The Knicks exceeded expectations all regular season long, but the magic didn’t extend into the playoffs — the team’s season came to an end on Wednesday at Madison Square Garden, as a 103-89 Hawks victory secured a 4-1 series win for Atlanta.
Despite the postseason disappointment, the Knicks built a strong foundation during the last several months for what comes next, head coach Tom Thibodeau said on Wednesday, per Ian Begley of SNY.tv.
“I couldn’t ask for any more from the team,” Thibodeau said. “They were a joy to be around every day. I have great respect for the effort they put forth, their togetherness. We fell short in the end. We’ll look at it. We’ll learn, grow. We know the challenge will be greater next year.”
As Begley observes, the Knicks will have a pair of first-round picks in the 2021 draft and could create up to $60MM in cap room, so they’ll have the assets necessary to improve their roster. Play-making and shooting will be priorities, with point guard among the positions the team will be looking to upgrade, Begley adds.
Before the offseason begins in earnest though, it’s worth taking a moment to appreciate the Knicks’ season, says Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic. No NBA team outperformed preseason expectations by a great margin than the Knicks, who made the playoffs for the first time in eight years and provided their fans with some optimism for the future.
Here’s more on the Knicks:
- Michael Scotto of HoopsHype talked to eight NBA executives and five scouts about the Knicks’ next move with Julius Randle, who will be extension-eligible this offseason. Several of them suggested they’d prefer to wait on a new deal for Randle, following his career year in 2020/21. “If they go another year under his current contract to let him prove that this year wasn’t a fluke, they’ll still have Bird Rights and can always give him an extra year more than other teams when he’s an unrestricted free agent,” one executive said to Scotto.
- The Knicks will have to decide whether re-signing their own free agents, pursuing outside free agents, or being active on the trade market represents the best use of their potential cap room, writes ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Insider link). The most likely approach will probably involve combination of the three.
- In a pair of stories, Marc Berman of The New York Post explores the likelihood of each of the Knicks’ free agents returning and specifically examines Derrick Rose‘s future. “I would love to come back,” Rose said after Wednesday’s loss. “Who wouldn’t want to play for the Knicks or be in New York? I would love it, but at the same time, I know it’s out of my hands and they may have bigger plans.”
- Despite the Knicks’ success this season, Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News suggests the team’s roster still has more questions than answers.
Honestly, at the start of the season I was hoping the Knicks would be in the play-in tournament with a near .500 record. The fact that they won 41 games and were the 4th seed in the East makes the season a great success, regardless of the 1st round loss.
Hawks are the cheapest team in the league and referees buy it hook line and sinker. League is FOS
Somebody is salty lol… idk how u figure the Hawks are cheap after giving big contracts to Bogdan & Gallo last summer but hey believe what u want. Refs didn’t beat the Knicks tho, Trae, John, Clint, Dre, Bogdan, Onyeka, Gallo, Kev, TSnell, Lou, Solo & Nate beat the Knicks & they did it with ease. If anything, the league badly wanted NY to win lol
Meaning Trae Young’s flail jumping into dudes when he shoots should be made an offensive foul so we stop seeing it.
Devin Booker does the same thing, it’s become a new part of the game but dont see how anyone can like it. It looks cheap and these guys are good enough without needing to do the lame flail jump. Change the rule.
The flailing is too much. It makes basketball unwatchable and rewards weak, unathletic, unskilled plays and players. That’s not what the league should be about. But they are too concerned with business. So they rather protect the players and bend the offense to allow scoring over 110 points a game. Us as fans should stop watching a.e product they throw out just cause the players still dunk and jump high. All entertainment is not good entertainment.
With that being said, overall the Knicks inability to defend the Hawks PnR, more importantly stop Traes penetration coupled with Julius horrid performance was the culprit for the loss. I do get that it’s hard to defend a player that you cannot touch. Mentally it disrupts you and it’s right so def. A gripe there but I believe even with the bad calls Knicks win if they slow Trae a bit more and Julius plays a bit better.
The Knicks are in a good position going forward. Rose, Bullock, Noel and Burks are all FAs and free to go wherever they want to go. Imagine that the Knicks will want to sign all four of these players if possible but will be difficult. Hopefully Robinson will come back strong. The Knicks are in a great position no doubt. The Knicks were smart a couple of years ago when they trade Porzingis and cleared the deck for their future.
Noel as a backup I agree. He’ll prob be cheap.
But on the wing I say no thank you. Take the money it would take to resign Burks, Bullock, and Rose and find a way to flip it into another All Star. Can they lure Conley away from Utah? Maybe even DeRozan? Maybe a s/t of some sort?
This team desperately needs more top end talent. Thibs has shown time and again he’ll get the best out of low-cost guys, so filling out the back end of the roster should be the lower priority IMO.
