New York Knicks: Pros, Cons Of Kristaps Porzingis Playing Center

Pro: Moving Carmelo Anthony To The 4

The New York Knicks experienced the greatest success of the Carmelo Anthony era when he played power forward—and that’s an unequivocal fact. He’s since reverted from power forward to small forward, however, and the Knicks haven’t been winning at nearly as consistent a rate.

The Knicks aren’t losing because of Anthony, but there’s a winning formula that New York can follow with the 10-time All-Star starting at power forward.

Anthony played the 2012-13 and 2013-14 NBA regular seasons at power forward. In 2012-13, he won the scoring title, finished third in MVP voting, and averaged a career-best 28.7 points per game on a slash line of .449/.379/.830.

It’s also worth noting that, during the 2012-13 season, New York won 54 games and the Atlantic Division title—the first division title since 1993-94.

The key to Anthony’s success at power forward is that he’s too agile for the average 4 and too strong for the average 3. Thus, by placing him at power forward, he’s more likely to play close to the rim and have situational advantages that he can exploit.

Perhaps most importantly, moving to power forward would enable Anthony to play a far more manageable role on defense at 32 years of age.