It's hard to believe, but the New York Knicks have officially reached the midway point of their regular season after playing their 41st game a couple nights ago. The season has been a rollercoaster to say the least, so let's recap and talk about it.
New York enters their matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers tonight with a 26-15 record, good enough for third place in the Eastern Conference. After starting the season with a record of 5-6, the Knicks have completely turned it around and have won 21 of their last 30 games.
The Knicks are headlined by their two stars: Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns. Since being traded to New York, Towns has been putting up the best numbers in his entire career. Along with averaging over 25 points per game, he's grabbing almost 14 rebounds a game as well.
Jalen Brunson is also having a career season, averaging almost 26 points per game compiled nearly 8 assists a game as well. The Knicks dynamic duo is putting the league on notice. The rest of the starting lineup isn't too bad also with each player averaging at least 14 points per game.
A case could be made for the Knicks to potentially have 3-4 all stars this season. The major concern that the Knicks are still dealing with which was headlined before the season even began is the lack of depth. Recently, New York has been only using an 8-9 man rotation with their bench players accounting for barely any minutes whatsoever.
On the other hand, the minutes in which the starters are taking on is starting to add up. We've seen multiple injury scares over the past few games to both Brunson and Towns. New York is still waiting for Mitchell Robinson to come back and have really made no other improvements to their depth besides the signing of Landry Shamet.
New York has just about three weeks before the trade deadline to decide what areas need to be addressed. A potential injury to one starter could take a huge toll on the rotation itself. Despite the amazing record through 41 games, depth is a key issue that needs to be looked more into.
Potentially giving more minutes to rookies Tyler Kolek and Pacome Dadiet could help out the rotation. The Knicks seem to be more focused on letting them improve their skillset in the G-League, but it could be time sooner than later to give them a bigger role in the NBA.
It has been a successful start to the season for New York, but the road only gets tougher from here on out. The Knicks are faced with one of the toughest strength of schedules for their final 41 games. Their resilience as a team will be put on full display as we enter the second half of the 2024-25 NBA season.
No comments:
Post a Comment