Your thought about instead of trying to resign Rose, Burks and Bullock and using this money to sign a top end FA is a very good thought. As you say instead of signing rotation players, go after a big time player. Regarding Conley and DeRozan, I disagree with you. Just can’t see going after Conley. Conley will be 34 years old by the start of the next season. Just don’t see DeRozan being that much better than Barrett and Bullock.
Knicks Had The First Positive Season in Years They Actually Have A REAL COACH – First Since VanGundy
Let’s see what The Front Office does
I can confirm that Mike Woodson, Jeff Hornacek, Mike Miller, David Fizdale, Mike D’Antoni and all others since Van Gundy are indeed real human beings that coached the New York Knicks.
Se will be under the cap, so Boston can give us kemba for free, so they open their cap space and we bet on him
Kemba is a black hole of shots. He’d be the wrong PG for this team. If Paul opts out, I think they’ll jump on it.
No to both, respectfully. Kemba is definitely not the answer.
Paul might be an answer for a year. But if he opts out I assume he’ll want a multi-year deal. He’ll be 37 at the start of next year’s playoffs. His deal will be worse than Kemba’s by the end of ’22
yes but win now mentality says Paul is better now so you go for him… if you can’t win i don’t see Tatum staying after his current contract
Kemba Is not the answer, is a free bet.
Cp3 Is overrated, old, expensive and injury prone
If the Knicks are up to it, now is the time to move the two #1s this year and again in ‘23 (total of 4) to wherever they think they can land Suggs. Throw in some 2s if you have too.
Next up – SF. Hope Leonard gets knocked out in the first round and says screw it. There’s cap to go max.
C – Robinson/Noel
PF – Randle/Toppin
SF – ?
SG – Barrett/Quickley/Burks
PG – Suggs/Rose
Barrett can slide to SF when going small or resting the SF/3. The beauty isn’t how dominating the first unit is vs. others, but how effective the second unit could be. The depth allows high intensity defense at all times, something if provided, Thibs will take advantage of. While he’s known to stick to a short rotation, he can gain the most by the depth to his style. When you’ve got Rose and a host of 1’s coming off the bench, along with youth, it’s something to think about.
The Knicks exceeded expectations, but the limited weapons and I’m sure exhausting year based on minutes played for some, it caught up in the end. Promising future, let’s hope they don’t jump and sign for the sake of incremental improvements.
Yes the Knicks were the feel-good story of the year. But that playoff series was horrendous, I’m sorry. You have to have questions about both Randle and Thibs after it.
A repeat of the Melo era with Randle in Anthony’s slot is not going to fly. Atlanta had a good scheme and a few nice defenders. But they also play a bunch of sub-par to trash defenders—the fact we couldn’t figure out how to exploit Trae, Gallo, Collins, or Lou Will in 5 games is a real problem.
Randle’s biggest improvement this year was his playmaking, yet he was consistently unable to find guys in the right spots when the D focused on him. Thibs flat out dropped the ball of making game to game adjustments.
A nice surprise this year. But there’s a lot of work to be done.
Knicks were the least talented team in the playoffs.
But that’s kind of the point. If your identity is being a gritty team that overcomes obstacles all year, then it’s a little concerning when you essentially throw in the towel 4 games into the first round.
You’re spot on, but I’d say the diff from the Melo era is they have picks and plenty of salary cap. It’s what they do with it going forward that will matter. It’s a nice start – better than what they (and everyone else) expected.
A full MSG is going to put a ton of additionnal pressure on PO Randle, Thibs or RJ next year …
You wrote my post for me. Totally agree.
Only thing I’d add is to say Knicks need to find some way to win games in the regular season more comfortably. E.g. I think Toppin has potential, but if Randle is taking all his minutes because they’re trying to eke into the playoffs you might as well move Obi while people still recognize his name.
Speaking of Randle, you can’t be all NBA and disappear in the playoffs. Hoping it’s a first timer thing, but even still…concerning.
It was so frustrating watching the team be completely stymied by the Hawks defense, which was good but not great. Randle completely forgot how to handle a double team, no one moved to open spots, they didn’t make the extra pass, and they bricked everything they could.
It was great to have playoff basketball again, but early in game three, it was clear the Knicks would get bounced.
If Randle had played great, they’d be talking extension. Instead, he’ll probably just be a free agent next year and the Knicks will have a tough choice.
RJ, Robinson, Toppin, and Quickley all need to make some major strides next year. The FA class is not great (aside from Kawhi, but I don’t expect the Knicks to get him), and their picks are too late in the first round to probably have an impact. So, barring a trade, the Knicks will likely have a similar group next year.
Agreed — this FA class just seems like a collection of landmines.
