Coming into this season, Mike D’Antoni needed a playmaker to round out a roster filled with ball stoppers, shooters and score-first players. The Carmelo Anthony “Point Forward” role was an experiment born out of necessity. On paper, it seems odd to pair a high-volume, low-efficiency scorer with the task of running a team.
However, by putting Carmelo in pick and roll situations early in the shot clock, D’Antoni may have triggered Anthony’s inner playmaker and pushed the Knicks closer to being serious championship contenders. In the Boston game, Anthony’s decision-making out of the pick and roll was exemplary. He made ruthlessly efficient pass-shoot decisions and showed why nuanced ballscreen play from a 6’8” ballhandler can be a nightmare for opposing defense schemes.
“Nuanced” is the key word there as from high school on up, wing players of Anthony’s caliber spend much more time in games and training in transition, off the ball and in isolation situations than in pick and rolls. This lack of repetitions is one of the reasons why, outside of the European-born Hedo Turkoglu, you don’t see advanced ballscreen play from wings around the league. When involved in a pick and roll as the ballhandler, most wings look solely for their own offense and ironically make finding it much harder. Defenses simply jam the paint and hope for a steady diet of contested mid-range twos.
What makes Turkoglu so good out of this action (outside of having Dwight Howard) is his ability to involve all five players out of a pick and roll (PNR), especially the roll guy. While not Dwight Howard, Tyson Chandler has shown the ability to an explosive dive man in PNR situations. Early in the first quarter, Anthony showed off his ability to recognize passing windows for his screener as he rolls to the basket. Here is a clip of Melo hitting Chandler with a “pocket pass” that lead to a pair of FTs for his big man.
Anthony’s size also gives him a huge advantage versus shorter guards in PNR situations because he can simply see angles and makes passes that smaller players can’t. In the following clip, you’ll see such an example. Anthony runs a middle PNR with Chandler that involves a re-screen. Immediately when coming off the re-screen, Anthony notices Ray Allen caught off-guard, communicating to his weakside wing. Not only does his size allow him to see Allen’s defensive state but it also allows him to make the pass itself. Here is the clip in real time with a freeze frame at the point of delivery:
Now with those two clips both ending in makes, it is easy to see the immediate impact Anthony can make. However, makes and misses aren’t the only way to evaluate his effectiveness in PNRs. Watch closely in the following clip as the hard hedge on Anthony by Boston’s Chris Wilcox puts Boston’s help defense in vulnerable positions. Anthony’s excellent first pass out (over the top of the hedge) leads to a corner swing and a great middle penetration opening for Fields to attack. Take a look:
Perhaps as a result of involving his teammates in earlier PNRs, Anthony finds an opening later on to find his offense.
Now all this passing doesn’t mean Anthony has to become Steve Nash 2.0, but the closer he strikes a balance between pass and shot out of PNRs or in his overall offensive game, the more efficient the Knicks will become. If Tyson Chandler can raise the level of the Knicks play on the defensive end as advertised, Anthony improving an already potent offensive scheme by adding in some playmaker will make New York something they’ve longed for since the Ewing days: contenders.
