Team's potential vs the East

[CJackson]

I think the answer is this may be the least predictable team in the East. It has the greatest upside. Or if the chemistry is not there or health issues arise it has some of the biggest downside.

I agree that KP is the biggest X factor though, not Rose or Noah.

If KP makes a big leap forward and health issues are manageable then the team will probably have quite a few blow out wins and be a favorite to go to the ECF.

[NYKNICKPLAYA]

Gona be fascinating to see KP in year two. I like his mindset, like that he's working on post game this summer. I think he will be good...17 ppg, 8.8 rpg, 2 bpg

[blueNorange]

1. melo is a year older and just came off an off shooting season
2. rose is done, he'll never go back to his all star ways
3. celtics are way better than the knicks as are the pacers, raptors, hornets, and a few others i can't name

[NYKHardKnock]

This team is the biggest unknown out there. So many ifs

Let's just wait to see how the team gels! I'd be happy making the playoffs as an 8 seed honestly, I just don't want a losing culture around KP. Kid needs to learn how to win

[dakomish23]

We're signficantly better than last year on both sides of the ball. That's the only thing I'm sure of. 45 wins seems like the floor, based on:

- tremendously upgraded PG play and hats based on me considering us middle of the pack now. We had the worst last year outside of PHI & BKN. ****. Maybe just Philly considering Larkin and some other random nobody WON games for BKN against us in the 4th.
- better coaching
- legitimate scoring options outside of Melo for the first time in ages
- KP growth

If healthy we can make it to the ECF. If not, or if the chemistry doesn't happen, we could be a first round knockout. If we have horrible luck with health, we have our pick.

I'm happy no matter what because we have our pick, though I would of went a different route this summer.

[digitaldropoff]

4th seed is possible.....anything higher is a reach, even on paper.

[Jeff Van Gully]

You guys are starting to do the same thing as every year. Calm down.

FIFY

[Thorn]

As I have said before in other threads 4th or 5th is the highest I see us attaining and that is with all things coming together for us.

[Jeff Van Gully]

some glass half-full perspective:

http://dailyknicks.com/2016/08/08/new-york-knicks-every-starters-most-underrated-skill

lists the most underrated skill of each starter. just stumbled upon this in my slow offseason desert thirst scrounge for news.

[Jeff Van Gully]

As I have said before in other threads 4th or 5th is the highest I see us attaining and that is with all things coming together for us.

though unlikely, i truly see 2 as our ceiling. if this team combines those bulls with balance, scoring punch, and creativity on offense... it's real.

our defense should be legit this season. no holes in that starting lineup. and dog mentality. melo will play up to it. and you don't have to convince the other 4 to play hard on that end.

[King of Canada]

I think that we can make the playoffs. KP growing as a player + an actual pg + a coach who has the freedom to run plays suited to his players is enough of an improvement from last year. I hope that's not it though. I don't want to be fighting for a playoff spot. I want this team to be in the 4-5 range at least.

[machu46]

Just an outsider's perspective, if we're talking strictly about this season, I think Rose/Noah are much bigger keys than Porzingis. Even in a worst case scenario (excluding injury), you know Porzingis will probably be pretty good. The floors for Rose and Noah are much lower. Rose hasn't really been good or even average since 2012, and if Noah plays like he did last year, he's probably a decent downgrade from RoLo.

I think it's at least possible Noah gets back to the way he played two years ago, in which case you guys are probably a low-seeded playoff team. With Rose, I think the days of him being even a borderline all-star are gone, but if he can simply be productive, that, combined with the Noah of two years ago and some progress from KP could make you guys a 4 or 5 seed.

In all likelihood though, you guys should be more focused on the development of Porzingis than anything else. Rose, Noah, and Melo will probably all be gone before the Knicks are a title contender again, but if Porzingis turns into a franchise cornerstone like he could, it'll all be worth it for you guys.

I'm not a Knicks fan, but I do live in New York, so I get to see pretty much all of your games; it should be a really interesting year for you guys, certainly better than the last few years.

[Greenie]

Rose can become an all-star again. He's a scoring PG...

Listen, we are improving as a team. We can be legit title contenders if we just stay the course. It's not overnight though. People need to ease up on that.

[Jeff Van Gully]

Rose can become an all-star again. He's a scoring PG...

Listen, we are improving as a team. We can be legit title contenders if we just stay the course. It's not overnight though. People need to ease up on that.

greenie... people really act like phil has been president for the whole post-ewing era. no one wants to let that boy cook.

we razed the foundation LAST offseason. and for what that suicide squad was, it was .500 for a minute before the bottom fell out.

we didn't have a pick, but have come into this season with clean books. we still have pretty clean books going into next offseason... and we have NBA starters. a star for now. a star for the future. dog mentality on deck. all our picks (and some extras). we're on our way.

but some will always find a way to complain because we didn't win the championship. but few people have rational thoughts on how to get there.

i can understand the appeal of tank squad, but i have yet to see a situation where perpetual losing begets winning. the spurs took one season off and got luckier than life. bottom feeders end up high lottery every year and make no traction, just end up in a vicious cycle of losing and showing a losing culture to young talent.

this season looks like a real shot to make an upward trajectory.

