that the Knicks are far from being legit title contenders this season.

"From the conversations I've been a part of, I think everybody is smart enough to realize, calendar wise, timing wise, that there may come a point that that's the decision that needs to be made," Fisher said last Friday via ESPN.com. "We can't unilaterally just say, 'Hey, you know, you can't play for the rest of the season because of A, B and C. I think our medical staff, our training staff, continue to have conversations with him about where he is. He's conversing with us about how he's feeling, what the symptoms are. And so as each day kind of unfolds, decisions are being made. It's not something that we're just kind of stepping back and saying, 'Carmelo, you kind of tell us when you don't feel like playing anymore.’”

Behind their rookie head coach who was hired in the 2014 offseason, the Knicks are one of the worst teams not only in the Eastern Conference but the entire National Basketball Association (NBA) with a 5-30 win-loss record so far in the regular season. Only the tanking Philadelphia 76ers have a worse record than the Knicks with a league-worst 4-27 record. The Knicks are currently on a 10-game losing skid and have lost 20 of their last 21 games.

"It's tough. Some days you're able to do some things; some days you're not," Anthony stated in the same article. "Some days it's tough to even run around and cut and jump. And then other days I come in and I don't really feel it."

Anthony has missed 5 of 35 games this season owing to various injury woes mainly to a sore knee. Anthony remains one of the premier scorers in the NBA averaging 23.0 points per game on 45.3 per cent field goal shooting. The 30-year-old also adds 6.6 rebounds and 3.1 assists per outing in this regular season.

Anthony signed a contract extension worth $124 million over five years during the last season. For the franchise and the player, it’s only prudent that they think of the long-term rather than getting a few insignificant wins this season. New York owns their own pick in the next rookie selection, which means the more losses they accumulate this year will mean a better shot of landing the top pick in the 2015 NBA Draft.