GREENBURGH, N.Y.—Of the 20 players participating here in the Knicks' preseason training camp here, 10 are power forwards.
Five of them are locks to make the opening-day roster, while two others are decent bets. This would seemingly leave the team with an imbalance of power up front. Strange as it sounds, though, the abundance of talent at power forward could be problematic, mostly because that's the one place it would be in the Knicks' best interest to have a single player—Carmelo Anthony, the NBA's reigning scoring champion—getting the minutes.
Here's where the Knicks' newest big man, Andrea Bargnani, comes in: Sliding the 7-footer over to small forward on defense could alleviate the problem and get Anthony more of the minutes he needs.
The suggestion that Bargnani—who is skilled offensively, but was widely seen as one of the NBA's weakest stoppers during his seven years with Toronto—could effectively defend the perimeter might draw blank stares from basketball analysts who have seen the Italian play that side of the ball. Still, there are indications that moving him to small forward on defense could aid the Knicks in several ways.