[Jeff Van Gully]

Just an outsider's perspective, if we're talking strictly about this season, I think Rose/Noah are much bigger keys than Porzingis. Even in a worst case scenario (excluding injury), you know Porzingis will probably be pretty good. The floors for Rose and Noah are much lower. Rose hasn't really been good or even average since 2012, and if Noah plays like he did last year, he's probably a decent downgrade from RoLo.

I think it's at least possible Noah gets back to the way he played two years ago, in which case you guys are probably a low-seeded playoff team. With Rose, I think the days of him being even a borderline all-star are gone, but if he can simply be productive, that, combined with the Noah of two years ago and some progress from KP could make you guys a 4 or 5 seed.

In all likelihood though, you guys should be more focused on the development of Porzingis than anything else. Rose, Noah, and Melo will probably all be gone before the Knicks are a title contender again, but if Porzingis turns into a franchise cornerstone like he could, it'll all be worth it for you guys.

I'm not a Knicks fan, but I do live in New York, so I get to see pretty much all of your games; it should be a really interesting year for you guys, certainly better than the last few years.

thanks for the post.

my thoughts on this are that winning now and developing KP are not mutually exclusive. it's better that he be a starter and top contributor to a team that is trying to win. learning good habits from good veteran pros. and maybe even sniffing the playoffs, even if at a low seed.

some talk about "developing" KP like he is going to improve by being on a laughing stock lottery pick collector. those children grow up in the dark... like bane.

[machu46]

Just an outsider's perspective, if we're talking strictly about this season, I think Rose/Noah are much bigger keys than Porzingis. Even in a worst case scenario (excluding injury), you know Porzingis will probably be pretty good. The floors for Rose and Noah are much lower. Rose hasn't really been good or even average since 2012, and if Noah plays like he did last year, he's probably a decent downgrade from RoLo.

I think it's at least possible Noah gets back to the way he played two years ago, in which case you guys are probably a low-seeded playoff team. With Rose, I think the days of him being even a borderline all-star are gone, but if he can simply be productive, that, combined with the Noah of two years ago and some progress from KP could make you guys a 4 or 5 seed.

In all likelihood though, you guys should be more focused on the development of Porzingis than anything else. Rose, Noah, and Melo will probably all be gone before the Knicks are a title contender again, but if Porzingis turns into a franchise cornerstone like he could, it'll all be worth it for you guys.

I'm not a Knicks fan, but I do live in New York, so I get to see pretty much all of your games; it should be a really interesting year for you guys, certainly better than the last few years.

thanks for the post.

my thoughts on this are that winning now and developing KP are not mutually exclusive. it's better that he be a starter and top contributor to a team that is trying to win. learning good habits from good veteran pros. and maybe even sniffing the playoffs, even if at a low seed.

some talk about "developing" KP like he is going to improve by being on a laughing stock lottery pick collector. those children grow up in the dark... like bane.

I agree. The same sort of debate is going on with a lot of Bucks fans too after we made the playoffs two years ago largely carried by a bench of capable vets. A lot of us (myself included) are hoping that with the few additions we made, we can get back into the playoffs as a low-seed while also continuing the development of Giannis, Jabari, Middleton, and to a lesser extent (simply because I doubt he plays much this year), Thon Maker.

I would think the goal for the Knicks is to get Porzingis up over the 30 MPG threshold and give him some more opportunities to develop his own game while still pursuing the playoffs (ex: maybe giving him extra opportunities to try to shoulder the load with the 2nd unit at times so that he can get used to carrying an offense more rather than playing off of Melo and Rose).

[Sark]

Rose can become an all-star again. He's a scoring PG...

Listen, we are improving as a team. We can be legit title contenders if we just stay the course. It's not overnight though. People need to ease up on that.

greenie... people really act like phil has been president for the whole post-ewing era. no one wants to let that boy cook.

we razed the foundation LAST offseason. and for what that suicide squad was, it was .500 for a minute before the bottom fell out.

we didn't have a pick, but have come into this season with clean books. we still have pretty clean books going into next offseason... and we have NBA starters. a star for now. a star for the future. dog mentality on deck. all our picks (and some extras). we're on our way.

but some will always find a way to complain because we didn't win the championship. but few people have rational thoughts on how to get there.

i can understand the appeal of tank squad, but i have yet to see a situation where perpetual losing begets winning. the spurs took one season off and got luckier than life. bottom feeders end up high lottery every year and make no traction, just end up in a vicious cycle of losing and showing a losing culture to young talent.

this season looks like a real shot to make an upward trajectory.

