The Knicks will likely struggle again to make the playoffs this season.
There arguably wasn’t a single team in the NBA that had a more disappointing season last year than the New York Knicks. Coming off a 2012-13 season in which they finished second in the East with 54 wins, there was little reason to think the Knicks wouldn’t finish as one of the top four teams in the East once again. Well, they didn’t. Instead they only managed to win 37 games in the weakest Eastern Conference in recent memory and missed out on the playoffs.
The Knicks’ future is uncertain for the next year or two. This team showed last year that they clearly didn’t have the talent to compete, and due to having no cap room or high draft picks they weren’t able to make any key transactions this offseason to make fans believe that they can turn things around this offseason.
That doesn’t mean that the Knicks were completely silent this offseason though. They made the most out of their highest draft pick (34th overall) by selecting Cleanthony Early who many projected to be a top-20 selection. Early is a versatile combo forward who could make an impact off the bench this season.
New York also made a significant trade, sending veterans Raymond Felton and Tyson Chandler to Dallas in exchange for Jose Calderon, Shane Larkin, Wayne Ellington (who the Knicks proceeded to trade), Samuel Dalembert and two second round picks. Tyson Chandler will be a key loss, but Calderon should be an upgrade at the point guard position and Larkin is an exciting young prospect.
Shooting guard could quietly become a strength on this New York Knicks squad. Tim Hardaway Jr. was one of the lone bright spots for the Knicks last year. He averaged 10.2 PPG per contest on 42.8 percent shooting which earned him a spot on the NBA all-rookie first team. He’ll be sharing minutes with J.R. Smith, who’s still one of the best three point shooters in the league, and Iman Shumpert who’s a solid defender with a knack for creating turnovers.
Once again carrying the scoring load for the Knicks this season will be their star small forward Carmelo Anthony. Last season Melo played almost 40 minutes per game and that won’t be changing this season. If Melo, the 2013 scoring champion, goes down the Knicks have no depth behind him. Hardaway Jr. could possibly spend some time at small forward, but other than that about all they’ll have are guys like Cleanthony Early, Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Travis Outlaw and Quincy Acy. To be more blunt about it, if Melo has to miss an extended period of time due to injury I don’t see how this team is going to beat anybody.
Offensively the Knicks front court might not be too bad. Amar’e Stoudemire is out of his prime and still earning a ridiculous amount of money, but he did play in 65 games last year (his most since the 2010-2011 season) and scored right at 12 points per game. Joining Stoudemire will be Andrea Bargnani who only managed to play in 42 games last year, but did average 13.3 points per contest when healthy. If these two can stay free from injury they’ll be able to score a fair amount of points for the Knicks on a nightly basis, but in my opinion the downfall of this team is going to be rebounding and frontcourt defense.
Neither Bargnani nor Stoudemire are good rebounders or defenders. So aside of those two the Knicks will probably be asking a lot out of 33-year-old veteran Samuel Dalembert. Dalembert will more than likely begin the season as the Knicks starting center and they’ll be relying on him to grab a lot of rebounds. It’s not like the Knicks exactly have a plethora of frontcourt depth either. Stoudemire and Bargnani both have a bad injury history and Dalembert is 33 so who knows if he’ll be able to hold up or not. After these three the Knicks have the likes of Cole Aldrich, Jason Smith, Travis Wear and Cleanthony Early on the bench. Yikes.
Prediction
One story to watch will be how first time head coach Derek Fisher performs. While lacking experience, he will have new Knicks president Phil Jackson in his ear the whole season.
Having a player as talented as Carmelo always gives you hope, but right now this team has 35-40 wins written all over it. At best maybe they can grab the seventh or eighth seed if the East is as weak as expected. Their front court is going to get absolutely murdered defensively and on the glass and this really halts their potential.
Luckily for New York both Stoudemire and Bargnani come off the books this season that will open up a ton of cap space and allow them to pursue some big time free agents to surround Melo with this summer. However they’re just kind of stuck in no-mans land for now, so expect another disappointing season for Knicks fans this year.
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