firing head coach Tom Thibodeau right after<\/a>. The objective internally is to win championships. Plural. Mike Brown is now manning the sideline and has implemented a completely different offense and defense from what the Knicks were used to under their former coach. The results have been mixed, hence the 2-2 record, and no game epitomized both what the team can be \u2014 and currently is \u2014 than Tuesday\u2019s loss to the Bucks.<\/p>\nThe Knicks we saw for most of the first half were an NBA Finals-bound team. Forget the 12-point lead going into halftime. New York\u2019s move-and-spray offense generated open 3 after open 3. A 25-point halftime lead seemed reasonable. New York didn\u2019t allow Antetokounmpo to get going behind a sound, foundational team defense. Jalen Brunson, as he often does, looked like one of the best players on the planet. Karl-Anthony Towns and his gravity only needed one shot attempt to help the offense move along.<\/p>\n
Then the second half happened. New York reverted to its old stagnant ways. Poor, sloppy offense bled into the defense, with a lack of urgency on that end leading to the Bucks shooting their way back into the game. The Knicks conceded to the Bucks\u2019 aggression, and that\u2019s the last thing you do to an Antetokounmpo-led team.<\/p>\n
New York didn\u2019t play 48 minutes of good basketball. It has yet to do that this season, even in the victories. The best teams find a way to do it on a regular basis. The Knicks are still on the hunt for a consistent four quarters. And, you know what? That\u2019s OK.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we do, we have a chance to be a really good team,\u201d Brown said. \u201cIf we don\u2019t, we can get beat by anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maybe the Knicks\u2019 3-point percentage won\u2019t catch up to the quality of 3s that they are generating. Yet, the looks they are often getting are so clean that it\u2019s worth taking the time to find out. Maybe the defense won\u2019t be consistently good. Well, they\u2019ve been without one of their three best defenders in center Mitchell Robinson, and his return (whenever that is) could shore things up on that end of the floor. Maybe the depth will continue to not look as good as it did on paper when the cash-strapped franchise grabbed Jordan Clarkson and Guerschon Yabusele this summer. But New York has played two games without Miles McBride, who has been out due to personal reasons, is missing Robinson and just got Josh Hart back after he missed all of the preseason.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s very possible that none of these things work in the Knicks\u2019 favor. The fast-paced, movement offense might not suit this cast of characters. The grueling nature of constantly moving could be impacting the shooting and the inconsistent defense. It\u2019s equally possible that all of these things drift positively for New York. The team is getting great shots. The defense is dominant in spurts. Players should be returning soon.<\/p>\n
Eventually, time will reveal all.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still learning, and everything is brand new to us,\u201d said Brunson, who scored 36 points on 14-of-25 shooting. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to use that excuse for a long time, but first couple of weeks \u2026 it\u2019s still fresh for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The beauty of the Knicks is that they have about six players who can greatly impact winning, in one way or another, on any given night. They spent all their meaningful resources over the last two and a half years to field a roster featuring two All-NBA players and a pair of two-way wings who can both defend with the best of them and offer legitimate scoring. Because of that, the Knicks don\u2019t have the assets to get an Antetokounmpo deal done even if they wanted to \u2014 unless Milwaukee, for some reason, had no interest in rebuilding after moving on from its superstar and preferred rolling out a somewhat competitive roster. New York would have to trade at least two of its premier players,\u00a0 probably even three, to recoup the assets to realistically throw its hat in the ring.<\/p>\n
When is the last time a good team traded for a top-five player and won a championship soon after? The 2019 Raptors, led by Kawhi Leonar,d may have the best argument, but Toronto didn\u2019t have to deplete its core to get Leonard due to the uncertainty about his future beyond his short contract. When franchises make a move for one of the league\u2019s elite and don\u2019t have draft picks to sweeten the pot, the foundation of their roster is taken out from underneath.<\/p>\n
The Knicks, as constructed, have the talent to make it to the NBA Finals, and you don\u2019t need to squint to see the vision Brown has for this team. Maybe those two things don\u2019t mesh in the long run, but it behooves New York to be patient and find out if continuity can bring it all together.<\/p>\n
The Knicks need time, not a splashy trade. Not this year, at least (it\u2019s very hard to pull off an in-season trade for a player of Antetokounmpo\u2019s stature). And not next year, either \u2014 assuming things just don\u2019t go terribly wrong.<\/p>\n
New York needs to give this experiment time to reveal itself. Breaking the bank for a superstar player could take it back to a place that once felt impossible to leave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILWAUKEE \u2014 \u201cLock the door! I see Leon coming!\u201d Bucks general manager Jon Horst probably said (this didn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,1666,1721,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-248801","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-new-york-knicks","12":"tag-opinion","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}