Scotto: Changing of the Guards Looms for Knicks

NEW YORK –The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows, as Rocky Balboa once said. Just ask New York Knicks coach Derek Fisher.

The Knicks were coming off Wednesday’s season-opening 25-point win at Milwaukee. New arrival Derrick Williams scored 24 points. Rookie Kristaps Porzingis shot 12 free throws. Heck, Carmelo Anthony had five assists.

One night later, the Knicks laid an egg in their home opener with a 112-101 loss to the Atlanta Hawks. They allowed Atlanta to shoot better than 50 percent and trailed by double digits the entire second half, when the title-starved fans at Madison Square Garden slowly emptied into the streets of Manhattan.

And Fisher doesn’t want his team riding that roller coaster.

“I think that we try to do what we think is best night in and night out,” Fisher said after Thursday’s loss. “There isn’t anything set in stone. For me, having been in the game a long time, it’s always very interesting to see how quickly things change. Last night, everything was great and the sun was up. Now, all of a sudden, there’s no sun because we lost tonight.

“That’s the mentality that we have to get out of in this organization. We can’t go up and down with the sun and moon one day at a time. Being good takes time; it’s a process. Being great is not easy.”

This may be the most insightful and bluntly honest quote from Fisher during his brief tenure as coach. But if he is looking to effect change, he might want to change his guards.

The loss to Atlanta was an early test for New York to gauge where the team is as a possible playoff contender this season and – eventually, hopefully – a title contender down the road.

With that in mind, the Knicks have some work to do. It’s probably worth mentioning that the Knicks actually started 2-1 last season – with a win at Cleveland – en route to a spiffy, franchise-worst 17-65 mark.

“We saw the difference between where they are right now and where we are right now,” Fisher said. “We’ll have to learn from it as we go forward.”

One thing we have learned is that the trade of Tyson Chandler and Ray Felton to acquire Jose Calderon, Samuel Dalembert, Wayne Ellington and Shane Larkin, with draft picks that became Cleanthony Early and Thanasis Antetokounmpo, has been a bust. SheridanHoops proclaimed this 10 months ago, which led Knicks president Phil Jackson to defend the trade in a series of tweets to SheridanHoops.

Last season, Chandler averaged 10.3 points and 11.5 rebounds for Dallas Mavericks signing a four-year, $52 million deal with Phoenix this past summer. Meanwhile, Felton has been relegated to third point guard duties in Dallas, but his contract expires after this season.

Ellington was traded before even suiting up. Dalembert was waived. Larkin left in free agency. Antetokounmpo was cut in training camp and is in the D-League. Early has failed to become a consistent bench player and mopped up in garbage time Thursday.

The only “asset” has been Calderon, who missed 39 games last season and remains a defensive liability with another $7.7 million coming to him next season. Despite Calderon’s basketball IQ, shooting and veteran leadership, his defense is a major weakness in a league where point guard is the most dominant position on a nightly basis.

Although Calderon has struggled since joining the Knicks, he believes his play will improve once he gets his legs back under him.

“It’s been two games,” Calderon said. “We won last night and we lost today so let’s not make a big deal about it. We’ve got to get better, for sure.”

What is a big deal is Anthony shooting 14-for-43 through the first two games. Including his last two preseason games, Melo is 22 for his last 75 from the field.

Anthony is returning from knee surgery and may just be getting his legs under him. But a point guard who can penetrate into the paint could draw a help defender and free Anthony for better shots.

That isn’t an option with the 34-year-old Calderon on the floor thanks to his lack of speed. But it could be an option with rookie Jerian Grant.

For example, Calderon stole the ball from his man at midcourt, then dribbled at a snail’s pace toward the hoop before he stopped, pump faked and drew a foul on the fast break. That simply wouldn’t happen with any other point guard in the league and it speaks to Calderon’s lack of explosiveness.

Through two games, Calderon has averaged 18 minutes, shooting 1-for-10 for five points and two assists. The Knicks are a net minus-17 with him on the floor.

Meanwhile, Grant has averaged 26.5 minutes and has performed well. He had five points, seven assists and seven rebounds against the Hawks while facing speedsters Jeff Teague and Dennis Schroder. Against rangy Michael Carter-Williams and the Bucks, Grant scored 10 points and had five assists. More important, the Knicks are plus-26 with Grant on the floor.

“I just came in and was going to do whatever the coaches wanted me to do,” Grant said. “Throughout Summer League, coach Fisher has helped me a lot to be able to realize that I can help this team. I think he sees that, too.”

Starting a rookie at point guard may be a frightening premise. But four teams have done it either last season or this season and will be better for it.

Another guard who can help the Knicks is Arron Afflalo, who remains day-to-day with a hamstring injury.

Anthony has played with Afflalo during his tenure with the Denver Nuggets and believes the shooting guard can make a sizable impact when he returns.

“Anytime you have a guy like Arron sitting out – and I don’t want to kind of put it on him because we do have guys that can step up – you miss that,” Anthony said. “You miss a big guard who can defend multiple positions, who can stretch the floor, who can give you something else offensively. Of course you’re going to miss that anytime.”

The return of Afflalo to the starting lineup should strengthen the bench, with 31-year-old Sasha Vujacic –  who now has played as many NBA games this season as he had in the past three seasons – returning to the pine to provide added shooting and scoring while playing against reserves.

A backcourt of Grant and Afflalo would be much more dynamic than the pedestrian pairing of Calderon and Vujacic. The play of Grant and Afflalo will be pivotal for New York’s future, as I previously wrote in our SheridanHoops Knicks season preview.

Can Grant become the point guard of the future? Is Afflalo — one of the top 25 potential free agents on the market — a long-term fit?

Both will be critical to New York’s immediate success and the organization’s long-term future.

Michael Scotto is an NBA columnist for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter: @MikeAScotto.