90s Knicks Counterfactual

onedayattatime · Post #1 » by **onedayattatime** » Sun Nov 27, 2022 8:40 pm

how would the knicks have matched up against western conference champions during ewing's best years? in other words, if they could have consistently gotten out of the east, how many championships could ewing have led them to?

Owly · Post #2 » by **Owly** » Sun Nov 27, 2022 11:47 pm

onedayattatime wrote:how would the knicks have matched up against western conference champions during ewing's best years? in other words, if they could have consistently gotten out of the east, how many championships could ewing have led them to?

By matched up are you talking team goodness or specific matchup.

If the former ... poorly. '94 is their best performance 6.48 SRS, '93 is close and also at a legit contender (but not absolute favorite) level (SRS 5.87). That year they're pretty close to Phoenix (and Phoenix would be without Ceballos). Other than that they're never above 4.

Given their advantage by this measure and that they outscored them in the series the Knicks win '94 more often than lose in if the '94 finals were redone over and over.

Underdogs sometimes win series and maybe actual matchup level stuff changes things, but I don't at a glance see any other contending teams who wouldn't need luck, playing over their heads etc to win a series versus the finalists.

'95 Houston are probably the next weakest opponent on paper and though I'm probably inclined to say so irl too, they had injuries in the RS. Whilst I don't think their shooting sustains over a large sample, I do think with Drexler and Hakeem they were better than RS numbers and even that's better than NY's RS (miss 30 odd games from Oakley, otherwise healthy with their core pieces).

migya · Post #3 » by **migya** » Mon Nov 28, 2022 2:35 am

Can't see them being viable before 92. Don't think they win any. Would've been interesting against Phoenix in 93 but think Phoenix runs over them.

Post #4 » by **Clyde Frazier** » Mon Nov 28, 2022 4:20 pm

I think they have a decent shot (toss up?) against the suns in 93. That was arguably the best knicks team of Ewing's prime (yes noted the higher SRS in 94). As an aside, the 97 team that got screwed by multiple suspensions in the heat series was excellent. That's post prime Ewing but I think they'd have a shot against the jazz too.

dooki667 · Post #5 » by **dooki667** » Tue Nov 29, 2022 10:53 pm

Clyde Frazier wrote:I think they have a decent shot (toss up?) against the suns in 93. That was arguably the best knicks team of Ewing's prime (yes noted the higher SRS in 94). As an aside, the 97 team that got screwed by multiple suspensions in the heat series was excellent. That's post prime Ewing but I think they'd have a shot against the jazz too.

I agree I wouldn't write us off in 93. With Oak and Mase we got size and physicality to through at Chuck and I don't see why Pat couldn't go off.