The New York Knicks had an awful season in 2014-15 winning just 17 games. For the upcoming NBA season the Knicks plan to be much better after making a few roster additions including Robin Lopez, Arron Afflalo and Kevin Seraphin. Even with the roster additions though the key to the Knicks is Carmelo Anthony and after missing the second half of last season with a knee injury he appears to be taking a major leadership role, according to Ian Begley of ESPN New York.
Anthony has reportedly been trying to get his teammates to go down to Puerto Rico for a few years now and it seems this year many of his teammates took him up on the offer. The newest Knick, Seraphin, posted a photo of their workouts on Twitter and among the people there are Anthony, Kristaps Porzingis, Lance Thomas, Cleanthony Early, Lou Amundson, and Jerian Grant.
First Mini camp in Puerto Rico with my new teammates @nyknicks carmeloanthony @kporzee @jeriangrant @carmeloanthony
Anthony has been criticized in the past for his lack of leadership and probably rightfully so, but this move by him shows that he is taking his leadership role more seriously. For the most part the Knicks are a young team and they need Anthony, who has been around for a while, to show them what it's like to play and win in the NBA.
The fact that Anthony has only been to the Conference Finals only once in his career is part of the criticism of him as there have been questions about whether he could be the leader on a Championship team. Now at age 31 Anthony seems to have realized that his window of opportunity is closing and that he needs to take the reigns of the team which it appears he is doing.
Anthony's leadership may not lead to a championship but it will lead to a more cohesive unit that will more than likely be more competitive than last year's mess of a team.
