The New York Knicks entered this season as one of the most popular picks to come out of the Eastern Conference. This sentiment graduated to a consensus prediction as the Cleveland Cavaliers stumbled out of the gate. Now, at the season’s halfway point, the Knicks find themselves dangerously close to entering play-in-tournament territory.
It’s easy to shrug this off when looking at the standings. New York is sitting on the three-seed 41 games into the season, just four wins off the first-place Detroit Pistons.
Know what else the Knicks are, though? Closer to tumbling outside the East’s top six than toppling the Pistons.
A mere two wins stand between them and the seventh-place Cavs. (You read this entire sentence correctly.) They are just four wins ahead of the eight-seed Miami Heat. And if you think surrendering four Ws over the second half of the season isn’t happening, please remember that when you’re making the case that New York remains within striking distance of Detroit.
Optimists can insist the Knicks will get their act together. They might be right. But Jalen Brunson is nursing an injured right ankle that he’s now sprained on multiple occasions this season. New York absolutely needs to take the threat of spiraling into the play-in seriously.
Trust the Knicks to turn things around at your own risk
Look, when push comes to shove, I’m betting on these Knicks being way better than the dismal basketball they’ve played for roughly the past month. At the same time, we can’t pretend as if this stretch isn’t happening. Not when it’s this bad.
Since winning the NBA Cup, New York is 7-9, with the league’s second-worst defense, and the 24th net rating. That is not a Vegas-victory hangover. This is a flat-out reversion.
Not even the Knicks’ wins are to be the faintest bit convincing. They have just one double-digit victory over the past month. And while the blame behind this rut, or potential implosion, cannot be attributed to any one person, that’s part of the problem.
New York has more holes than a viable contender can afford. Karl-Anthony Towns is playing some of the worst basketball of his career. Mikal Bridges may have the strongest physical-contact allergy in league history. OG Anunoby has gone ice cold from three, isn’t dominating as often on defense, and has seen his All-Star case vanish into thin air as a result.
Guerschon Yabusele remains unplayable. Mitchell Robinson is eminently playable, when he actually plays. Deuce McBride missed extensive time. Landry Shamet just returned. They have needed Tyler Kolek, functionally a rookie, to step up and play real minutes. Could we really expect them to beat the sad-sack Sacramento Kings or surging Golden State Warriors without the lifeblood of their offense in Brunson?
The list goes on. It includes learning the systematic ropes under head coach Mike Brown. But these are all reasons, not viable excuses. Teams deal with injuries, and brutal schedules. They fracture, they fissure. They’re not supposed to break in as many different areas as the Knicks are now.
The Knicks might need too many changes
Leon Rose’s front office won’t sit here, and let this continue. They will make a move at the trade deadline. They might even make two.
Except what if that’s not enough?
Think about how much the Knicks need. With all due respect to Kolek, they need a backup point guard until proven otherwise. They could use another big man for the nights Robinson doesn’t play, or Towns is struggling. They do not have a dependable wing outside the starting lineup. Shamet is great, but he’s a guard.
That is an awful lot of flaws to address for any team. It is insurmountable for a squad with zero first-round picks to trade, and without the ability to take on extra money.
Whatever moves the Knicks make, changes will ultimately need to come in the form of improvement from most of the main characters already in place. That is possible. We’ve seen this group play better. The flaws and question marks existed then, too.
Fortunately for the Knicks, they have time to rediscover their previous normal, the one in which dropping to the play-in wasn’t even a remote possibility. What they don’t have is what they were supposed to have, what they were allegedly built to have: a margin for error.