The New York Knicks seem to be falling into similar habits that they have had since the days of Carmelo Anthony. The Knicks continue to do the same little things that cost them games despite coaching changes, roster changes, and a winning season.
Now every team, including the best teams, sometimes lose sight of the big picture and do little things that cost them wins, but the Knicks cannot do that.
The Knicks are known to be a grind-it-out basketball team. If you’re a team coached by Tom Thibodeau, you win because of the effort put in.
Last season for the Knicks, that worked beautifully. Nobody expected them to be a playoff team or Julius Randle to be on it much longer, let alone ending up on the All-NBA Second Team.
Last year, if the Knicks roster made these mistakes, they would not be 7-6 like they are to start this year. The roster has a larger talent this year than last, which is probably causing these lapses.
The Knicks have the personnel that if they make small mistakes, they can still believe they can win the game due to the offensive talent.
My biggest concern is this does not look like the team that would do anything to win a single game like they did last year. They played every game like it was the playoffs, and now there are times where they look like the less hungry team on the court.
Now it may be more difficult to still have that fire and desire, as the great Clyde Frazier might put it, as they are now a team coming off of having home-court advantage in the playoffs.
The teams that seem to want it more teams with something to prove, and the Knicks proved their case last year… until they didn’t. Losing 4-1 to a team you swept in the regular season when you have home-court advantage is a bad look.
It looks especially bad when you shoot the way that your all-star forward Julius Randle shot that game, even though I stand by that he was just exhausted from playing 37 minutes per game all year long in a compressed season.
To start this season, the Knicks have fallen into some pretty bad habits that look like they would not have flown last season. Is it the fact that the offense is better? Is it a confidence issue? Or is something else off? Regardless, here are three habits the New York Knicks have to avoid.