Time To Freak Out: Knicks Weekly Panic Meter

via NBC Sports

At 3-6 and sitting at 12^th place in the Eastern Conference and third place in the Atlantic Division the Knicks are experiencing serious early season struggles. This can be attributed to the loss of their defensive anchor Tyson Chandler or the minutes limit on both Amar’e Stoudemire and Kenyon Martin. On Sunday the Knicks were thrashed by 20 by the same Atlanta Hawks team they beat a couple nights ago. Tempers are starting to run high. Fans are starting to panic. Let’s break it down.

Orange Is the New Black

For the fourth time this season the Knicks sported their orange alternate jerseys and for the fourth time they lost. The Knicks are 0-4 wearing their alternates and have been competitive in only one of those four (at Chicago). It may be time to hang the orange unis up and go back to the traditional home whites and road blues. Unfortunately that is some wishful thinking as they plan to wear the alternates at least 6 more times this season. Honestly they should be winning no matter what jerseys they wear, even if it's those ugly Christmas pajamas. 

Woodson’s Hot Seat

The fire under Coach Woodson’s behind might be bigger than MSG at this point. The team has looked like they don't care at times. Opposing teams have been getting to the basket like they have E-ZPass. While it is far from Woodson’s fault that his team has given as much effort as Andrew Bynum did in Philadelphia someone has to answer. With no viable back-up for Chandler signed in the offseason Woodson has been left to scramble for anybody willing to defend the basket. Andrea Bargnani has surprised a lot of people this past week as he finally seems to be fitting in on offense and turned in a superb effort against Dwight Howard on Thursday. As great as Bargs has been playing the Knicks need a legitimate center that can guard the post and grab rebounds. Frank Isola reported earlier today that Woodson is thinking about inserting Kenyon Martin into the starting lineup to help fill this void.

So Long Shump?

Iman Shumpert for whatever reason seems to be the Fall Guy of the Knicks early season struggles. The team tried to deal Shumpert away to the Denver Nuggets in exchange for high-energy guy Kenneth Faried but was denied. ESPN New York’s Ian Begley reported that the Knicks have now reached out to the Boston Celtics in hopes of forming a deal centered around Shumpert and Rajon Rondo. While this is the only deal that makes sense short and long term for the team the thought of the rivals doing business is hard to imagine. Hell if the Nets could heist the Celtics why not the Knicks? Anything outside of a Rondo deal, or for a big that can provide some size and rebounding in Chandler's absence, would not be a wise move by GM Steve Mills.

Courting Melo

Melo is not a happy camper. He was quoted by Marc Berman of the New York Daily Post saying “We got to play harder. We're not playing worth a [expletive] right now.” The team’s effort or lack of is starting to irritate Anthony as he continues to be a one man show on offense and watching opponents come into his house and wipe the floor with his team. Raymond Felton has been getting shredded by any point guard with a good first step, J.R. is regressing to the old J.R. and Tyson Chandler is out for at least five more weeks. The front office isn’t doing much better shopping Shumpert who Anthony thinks can be a great player in a couple years. If Shumpert is dealt for anyone not named Rajon Rondo or Gasol be afraid Knicks fans, be very afraid.

Panic Meter: 6

The lack of effort is getting to the point where you wonder if the team actually cares anymore. They have not defended their home court at all starting 1-5 at The Garden this year. They lost 10 games at The Garden all year last year. The Knicks have a difficult upcoming week with matchups against a big Detroit team, the Indiana Pacers, the best team in the conference not named Miami, and Washington on Saturday. This stretch will put the team’s heart to the test and by Saturday night we will see how much pride this unit has.

JR to start as Knicks look to bounce back from embarrassment

via SportingNews.com

On Wednesday the Knicks head to A-Town to fulfill their owner’s guarantee and get a much needed win. We all know what happened on Sunday (we’ll forget it happened). We all know James Dolan is very upset. We know Mike Woodson is on a scalding hot seat. Word leaked out Tuesday that the Knicks we also be without Amar’e Stoudemire per Ian Begley of ESPN New York. 

The Hawks are coming off an impressive win against Charlotte in which they had 26 assists as a team and scored 100 points for the seventh straight game to start the season. This is not the type of team you want to face when you’re as thin up front as the Knicks. Andrea Bargnani, Kenyon Martin and Carmelo Anthony are definitely going to have their hands full keeping Al Horford, Paul Millsap and Elton Brand off the glass. Look for a lot of Metta World Peace in this tonight as he was one of the few Knicks that showed up to play against the Spurs on Sunday and his energy will be relied on. It’s going to be a very long game if Bargnani puts on an encore performance on how to get put on waivers. Against the Spurs he had one more rebound than Spike Lee and looked like a man with no country on the defensive end. Both Al Horford and Paul Millsap are all-star level forwards and have the ability to grab 20+ rebounds if Bargnani and company don’t show up again.

In what seems to be the theme of Carmelo Anthony’s career the main storyline on offense is who is going to help Anthony score.  J.R. Smith will make his first start of the year tonight, coming in at SG to replace Prigioni. The move may surprise some, as the starting line-up will be extremely scoring heavy and not very defensive. However, with Tyson out and the team struggling to put up buckets, Woodson is forced to get creative. Putting your 5 best players on the floor together is his best choice right now.

Rookie Tim Hardaway Jr. remains one of the only constants on Coach Woodson’s bench as he was one of the four players to crack double digits in points against the Spurs. On defense Felton and J.R. will have their hands full with speedy guards Jeff Teague and rookie Dennis Schroder as well as a red hot sniper Kyle Korver who is currently shooting a scorching 54 percent from downtown per Basketball-Reference.com.

All of this means nothing without effort; something that was absent Sunday and has changed on a game by game basis. This is either going to be a grind out win that the Knicks need now more than ever. If they come out flat and get blown out of the gym again expect the beginning of wholesale changes to follow.