Will def be tuned into DAL-LAC tonight. And Dame seems teetering on the edge after last night.
Knicks right now have some commonalities with LAC and BK pre-Kawhi and KD. Should be an interesting offseason.
Knicks got to play smart this offseason.
Great Knicks season is over. It’s obvious it’s a guard driven league now and Knicks desperately need a Super star. Now that they are somewhat relevant again its going to be even more difficult. They lost out on Ja, they are not getting Dame. Now the first round picks will makes things more difficult to acquire a Super star in the draft because the picks are too high. I don’t want them to trade all assets like they did for Melo. I doubt any Big time free agents are coming. So where do the Knicks go from here.
The Knicks FO faces a challenging off season. It was likely to be that anyway (the FO punted on a lot of decisions going into the year). But the team’s unexpected success on the court this year definitely adds to it. The unexpected challenges include not having a top 10 draft pick. Also, greater expectations across the board, including the media and fanbase.
I hope they can ignore the noise, and proceed to try to build on what was accomplished this year. The most important decisions they’ll make will concern their existing players, not potential new ones. What was accomplished was in the culture / identity sphere, and those accomplishments don’t survive a year over year roster makeover. The off season decisions still start with Randle (or, if one prefers, Randle-Toppin). With more modest draft assets than expected, it may be even more important that it was that this be done prior to the draft.
I hope they just trim around the fringes a little while picking up some shooting. Lot of potential pot holes Imo they could fall into if not careful this offseason
I like Doug McD as a low key add
Patty Mills can be had for pretty cheap as well
They’ll get a player better than that obv as well , but Id like to see the fringe guys be shooters
!! Free Franck First !!
As in ‘don’t pick up his option, so he can go play in Europe’? Because I’m down with that. No NBA team is going to give him a contract. Better for him to develop overseas.
Still can’t over gm1. It kind of explains Thibs to me. He was where he didn’t expect to be. So he improvised best he could. This was a rebuilding yr. Thibs was suppose to get the young guys playing. So we could find a core and move the rest. Drafting Toppin was not a sign of accepting Randle as the future 4. So things changed and Thibs improvised. Randle made him choose him. We neededPG help. So instead making that big deal (thank you) we get Rose cheap. Mitch got hurt so again you improvise. It’s clear now this group overachieved. But it’s a good core if you add offense. We need that 20 pt scorer to help Randle and let RJ keep growing, not consistent yet. We have cap room and draft picks. I just don’t want to reach too far. Dinwiddie and Fournier are FA. Sign them and trade up to pick 5. Toppin and pick or picks. We can get Kuminga there. He can start at SF. He fits this team and Thibs well. Im sure will make a move, maybe even a major one. Just don’t overreach . We are still a young core here. We don’t have to win a Title in Thibs 2nd yr.
Gm 1 will haunt me till draft. Hope I get over it then with an excellent draft. Hawks played better D than us. Yeah our offense wasn’t that great anyway. But Knicks were suppose to be the better D team. Gotta give Hawks credit. Young dont seem that hard to guard to me. Thibs didn’t know what to do with him. He was definitely the player in this series. McMillan record as head coach was very good. He got the Hawks playing. This is a deep but new and young team. I hope Embiid plays. Let’s see if Sixers bring out best in Hawks.
Agreed
Knicks need to trade Kevin Knox JR. for Michael Porter JR. this off-season. Maybe they can get the Nuggets to throw in a 2nd since Knox was the higher pick.
You kidding, right?!?!?
Why would DEN trade a superstar for NYK’s trash?
Unless CP3 and Kawhi are looking to join up in New York(doubtful), they’ll need to look at 2nd level or more complimentary starting players. I can see them throwing 20+ Mil at Lonzo. He would fill into their scheme and should work. They need shooting, so Duncan Robinson would be another guy that makes sense. He might be looking at 15-18 Mil per year. They’d have enough to over one more piece that could be a 6th man at wing to fill out the roster. Maybe Fournier or Oubre would be enticed if given a large contract.
From a draft standpoint, I don’t see where they have the assets to move into the top 5. They might be able to move into the early teens though and could target Isaiah Jackson as a young big to backup Robinson.
If Portland decides to trade on draft night CJ, Knicks should be in on that trade as the 3rd wheel landing CJ and supplying draft capital to whomever the Blazers try to land.
Kemba Rose
Dipo quickley Burks
Barrett Bullock
Randle Toppin
Mitch Noel
+ rookies
Kemba is old, overrated and above all overpaid… CP3 at least can play, is cheaper and healthier, right?
A Thibs team looks good in the regular season while playing with the foot on the pedal, then gets handled easily at some point in the playoffs because they are out of gas.
Big shocker!