As the summer comes to a close, many NBA teams and their fans are fairly sure what their starting lineup will be heading into the regular season. The Knicks aren’t one of those teams.
Presumably the Knicks starting lineup would look something like this:
PG Raymond Felton
SG Iman Shumpert
SF Carmelo Anthony
PF Andrea Bargani
C Tyson Chandler.
According to Matt Moore of CBSSports.com, Knicks head coach Mike Woodson recently said besides Felton, Anthony, and Chandler nothing is written in stone.
"Thats what we use camp for. I have no idea who's going to start," Woodson said. "Camp should be pretty competitive based on the talent, and that's how it should be."
As far as Shumpert is concerned, Woodson said of the third year guard, “You’ve got to go in and earn a spot.
“That’s how I look at it.”
Unless Shumpert terribly underperforms in camp or Woodson has a dramatic new direction for the team, the 23-year old guard out of Georgia Tech will most likely be in the starting lineup.
“Shump” is a tenacious defender with great athleticism. If his jumpshot improved this offseason (as the Knicks expected when they made him participate in this year’s Summer League) he will also be able to spread the floor.
Bargani—a solid midrange and inside scorer—presents a standard option for starting power forward. However, Woodson liked playing Anthony at the four last season. The reigning scoring champ presented matchup problems on a nightly basis and wasn’t completely bad as a defender.
As Moore points out, starting lineups mean nothing to the Knicks and closing lineups are more important. For a portion of games last season guard James White started games but only played for around four minutes and then sat for the remainder of the contest.
Knicks guard J.R. Smith come off the bench and averaged 18.1 points per game and 5.3 rebounds—earning him the Sixth Man of the Year award. Although Smith is more than likely to stay as an option of the bench this year, he could also start some games. During the 2012-2013 season Smith was usually in the game for the finals minutes.
The Knicks acquisition of Metta World Peace also provides an extra option as a starter. If World Peace starts at small forward Anthony can go back to creating matchup problems at the power forward position.
Some may see Woodson’s lack of a steady starting lineup as a problem. However, with the options Woodson has, the Knicks situation is—as the saying goes—“a good problem to have.”
