The New York Knicks are expected to regress, but there are five areas in which Jeff Hornacek’s crew should unequivocally improve over 2016-17.
The New York Knicks are in the first year of a long-term rebuild. Thus, the working expectation around the NBA is that, one season removed from a 31-51 campaign in 2016-17, the Knicks will be even worse from a wins and losses perspective.
Fair a belief as that may be, there are multiple areas in which New York projects to make significant improvements over what it did in 2016-17.
During the 2017 offseason, New York traded Carmelo Anthony and lost Derrick Rose to free agency. Among the players who finished the 2016-17 season with the Knicks, Anthony and Rose were the team leaders in both field goal attempts and assists per game.
Although the loss of two foundational players often results in regression, there’s some measure of addition by subtraction to be found.
Anthony and Rose were sensational scorers, but the Knicks have been moving towards a rebuild for quite some time. Having now committed their resources to doing so, the organization can execute closer to how it intends to from a long-term perspective.
The question is: In which areas should the rebuilding New York Knicks improve over the postseason-starved team from 2016-17?