Metta World Peace is coming home. On Monday, the artist formerly known as Ron Artest agreed to a two-year contract with the New York Knicks worth approximately $3.2 million, the remainder of the mini-MLE available to the Knicks after signing Pablo Prigioni. World Peace strayed from the Andray-Blatche strategy and took part of the mini-MLE instead of a veteran’s minimum salary that would have forced the Lakers to pay more of his amnestied salary.
World Peace was born in Queens, New York, played his college ball at St. John’s and has always maintained he is a fan of the Knicks. Now he’ll get the chance to play in the spotlight of Madison Square Garden every home game. Like World Peace, the Knicks are often criticized for their shoddy decision making. Recently, critics have targeted the trade for Andrea Bargnani and the draft picks the Knicks surrendered, but with World Peace agreeing to join the fold, criKnicks (couldn’t help myself) will wonder whether an aging World Peace can provide any noteworthy contribution.
By agreeing to bring in World Peace, New York is effectively following its pattern from last year and filling out the roster with aging veterans. This season will be World Peace’s 15th in the league. He is clearly past his prime, having played more than 900 NBA games; however, despite some declining skills, he still has many desirable traits to a Knicks team hoping to compete in a loaded Eastern Conference.
Throughout his career, World Peace has defined himself as a hard-nosed defensive stopper. Any team hoping to make noise in the East will need this. The Knicks have Iman Shumpert as one perimeter defender, but adding another was necessary. The East is stacked with talented wings capable of winning games. For example: LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Paul George, Danny Granger, Paul Pierce, Joe Johnson. Those six guys are on just three teams and this is without mentioning the Bulls combo of Deng-Butler.
The Knicks desperately lack strong defenders and are going to need players capable of at least being physical with the top-tier wing scorers. World Peace can do this. He will make every possession a battle and a struggle for players to score on him.
World Peace will join Tyson Chandler as the only current Knick to have won an NBA Championship; his came in 2010 with the Lakers. This championship and playoff experience will be beneficial to a Knicks team that is filled with players that haven’t felt that type of success yet. Even Carmelo has only advanced to the conference finals once in his career. As outrageous as it may sound, the Knicks are probably hoping World Peace can bring a championship mentality to New York, the same way Brooklyn is looking for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to do so.
While World Peace’s major benefit should come on the defensive end, he can still operate and find some success within the Knicks’ offense. With Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler, plus Raymond Felton’s penetration game, the Knicks need floor spacers, especially after losing Chris Copeland and Steve Novak. World Peace’s shooting numbers last season were the best they’ve been in three years. In his final season in Los Angeles he shot .403 from the field and .342 from three-point territory.
He’s not a lights-out shooter, but he is passable and his percentages from the corner (a spot Knicks fans can expect to see him spotting up) were even better than his overall numbers. He shot a combined 60/163, 36.8%, on corner threes, per NBA.com.
World Peace doesn’t make the Knicks the East’s favorite by any means. What his signing does do is provide the team an opportunity to compete. Much like the Nets’ Andrei Kirilenko signing, World Peace is an above-average wing defender with veteran experience. He also brings a don’t-back-down attitude that will be needed to advance in the East this season. Plus, at the very minimum, his signing makes the personalities on this team just too much fun not to watch.
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