New York Knicks Basketball is Back!

 

            It's been 192 days, but Knicks basketball is finally back! The Knicks face a tough test to open up this season as they start off in Memphis against the Grizzlies for game 1 of 82.

            It wasn't necessarily the offseason I wanted and lots of other Knicks fans wanted, but the Knicks did improve and I am definitely excited about this team.

            Obviously, the biggest goal of the offseason was to acquire Donovan Mitchell, but that never happened as he wound up a Cleveland Cavalier. Personally, I'm pretty happy that deal didn't go down because the Knicks were going to give up way too much in return for the young star. Don't get me wrong Mitchell is a great player, but he is not worth all the assets the Knicks were proposing to the Jazz at the time. 

            The addition that the Knicks did make was Jalen Brunson. He could be the Knicks new point guard for the next couple years, maybe more. The Knicks finally get the point guard that they have been looking for to right the ship after going 9 straight seasons with different point guards on each opening night.

            Brunson had a great 2022 playoffs and 2022 season and showed some glimpses of that in the preseason as well. Very excited to see what he has to bring to this young Knicks squad.

            A new season and another season we get to see of star in the making, RJ Barrett. RJ impressed me so much last year, but around the league still has not gotten the respect he has deserved. This year he will have a little less weight to carry now with a solidified point guard in Jalen Brunson.

            The re-signing of Mitchell Robinson, extension for RJ, signing Brunson, and signing Isiah Hartenstein were the highlights of the Knicks offseason. Many fans wanted it differently, possibly trading up for Jaden Ivey, not signing Brunson, trading for Donovan Mitchell, but none of those things happened.

            We will definitely see if the pieces Leon Rose and Tom Thibodeau put together can win the Knicks some games this year and put them back in the playoffs. I believe that they will definitely be in the play-in this year and just make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference as a 7 or 8 seed. Hopefully they do better than my projections, but a new season begins and new opportunities to come for this Knicks squad. Lets Go Knicks, game 1 of 82 is coming up!