The New York Knicks showed plenty of signs last season that the roster, as constructed, wasn’t fit to win a title. The front office decided replacing head coach Tom Thibodeau was enough on its own, anyway. They were wrong—and they know it.
This admission comes in the form of Karl-Anthony Towns trade rumors. According to Steve Popper of Newsday, the Knicks have held talks with multiple teams about their embattled big man.
What ultimately becomes of these mumblings is anyone’s guess. The end result matters less than New York exploring nuclear options at all.
The Knicks never had just one defining problem
Towns is not the Knicks’ only issue. Not even close. He is merely the most convenient scapegoat for New York’s overarching failures.
Thibodeau can relate. He was canned after the Knicks came up short in the Eastern Conference for being too stubborn, not collaborative enough, and because at least a couple members of the team, including Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby.
All of these are problems. Fireable ones. It doesn’t mean Thibs was the only issue, or even the biggest problem. He wasn’t.
Arguing otherwise requires believing that it’s easy to build a league-average-or-better defense around KAT and Jalen Brunson, that the Knicks were deep enough for Thibs to field longer rotations and channel different defensive tenets, and that he alone is the reason the offense was overly reliant on Brunson. (Mind you, this isn’t even the entire list.)
As Leon Rose, the suddenly vocal James Dolan, Mike Brown and the rest of us are finding out, this isn’t even close to the case.
New York does not have the profile of a contender
For over a month, this same exact Knicks core from last season has ranked 15th in offense, and 29th in defense. Last year’s starting five, which is once again this year’s starting five, has a negative net rating. The two-man chemistry between Towns and Brunson is strained, if nonexistent. New York does not have another ball-handler to consistently decision-make in the face of defensive pressure. Mitchell Robinson is transformative, and not available enough.
Sound familiar? It should. These are all grievances that cropped up last season. The biggest difference, quite frankly, is that KAT was hitting noticeably more shots.
Holding out hope for the Knicks to get their act together is fine. Believing that culminates in a return to title contention presupposes they were contenders in the first place. All of the most important evidence suggests otherwise.
Just three champions since 2010-11 have failed to record a top-10 offense and defense during the regular season. Two of those three finished in the top 13 on their weaker end of the floor. These Knicks are nowhere near having a top-10 defense.
Even their lack of dominance in victories is a red flag. According to Cleaning The Glass the Knicks have the 11th-best net rating in wins. Each of the past 14 NBA champions have ranked inside the top 10 of point differential during victories. The vast majority of that group has landed seventh or better. The last squad to hang a banner that didn’t rank inside the top 10 was the 2010-11 Dallas Mavericks.
No single concern will serve as the Knicks’ undoing. What’s happening now is a cumulative effect, the culmination of many flaws manifesting at once. It is the kind of revelation that mandates change.
Yet, the fact is, it shouldn’t be considered a revelation at all. The Knicks showed us their true colors last season. Ownership and the front office mistakenly believed a new coach could make all the difference.
In reality, though, Thibodeau did not put a ceiling on this team. The makeup of the roster did. And it still is.