The New York Knicks have been less than impressive to say the least since Patrick Ewing’s last season in NY (1999-00). Since Ewing’s departure from the big apple, the Knicks have only managed to make one appearance out of the first round of the playoffs (2012-13). The Knicks post-Patrick Ewing have went through 11 Head Coaches and only four above .500 win seasons. It’s no secret their resume since then has been a huge disappointment to this 70 year old, 2x championship franchise.
After acquiring two former Chicago Bulls, Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah this offseason, New York Knicks fans finally had something to look forward to; certainly, anyone would be excited to have a point guard that isn’t 34 year old Jose Calderon as their starter for the upcoming season. The idea of the Knicks for the 2016-17 season looks fantastic on paper, a starting lineup of a 6x All-NBA Team member, Defensive Player of The Year, MVP and 7 foot, deep threat Kristaps Porzingis. The only problem is that those players, outside of Porzingis, in that lineup are all past their primes. We’ve seen what a great force Joakim Noah can be on the defensive side of the floor, as well as his passing ability (led the Bulls in assists in 2013-14), but the now 30 year old has combined for 96 games played in the last two seasons with his numbers only dropping by the year. Everyone and their chiropractors know how Derrick Rose’s career has went since coming back from his devastating injury in 2012. Rose hasn’t played necessarily bad, but he still hasn’t managed to play a full season since then or received an All-Star nod. Carmelo Anthony, who is still a top player in the league, has shown he’s clearly not the leader he once was that brought the Denver Nuggets to the Western Conference Finals in 2009 or the superstar that could put up 25+ PPG every night.
How much better Kristaps Porzingis becomes this year could be all the Knicks have to rely on how well this season turns out for them. Carmelo Anthony this late in his career and Derrick Rose not being the MVP he once was, both can’t be a first option player to a team that has aspirations to make the Eastern Conference Finals or even make it out of the first round. 21 year old Kristaps Porzingis is not ready to become the star on this team only being in his second season in the NBA. New coach Jeff Hornecak also hasn’t shown any signs of being the answers to the Knicks prayers. In his 3 seasons as the Phoenix Suns head coach, he only brought them to one above .500 win season and no playoff appearances. The biggest benefit New York has is that they’re in the weaker Eastern Conference, that might not be the weaker conference after the West may be down to only 2 superior teams to the rest of the league. The East now has a threat in the Raptors, Bulls, Pacers and defending champion Cavaliers. If the Knicks don’t figure out how to run this team efficiently and learn how to run the triangle offense, not only will they find themselves with a first round exit, but they could find themselves out of the playoffs for the third season in a row.
Derrick Rose’s claims that the Knicks are now a “Superteam” will have to be proven this season, as the talent on their team this year isn’t better than at least 8 teams we wouldn’t consider a “Superteam.” With no players with any championship experience on the team or players who have been known as a superstar in the past 2 seasons, there isn’t anything “super” about this team. The most realistic goal the Knicks can look forward to this season is attempting to make it to the Eastern Confernce Semis. With the Cavaliers still dominating, the Raptors still with two USA team members, the Celtics only getting deeper, the Pacers with a lot of talent that will mesh together a lot better than this “Superteam,” that’s four teams they aren’t guaranteed to beat in the playoffs. With age also being a factor for the Knickerbockers and Carmelo Anthony not taking a summer off by participating in the olympics, the inconsistency for the Knicks will only continue. It’ll be easy for New York to become fatigued early in the season and lose many winable games. They managed to lose 15 games to teams with a record under .500 wins last season and that number will only get bigger with the addition of the inconsistent players all over their roster. Rose and Anthony will have many 20+ point games this season, but they won’t have enough to make the Knicks legit contenders in the East. With the olympics ending just a couple months before the season starts and Carmelo Anthony finally off of his high horse about winning gold medals, it’ll finally hit him that he just may never be a champion in the NBA if he plans to go all in with this current New York Knicks roster.
