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New York Knicks: Five Reasons To Like The Jeff Hornacek Hiring

By Maxwell Ogden

Dec 31, 2015; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Phoenix Suns head coach Jeff Hornacek reacts to a call against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 31, 2015; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Phoenix Suns head coach Jeff Hornacek reacts to a call against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports /
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Mar 28, 2016; New Orleans, LA, USA; New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony (7) reacts against the New Orleans Pelicans during the second half of a game at the Smoothie King Center. The Pelicans defeated the Knicks 99-91. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 28, 2016; New Orleans, LA, USA; New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony (7) reacts against the New Orleans Pelicans during the second half of a game at the Smoothie King Center. The Pelicans defeated the Knicks 99-91. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports /

3. Carmelo Anthony Likes The Hire

The New York Knicks have invested in Carmelo Anthony as the franchise player. He’s entering the third season of a five-year, $124 million contract that not only makes him the highest paid player on the roster, but one of the highest-paid players in the league.

Thus, it comes as a great relief that, during a recent interview with WNBC at Herald Square, Anthony spoke highly of the Jeff Hornacek hiring (h/t Marc Berman of The New York Post).

"“I played against him a couple of times when he was the head coach out there in Phoenix,” Anthony said. “Everybody knows he likes to play an up-tempo pace of game, likes to get out in transition, likes to speed the game up a lot. So from that standpoint, I’ll definitely be looking forward to that.” “It sets the stage for us to do that,” Anthony said of a quicker pace. “[It’s a] new opportunity, something new to play with, something fresh, a clean plate. So hopefully we can build off of this momentum.”"

Hornacek will undoubtedly transform the offense.

Again, New York will not exclusively run an up-tempo offense that casts every other potential strategy aside. Instead, it will embrace a versatility that wasn’t present under Derek Fisher nor Kurt Rambis.

Whether that was by design or not remains in question, but it’s clear that Hornacek will transform the offense into a more well-rounded animal.

No one should benefit more from that infusion of versatility than Anthony. The 2013 scoring champion is one of the most productive scorers of all-time, and averaged a career-best and team-leading 4.2 assists per game in 2015-16.

If Hornacek is able to focus more on Anthony’s well-rounded scoring abilities, ‘Melo could potentially compete for a second scoring title while leading New York back to the postseason.

Next: No. 4

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