A look back at New Year’s resolution for the New York Knicks in 2018. Did they fulfill any of them?
2018 will soon close, and the New York Knicks have one more game before moving on to 2019. That leaves these last few days of the year as an opportunity to reminisce over what happened and what did not.
Entering any year, the standad “New Year’s resolutions” exist, which gives someone a goal to achieve. Maxwell Ogden, formerly of Daily Knicks, looked at this when 2017 neared its end for the Knicks.
Five New Year’s resolutions were listed, but did New York follow through with any of them? These were created before that significant injury and a coaching change that reshaped the team’s look.
So, 12 months later, did the Knicks follow through with any of these five New Year’s resolutions?
5. Don’t lose perspective
The Knicks were 18-18 at this time, well before Kristaps Porzingis blew out his left knee. They had playoff hopes, even in the lowly Eastern Conference, but there was no reason to panic their record slipped.
Well, Porzingis’ injury did part of that, as the Knicks won just 10 games after the new year arrived, six of which happened across a two-month span after the torn ACL. It took the franchise down a dark path for the rest of the season.
The team finished 29-53, but did not lose perspective and adjusted to a proper rebuild, rather than acquiring win-now pieces for an unlikely playoff run without Porzingis.
They embraced youth, with Kevin Knox, Mitchell Robinson and Allonzo Trier’s respective arrivals at the draft (Trier went undrafted), only signed players to one-year deals in free agency and did not make any trades in the offseason.
Now, the Knicks are 9-27, the NBA’s second-worst record. Obviously, they have a long way to go, but they remain in developmental mode, and that likely won’t change anytime soon, unless Kevin Durant agrees to leave the Golden State Warriors and sign a contract.