The Athletic's Fred Katz made one thing clear in his latest column about the New York Knicks: their only consistent trait this season has been their inconsistency. The scribe went into detail about why he believes their coaching change, the coach himself, and individual players are responsible for various parts of the team's overall struggles. But, ultimately, Katz put the brunt of the blame for the team's most consistent on-court attribute on the team's players, saying they "have to straighten themselves out" ahead of the rapidly-approaching playoffs. That only stings because it's accurate.
Brown's experimental ways result in Knicks' capricious characteristics
The Knicks have been focused, all season long, on working to approach games with the best process possible for their group. Regardless of what the results of a game are, the team is constantly in search of information about themselves in a regular season-long journey to develop as full of an understanding as possible of their personnel, how they operate in various groupings, which groupings are optimal, and more.
Katz concluded his column with an acknowledgement of both edges of that sword, verifying that each side is incredibly sharp.
"The optimists will say inconsistency is a product of experimentation. The pessimists will declare that jostling players around makes it more difficult to get comfortable. Both sides are correct. Execution is dependent on people. But now, the people in the Knicks’ locker room have to straighten themselves out, because winning three or four playoff series becomes a far more daunting task if you can’t stay consistent," the writer explained.
The Knicks lost their most recent pair of Eastern Conference tests, dropping games to the Detroit Pistons and Cleveland Cavaliers. While they hold the playoff tiebreaker they'd need over Cleveland in the case that the two teams finish with the same record, the one-seeded Pistons completely swept them.
That's part of the reason for the urgency Katz underlined in his piece. The playoffs are just a couple of months away, and whether it's fair to this group or not – they have very clearly-outlined championship expectations.
Last season's Eastern Conference Finals berth both showed they could get it done, and motivated the firing of Tom Thibodeau in favor of someone that the organization hoped could help them get over the proverbial hump that separates a small group of true championship contenders from the rest of the pack.
The Knicks' NBA Cup victory was supposed to prove that they're part of that select group of real title threats. Their slumps in the time since then have given life to all of the doubts that fans have had about this team for years. It's on the players to do what it takes to win. It'd be nice if they happen to prove some people wrong in the process.