What another 16 games could have meant for the New York Knicks

With the NBA season appearing to be cut short, the New York Knicks could be losing valuable time for personnel development.

Today’s world is ever-changing. With what the human race is currently facing, our next moves have been as unclear as ever. One thing that is consistent is the New York Knicks and their need for continued development.

In all honesty, that intro was a roundabout way of getting at the core of this post: The Knicks losing out on their last 16 games could be a big hit to their development.

This Knicks’ season was obviously a bust, in terms of the playoffs never really being an option. It became clear early on that the Knicks would not be a competitive team this season. However, I think the bigger disappointment of the season has been the lack of development among the young players.

Most Knicks fans expected pretty big seasons from young players like Kevin Knox, Mitchell Robinson, Dennis Smith Jr., and even Frank Ntilikina—not to mention the additions of Julius Randle and RJ Barrett.

Development was supposed to be the theme of this Knicks season. I think all Knicks fans can agree that the front office and coaching staff seem to have not taken the theme of development as far as we’d all hoped.

However, the NBA season being cut short by 16 games is an even bigger hit. There was a lot for the Knicks to do during these final 16 games. Besides just giving everyone more NBA experience, these final games would have had a big impact on the Knicks next season.

Could Ntilikina continue his hot play, and finally be a stable talent in the Knicks’ lineup? Could Mike Miller prove enough to remain the head coach into 2020-21?

Which pending free agents would prove to be worth bringing back for next season?

These questions, among many others, will now have to be inferences that the Knicks will try and make off a shortened season. Based on past experience, we cannot have a lot of faith in the Knicks making the smart decisions here.

In addition to the loss of development, the shortened season will have a large impact on future Knicks. By this, I am referring to the 2020 NBA Draft.

As of now, the Knicks are in the 6 slots for the NBA Draft. Obviously, the NBA draft rules have changed, so the Knicks may get lucky, but I would have been more confident if they had lost some more games, which I expected them to do in the final weeks of the season.

16 games may seem insignificant, but because of the Knicks’ current situation, these final weeks could have proved huge for the future of the orange and blue.