Carmelo Anthony 'laughs' at Knicks forecasts of 20-odd wins
Despite not being mentioned as one of the top six MVP candidates in the NBA GM prediction survey, Carmelo Anthony said expect a big year from him and expect a better Knicks win total than seen in current projections.
USA Today has the Knicks down for 20 wins and esteemed prognosticator Nate Silver’s website, FiveThirtyEight.com,
puts them at 27 wins. They were a franchise-worst 17-65 in 2014-15.
“I think we will be better than people predict,’’ Anthony said. “If you’re predicting 27 wins, I laugh at that. We use that as kind of motivation. But it’s a good thing to be under the radar.’’
The NBA general managers certainly made Anthony
under the radar in their annual survey, released Tuesday. Coming off an injury-shortened, 40-game campaign, the 31-year-old was not voted as one of the top six MVP candidates nor did he get a vote in the categories of top small forward or power forward.
“I don’t care about that. It will be [a big year] — for sure it will be,’’ Anthony said. “I think they go off what they saw last. For me, I know where I stand in this league. For somebody else to say what I am or not, that’s way beyond me.’’
Anthony, though, feels for him to be in the MVP conversation again, as he was in 2012-13, the Knicks will have to win.
“Nobody cares what kind of year you had if you’re on a losing team,” Anthony said. “Regardless of if I average 30 [points] and we win 30-something games, it will still be a down year all the way around. Nobody cares about that. Everybody goes back to the 54-win season when we had a good team and were winning and everybody gets the pub and the shine. We’re going to be alright. I’m not concerned about myself at all.
“I was anxious to get the preseason going to get back on the court,’’ Anthony added. “The regular season, the first game I’ll be locked and loaded.”