Knicks Pulse Check Part IV: Time to Panic?

If Rome wasn’t built in a day, then it probably couldn’t be destroyed in a day, but telling Knicks fans to remain patient after losing three of their last five games is a task too difficult, even for Julius Ceasar.

Despite an absolute beatdown of the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday, there are legitimate reasons to be concerned about this team. Although I still believe they will win 50+ games and probably finish somewhere between the second and fourth seed in the Eastern Conference, I’d be hard-pressed to favor the Knicks in a seven-game series against the Boston Celtics or Cleveland Cavaliers.

As we’ve seen of late, the Knicks have struggled with beating the elite teams in the NBA. According to The Athletic’s James Edwards III, the Knicks have not been able to win against the top two teams in either conference.

The reasons for this range anywhere from lack of depth, to players underperforming, fatigue, or some combination of the three. As is customary with the NBA Twitter, the coach—in this case, Tom Thibodeau—has received most of the blame for the team’s recent slide. And while he is not without fault, there is an accountability issue that is emerging within the starting five (more on that later).

With all of that said, the Knicks are 12 games over .500, sitting at 26-14, good enough for third place in the Eastern Conference, just behind the Celtics, and in front of the Orlando Magic.

A trip over to Advanced Stats Island shows us that the Knicks rank third in offensive rating (one spot down from our previous check-in), fifteenth in defensive rating and fifth in net-rating (both same spots from previous). The orange and blue are also fifth in assists/turnover ratio (2.07) and second in true shooting percentage (60.3%).

I make no bones about the fact that I’m a Thibs supporter. Generally, I believe that his approach to the game and to his players is spot on. I appreciate his attention to detail, his unrelenting demand that his players play hard, and execute the game plan on both ends of the court.

As it relates to the starters’ minutes, I believe if you want players to be effective in the playoffs and play at a high-level for an extended period of time, they need to build that muscle memory and tolerance during the regular season. Jalen Brunson has stated as much during his post-game interviews on multiple occasions. The only issue I have with this approach is that you can’t treat everyone the same way, and players with an injury history (cough, cough OG Anunoby) should have a different pain management plan than Mikal Bridges.

It’s hard not to question Thibs when you see that the Knicks are really the only contending team that handles their starters’ minutes like this.

Ultimately the solution lies somewhere between either a lineup change (maybe switching Deuce and Josh Hart), or making a trade to improve the depth of the team (maybe a rim-protecting center that plays more than 60 games a season, fingers crossed). The Knicks are currently giving up the fifth-most points in the league to the roll man on pick-and-roll possessions (per NBA).

During the Rose/Thibodeau era, the Knicks have received consistent praise for their selflessness, team chemistry, and the sum-is-greater-than-its-parts philosophy. In fact, I can’t remember any times during the last four plus seasons where players used words like “ego” and “agendas” in post-game conferences.

So when Josh Hart made these recent comments, eyebrows were raised.

In my opinion I think Josh is directing these comments towards Karl-Anthony Towns, and maybe even OG, and while I believe they deserve to be held accountable, his buddy Jalen Brunson needs share some of the blame as well.

Towns has been amazing this season, and the Knicks would not be where they are without him. At the same time, I haven’t seen the same fire from him on the defensive end, especially in rebounding. In comparison to the rest of the league, KAT is still a monster on the boards, but isn’t mixing it up down low as much as I’m used to seeing.

More importantly, KAT absolutely needs to stop complaining about fouls. Yes, he’s not getting a fair whistle, but yelling at the refs and getting back late on defense is never going to solve the problem. Julius Randle got killed for this when he was in NY; either Thibs or Jalen needs to address this with KAT.

Aside from that, surprisingly, OG’s effort seems like it’s fallen off a cliff over the past two weeks. I am not seeing the same menacing, laser-focused disruptor blowing up plays on the perimeter. And for the captain, prior to the win over the Bucks, Jalen Brunson had only converted three of his last 16 three-point three-point attempts. I thought he was engaging in a bit too much hero-ball with his drives to basket. More often than not, he was looking off his teammates, some that were wide open with a better shot.

You never want to take too much good or bad from one game, but Sunday’s victory over the Bucks felt like the “get right” game the Knicks desperately needed. Although the Bucks are not yet a top team in the Eastern Conference, a win against a healthy Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo is nothing to sneeze at. The Knicks played with passion and benefitted from an absolute masterclass from Jalen Brunson.

The captain canned five of ten shots from beyond the three-point line, and added six assists and five rebounds on his way to dropping a 40 burger on the Bucks. As a team, the Knicks had 29 assists and won the rebounding battle 49-39.

The orange and blue will face with the Detroit Pistons tonight on the second-night of a back-to-back. The Pistons have won eight of their last ten games. Afterwards, the Knicks will see the Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, Memphis Grizzlies, and Denver Nuggets over their next ten games.