The New York Knicks entered this season with immense expectations and little room for error. Their win on Friday night improved their record to 43-25, but the game in Indiana was much more than an addition to the right side of the team's record.
It moved the Knicks into the top-five of both offensive rating and defensive rating, making them one of two teams (the San Antonio Spurs) to be top-five on both sides of the ball. It may have taken the majority of the season, but head coach Mike Brown's vision seems to coming together ahead of the playoffs. Isn't that exactly what they needed?
Brown is delivering the trade-off the Knicks were looking for
On January 19, the Knicks were 18th in the NBA in defensive rating according to Dylan Backer.. Since Brown and his coaching staff made some tweaks on that side of the floor, though, they've turned things around completely.
Even though the Knicks are on track to win four fewer games than they did last season, the wins they have been getting are arguably more valuable. Last year, New York infamously struggled in the regular season against what seemed to be the top class of the NBA: the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and the Boston Celtics, finishing the season 0-10 against those squads.
While the Knicks flipped the script in the playoffs and eventually dispatched the Celtics in the second round, their records against those teams this season are 2-1, 0-1, and 2-1 respectively. It's far from perfect, but certainly improved. And their top-five rating on both sides of the court, as well as their net rating falling in fifth place (Spurs in fourth), tells a story of its own.
Playoffs are still the ultimate test for Brown's Knicks
As exhausting as some of this rollercoaster of a Knicks season has been, the results have ultimately been worth it – thus far. Playoff success, or a lack of it, will be the ultimate test of this group and their coaches' merit. And even though the Knicks failed to get a win against the Detroit Pistons in this year's regular season, who's to say they wouldn't guide them to a Celtics-esque fate in the postseason.
Some of the Knicks' losses this season have been embarrassing. Their own players have described those games as such. But as they have just 14 regular season games left to go, and the landscape of contenders is starting to take shape across the league, it's becoming clear that New York has the pieces necessary to make a legitimate run.
They just have to put them together in time, which their statistics over the course of the season certainly indicate is happening.