The New York Knicks’ 4 game win streak came to an end last night as the orange and blue suffered a loss to the Atlanta Hawks in double overtime.
This set of wins was New York’s first line of ‘4’ since 2014, when they were led by Carmelo Anthony. The New York Knicks sit at a record of 17-37, which is 6 games back of the 8th seed with 28 games remaining in the season. Are the Knicks primed to accelerate into the top 8 in the Eastern Conference or will they be playing the lottery for the 7th time in the last 7 years?
When Scott Perry made the decision to exchange veteran forward Marcus Morris Sr. for Maurice Harkless and the Clippers 2020 first round pick, it demonstrated that the current goal of the Knicks front office was to stock up on picks and try to strengthen a currently struggling young core. The New York Knicks have 7 draft picks over the next 4 seasons including two in the upcoming draft.
Despite the expected struggle, the Knickerbockers managed to string together wins against the Orlando Magic and Detroit Pistons following victory against the Indiana Pacers and Cleveland Cavaliers due to valiant efforts by starting point guard Elfrid Payton, team leader Julius Randle and veteran Wayne Ellington.
While fans are excited following the recent streak (and have every right to be) it must be taken into consideration that the level of talent of the Knicks opponents isn’t that intimidating and they had to come back from double-digit 4th quarter deficits in 3 of the 4 wins.
15 of the 28 remaining contests come against teams currently in a playoff spot and only 4 of the Knicks 17 wins have come against teams with a winning percentage above .500. With that being said, I believe it will be extremely difficult to make a run at this stage of the season, especially with the fact that there are 3 teams ahead New York that are also attempting to make a run at that final position.
The effort is clearly there and the post deadline “rotation” has proven thus far that they are capable of putting together a win. However, a playoff appearance would likely result in an ugly sweep by a top of the line team like the Milwaukee Bucks or Toronto Raptors.
There are multiple fans who would rather see the Knicks lose and once again obtain a top 14 pick while continuing to build for future seasons. Alongside this, lots of people are dejected with the fact that the Knicks are playing 32-year-old shooting guard Wayne Ellington heavy minutes in these last few matches rather than playing second round pick and G-League star Ignas Brazdeikis or any other young talent with plenty of potential.
Wayne Ellington has averaged 4 3-pointers amongst his last 3 games and played 32 minutes in the Knicks’ loss to Atlanta. A player like Wayne Ellington who doesn’t factor long-term shouldn’t be stealing those minutes.
On a personal note, I think winning is really not being valued high enough. The Knicks organization has gotten so used to losing over the last half decade plus, and I think a sense of positivity could do things like attract free agents and possibly benefit the reputation of the organizations.
This season’s draft class isn’t as talented in comparison to groups in years past and I would really enjoy seeing if the Knicks could make a run and try stay competitive with teams that actually have more than 20 wins. There is without a doubt a large amount of Knicks fans fed up with losing and will do much just to see their heroes appear in a playoff game.
The New York Knicks have 28 games left to establish a final identity for themselves this season and that will be determined by whether they stay competitive and play their veteran talent, or buyout some contracts and bring out starting lineups featuring their most recent draft selections.