The New York Knicks are trying to keep the faith. The team has now lost nine games straight, losing 19 of their last 20 games while being 5-29 overall. The only team worse than the Knicks right now is the Philadelphia 76ers and they are showing more potential than New York. This is certainly now how first-year head coach Derek Fisher expected to begin his tenure with the Knicks as the team comes off a loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. As doubt rises in his abilities, Carmelo Anthony is voicing his support.
According to Anthony, if it were not for Fisher, the Knicks would actually be worse. That is hard to imagine considering the team's record right now, but the veteran believes Fisher is keeping things together and pushing the Knicks to believe in themselves.
"I think if it was anybody else in his position, I think this probably would've crumbled already," Anthony said, via ESPNNewYork.com. "I think he's doing a great job of keeping everybody focused on the task at hand and believing in what we're trying to do."
The Knicks might be playing poorly, but they are not getting any injury breaks either. At one point or another this season, New York has been without Anthony, Amar'e Stoudemire, Andrea Bargnani, Iman Shumpert, JR Smith and Jose Calderon. Bargnani made his debut for the team on Wednesday, but Smith still remains out. That does not make things easy for Fisher or the Knicks in general as the team lacks depth on the roster.
Phil Jackson has looked into making trades with players like Shumpert or Smith, but no one is biting with a month left before the deadline. The likelihood the Knicks pull off a deal is slim considering their lack of assets, so things might get worse before they get better. The goodness for the Knicks is their abundance of salary cap space that will be headed their way next offseason. New York has big plans to chase players like LaMarcus Aldridge, Marc Gasol and Greg Monroe. For now, it will be much of the same for the Knicks.
I don't really like doing the New Year's resolution, but I just want 2015 to be better than 2014," Anthony said. "We've got to find a win. We can't be thinking about the turnaround. We've got to find a win first and see what happens from there. It's tough. Some days you're able to do some things, some days you're not. 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."
