Tomorrow night, the New York Knicks will be back in action after the All-Star break. After over a week without a game, the Knicks will be in Washington, D.C. to take on the Wizards. As a fan, there’s a lot to look forward to in the final 22 games of the season.
New York has the sixth-best record in the Eastern Conference and is poised to build off its three-game winning streak. If the Knicks can remain in the top six of the conference, they’ll earn a playoff berth and won’t have to worry about going through the play-in tournament to do so.
The upcoming stretch of games will be the most important for this squad. While there will certainly be plenty of stressful moments, here are three things that fans can look forward to once basketball resumes.
3 things Knicks fans can look forward to after All-Star break ends
3: More Josh Hart
Josh Hart is undefeated as a Knick. Sure, he’s played in only three games after being traded from the Trail Blazers, but it’s already been made evident that he could end up being a special long-term piece for this team. He has a player option for next season that he could opt out of in favor of a larger contract, so that’ll be a situation to monitor during the offseason.
In the meantime, he’ll play an important role in whether or not New York can make it to the playoffs. The spark that he’s provided off the bench and in the clutch for the Knicks thus far has been a huge boost. He’s started out so well with the team that fans have started to think about him potentially sliding into the starting lineup in place of a player like Quentin Grimes, who was going through a shooting slump before the break.
Hart was a great pickup for New York, especially when you consider that the top player that the team had to give up was Cam Reddish. He hadn’t played in over two months before being traded, so Reddish had turned into a non-factor anyways. The Knicks gave the Trail Blazers a protected first-round pick, but if Hart can keep it up, that pick won’t matter much to fans.