Carmelo Anthony thriving in Jeff Hornacek's offense

NEW YORK -- Carmelo Anthony is the only holdover on the Knicks' roster from the pre-Phil Jackson days, the times when he controlled the ball and the Knicks were in the playoffs, the times before the triangle came to town.

After months of hearing how new Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek would combine the plans he has used before arriving in New York with Jackson’s preferred triangle offense, and the descriptor “triangle aspects” gaining favor, Anthony is happy with what he is actually seeing on the court.

Hornacek’s first choice is to speed up the game, searching for fast breaks and then early offense before settling into the triangle to space the floor. And as some of the players have pointed out, there has been a return to the simple pick-and-roll style of play that Anthony has flourished in. And maybe it’s because of the absence of point guard Derrick Rose, but Hornacek has put the ball in Anthony’s hands.

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“I love it,” Anthony said. “I love playing in kind of with the ball in my hands throughout the course of the game. It’s something I’ve always kind of done and felt comfortable with. It’s just like the last couple of years with the offense we’ve been running we didn’t run much pick-and-rolls. It wasn’t that type of offense.

“I think now with the pace we’re trying to play, the way we’re trying to play, implement more of that style of play, that’s going to call for me to have the ball in my hands a little bit, playing pick-and-roll, try to figure out the defenses, use mismatches. I’m all for it. I’m trying to figure it out just like everybody else.”

Like Mike Woodson, the coach who was running the show before Jackson arrived (and the last one to get the Knicks into the playoffs), Hornacek has seen that Anthony can carry an offense.

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“Carmelo’s a great player,” Hornacek said. “He can do a lot of things. His passing is very good. You see it day in and day out in pick and rolls. When he’s actually handling the ball in the pick and rolls he’s very good, again, because he’s got the size, he’s got the strength. If they try to double him he makes passes out of there, so I’ve been impressed with that.

“We know he can shoot the ball. If we can get enough scoring around him and enough guys that can attack and maybe create some open shots for him and give him some easy ones, he’s going to have some big nights for us as the year progresses.”

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