The guys who were surprisingly good last season are playing bad (Shumpert, JR, Kenyon Martin),Felton and Chandler have been injured and they made some dumb moves eg. trading for Bargnani.

Melo keeps taking game winning shots.

over achieved in a poor conference last season. That said, still plenty of time to come back in what is now a ridiculously woeful conference. only 3 games behind number 1 team in the atlantic, and each conf gets a finals spot...

Their a complete shambles & with no Chandler to clean up the mess of others at the defensive end the Knicks are badly exposed! Melo is no leader IMO & it must start with him about committing to playing some 'D'. The Knicks game plan is too simply outscore teams rather than digging in playing 'D' & getting consecutive stops in the 4th quarter. With their payroll & their poor record something will happen soon, watch this space...

Get Kidd to coach em...

C'mon guys, Melo is obviously not the problem. When Chandler is back and healthy they will have that rim protection and when Felton is at 100% they will have that solid point guard who penetrates. The problem is the other players on the squad, If they could trade for a guy like Luol Deng they could right the ship. A line up like this would get more wins.
C Chandler
PF Melo
SF Deng
SG Hardaway Jr.
PG Felton

Jimmy Dolan. That's what's wrong with them.

I see the Lakers being similarly hamstrung while Jim Buss has his greasy finger in the pie.

Pretty hard to win with a terrible owner, let alone a terrible owner who insists on being involved in the basketball decisions.

At least Donald Sterling has learned -- after decades of endless losing -- to butt out.

However specifically related to the roster: they can't defend, even with Chandler in, and they are full of shoot-first players. They have zero financial flexibility as well as a couple of untradeable assets on BIG coin.

I mean...who the hell trades FOR Andrea Bargnani? May as well draft Ben Allen in the first round next year.

Oh that's right, they traded away all their first round draft picks from now until forever...

Exactly mick, the Knicks next 1st round is in 2018. There is talk they want asik, but the rockets are asking two first rounders for asik.

same as Lakers. whats wrong with Lakers too since last year

As a Knicks fan it's painful to watch them. Even if we got a top 5 draft pick we sit back and watch another team take the pick.

Lakers are at least doing OK considering Kobe isn't there and the rest of the roster is largely forgettable.

I am actually admiring the play of the Lakers.

They have a bunch of players who aren't exactly elite players. But they play with so much heart.

I remember reading something early in the season where D'Antoni, Nash and the entire team came out and said that it was the most together and unified group they had being apart of.

I know Lakers fan have this expectation that they are always going to be contending for the championship.

But something tells me, fans have a lot of respect for the team (even though they won't contend), because they play hard, with passion and together

No defense

No Chandler = no wins. That simple. The guy is the anchor for every aspect of the team, and keeps everyone in check. They also need to learn to pass again like early last season. Bargnani has been a good player since being picked up, Artest on the other hand has had me scratching my head a little. Once Melo pisses off next season I will be happy, unless the team picks up a stupid contract for another player who hates to pass

Why do people still defend Melo? He's a fine player and a good scorer, but he will never win anything being the "Main Man". He has to realize this and get over himself.

I suspect that he doesn't really care about winning a title though, he is around to pad his stats and collect his cheques....and that's fine too, but don't expect his teams to win then.

As an anon said above, the most over-rated player in the association.

I'm with Ricey & Mick

They do.

Knicks are missing Chandler badly. Had a very successful run last year working Prigioni and Felton at the same time. 15-1, I read somewhere this morning? They've played under 80 minutes together this season all up.