In the New York Knicks organization, the superstar player now even does the job of the head coach. Carmelo Anthony reportedly told Kurt Rambis that Jerian Grant and the younger guys should play more as the season comes to an end.
Carmelo Anthony told reporters that he approached other veterans and then Kurt Rambis about giving more minutes to younger players for the rest of the season to develop guys like rookie Jerian Grant. “Those guys need to play, especially right now,” Anthony said according to reports. “… You can practice and do drills and one-on-one things all day long but you only get that experience by playing in an actual game. I think it’s good for them, it’s good for the morale of the team, it’s good for their confidence. Because sometimes in a situation like this, you can lose your confidence. And that’s something we don’t want.
Melo is spot on with this notion to play the young guns more and get them some experience that they’ll need going forward. However, it’s a little weird that Melo had to be the one to say it and get the ball rolling. Rambis and the front office should have been thinking about this in the first place when they were officially eliminated from the playoffs.
Jose Calderon and Sasha Vujacic are not going to benefit your team that much farther into the future, and just a couple more weeks of games isn’t going to make much of a difference in their game either. Get Jerian Grant in there with some more like Galloway and you can start building a future backcourt. At the very least, they can find out if Grant could be the starting point guard of the future if he gets a little more experience on the court.
Good on you Melo, maybe the max contract was for coaching duties too.
