Carmelo Anthony said that the "bad energy" that prevented the New York Knicks from reaching their potential last season is gone after the team made several changes during the offseason.
Anthony said in an interview with ESPN New York that their decent start this season has something to do with the way the team performed since the start of training camp, pointing out that there is a different vibe inside their locker room this season compared to last year.
"I think just overall, not pointing anything out, but just overall from day one last year the energy was just not right," Anthony said. "This year, you could just feel the total difference stepping into this gym, talking to guys, talking to the staff, talking to the players. Everybody has a newfound energy so it's just a lot different now."
Team president Phil Jackson, who is in his first full season at helm, made major changes during the offseason. He fired coach Mike Woodson and replaced him with his former player Derek Fisher, who implemented the vaunted "triangle offense" that made Jackson a very successful coach.
Aside from hiring Fisher, Jackson also traded key players last season like Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton in exchange for Samuel Dalembert, Shane Larkin and Jose Calderon. But when asked if their morale last season was affected by certain people in the team, Anthony reiterated that it is not because of just one person.
"I'm not talking about no players, I'm just talking about as a whole, as a whole," Anthony said. "As an organization, as a whole, the energy was just different last year from day one. It ain't have nothing to do with the players. When we walked in here from day one from training camp, media day the energy was just different."
And when asked to elaborate why there was "bad energy" last season, Anthony said: "I won't go into details. It's deeper than us going out and losing basketball games. For whatever reason, it happened. We looked at that. The organization looked at that. And they made some great changes."
The Knicks, who are still adjusting to the new offensive system, started the season with a 104-80 blowout loss to the Chicago Bulls, but bounced back with two hard-earned wins against the Cleveland Cavaliers and Charlotte Hornets, respectively.