Oklahoma.

Minnesota is about to turn that corner too.

[Greenie]

Rose can become an all-star again. He's a scoring PG...

Listen, we are improving as a team. We can be legit title contenders if we just stay the course. It's not overnight though. People need to ease up on that.

greenie... people really act like phil has been president for the whole post-ewing era. no one wants to let that boy cook.

we razed the foundation LAST offseason. and for what that suicide squad was, it was .500 for a minute before the bottom fell out.

we didn't have a pick, but have come into this season with clean books. we still have pretty clean books going into next offseason... and we have NBA starters. a star for now. a star for the future. dog mentality on deck. all our picks (and some extras). we're on our way.

but some will always find a way to complain because we didn't win the championship. but few people have rational thoughts on how to get there.

i can understand the appeal of tank squad, but i have yet to see a situation where perpetual losing begets winning. the spurs took one season off and got luckier than life. bottom feeders end up high lottery every year and make no traction, just end up in a vicious cycle of losing and showing a losing culture to young talent.

this season looks like a real shot to make an upward trajectory.

Exactly. The thing that always seems to hinder us though is this thought that fans have of us being elite right now. That's the wrong mindset and leads to bitter disappointment. Last year is a great example of that. People called for a .500 team coming off of a 17 win season. It was delusional and when the delusion stopped people got angry. Why? We made great strides last year.

Fast forward to this year:

People are calling for a #2 seed and 50+ wins. Delusions. This team is supposed to go from a bottom 10 team to a top 10 team in one off-season? No. Now is the year you look for 40-42 wins and another stride forward possibly making the playoffs as a 6-8 seed. That's solid. Depending on health at the time of the playoffs as well as matchups we may be able to give straight hell to a higher seed and maybe a series in the first round. That's realistic. Next year depending on moves made we can then start to slide up the rankings as KP matures as a player and pieces are continuously added.

We as fans need to stop jumping out of the window every damn off-season and then calling for trades and firings when the team doesn't reach our unrealistic goals to begin with.

[Greenie]

Just an outsider's perspective, if we're talking strictly about this season, I think Rose/Noah are much bigger keys than Porzingis. Even in a worst case scenario (excluding injury), you know Porzingis will probably be pretty good. The floors for Rose and Noah are much lower. Rose hasn't really been good or even average since 2012, and if Noah plays like he did last year, he's probably a decent downgrade from RoLo.

I think it's at least possible Noah gets back to the way he played two years ago, in which case you guys are probably a low-seeded playoff team. With Rose, I think the days of him being even a borderline all-star are gone, but if he can simply be productive, that, combined with the Noah of two years ago and some progress from KP could make you guys a 4 or 5 seed.

In all likelihood though, you guys should be more focused on the development of Porzingis than anything else. Rose, Noah, and Melo will probably all be gone before the Knicks are a title contender again, but if Porzingis turns into a franchise cornerstone like he could, it'll all be worth it for you guys.

I'm not a Knicks fan, but I do live in New York, so I get to see pretty much all of your games; it should be a really interesting year for you guys, certainly better than the last few years.

thanks for the post.

my thoughts on this are that winning now and developing KP are not mutually exclusive. it's better that he be a starter and top contributor to a team that is trying to win. learning good habits from good veteran pros. and maybe even sniffing the playoffs, even if at a low seed.

some talk about "developing" KP like he is going to improve by being on a laughing stock lottery pick collector. those children grow up in the dark... like bane.

Look at Cousins

[Greenie]

Rose can become an all-star again. He's a scoring PG...

Listen, we are improving as a team. We can be legit title contenders if we just stay the course. It's not overnight though. People need to ease up on that.

greenie... people really act like phil has been president for the whole post-ewing era. no one wants to let that boy cook.

we razed the foundation LAST offseason. and for what that suicide squad was, it was .500 for a minute before the bottom fell out.

we didn't have a pick, but have come into this season with clean books. we still have pretty clean books going into next offseason... and we have NBA starters. a star for now. a star for the future. dog mentality on deck. all our picks (and some extras). we're on our way.

but some will always find a way to complain because we didn't win the championship. but few people have rational thoughts on how to get there.

i can understand the appeal of tank squad, but i have yet to see a situation where perpetual losing begets winning. the spurs took one season off and got luckier than life. bottom feeders end up high lottery every year and make no traction, just end up in a vicious cycle of losing and showing a losing culture to young talent.

this season looks like a real shot to make an upward trajectory.

Oklahoma.

Minnesota is about to turn that corner too.

That's one team.

Do you know how long Minnesota has been rebuilding? Almost 10 years. They have been the fuqing pits since they traded Garnett to the Celtics in 2008. I'm not here for that at all.