 |
| www.playersview.net |
By Kenneth Teape (@teapester725)
The NBA Awards season is among us and
the Knicks are a team that figured to have plenty of players mentioned. J.R. Smith started it off by bringing home
the Sixth Man of the Year Award, which Mike Woodson receiving votes for Coach of
the Year and Glen Grunwald receiving votes for executive of the year.
Carmelo Anthony added another distinction
in being named to All-NBA Second Team along with Blake Griffin of the Los
Angeles Clippers, Marc Gasol of the Memphis Grizzlies, Tony Parker of the San
Antonio Spurs and Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Lebron James of the Miami Heat, Kevin
Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs, Kobe
Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers and Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers
were named to the first team, while the third team consisted of David Lee of
the Golden State Warriors, Paul George of the Indiana Pacers, Dwight Howard of
the Los Angeles Lakers, Dwayne Wade of the Miami Heat and James Harden of the
Houston Rockets. Other Knicks to receive
votes and points were Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton.
For Anthony, this is the sixth time in
his career he was named to an All-NBA Team and the second time he made second
team. It was a well deserved honor for Anthony,
who finished third in the Most Valuable Player voting, receiving one first
place vote. Anthony had a strong season
for the Knicks, averaging 28.7 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.1 steals
per game while shooting 45.6 percent from the field and a career high 37.9
percent from the three point line.
Anthony was the first Knick player to lead the NBA in scoring since his
idol Bernard King did it during the 1984-1985 season.
Anthony also led the Knicks to one of their
best seasons in recent history, as the 54 regular season wins are the most
since the 1999-2000 team won 50, also the last time the Knicks won a playoff
series before this season. This was the
first Atlantic Division title the Knicks won since the 1993-1994 season as well.
In addition, Chandler was named to the
NBA All-Defensive First Team after winning Defensive Player of the Year last
season and being named to NBA All-Defensive Second Team. He was joined by James, Serge Ibaka of the
Oklahoma City Thunder, Joakim Noah of the Chicago Bulls, Tony Allen of the
Memphis Grizzlies and Paul. The second
team consisted of Duncan, George, Gasol, Avery Bradley of the Boston Celtics
and Mike Conley of the Memphis Grizzlies.
Chandler and Noah tied with points, hence why there are six members of
the first team. Iman Shumpert also received
one point to be the NBA All-Defensive Teams.
Chandler had another strong season in
the middle for the Knicks, averaging 10.7 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per
game. Chandler is a culture changer and
has changed the attitude of the Knicks since he has arrived. He struggled through injuries at the end of
the regular season, missing 16 of the last 20 games, but he gave the Knicks
everything he had once again being the only viable option Woodson would use at
center.
Chandler struggled in the playoffs as he
looked as he was trying to get back into the swing of things but without him
leading the defense and Anthony leading the offense this team would have been a
lot worse.
No comments:
Post a Comment