{"id":141924,"date":"2025-09-13T21:55:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T21:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/141924\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T21:55:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T21:55:07","slug":"former-two-time-champ-fading-the-knicks-as-contenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/141924\/","title":{"rendered":"Former two-time champ &#8216;Fading&#8217; the Knicks as contenders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Knicks made several additions this offseason to shore up depth, making them one of the favorites in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n<p>That, however, hasn\u2019t swayed former two-time NBA champion Mario Chalmers, who still doesn\u2019t believe the Knicks are a contending team. \u201cFading that,\u201d <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/nba\/articles\/mario_chalmers_says_knicks_still_missing_key_piece_to_contend\/s1_16751_42729510\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Chalmers said<\/a> of New York\u2019s contender status. \u201cThey\u2019re missing one more piece. I think they\u2019re missing that dominant big. KAT is decent, he\u2019s good for what he\u2019s good for, but they need someone who can really block it and give them a presence on the offensive end as well as the defensive end.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Karl-Anthony Towns\u2019 defense has been criticized before, he has played more well-rounded basketball as a member of the Knicks than he did with the Minnesota Timberwolves.<\/p>\n<p>Last season, Towns finished tied for sixth among all centers in defensive rating and was sixth in steals at the position.<\/p>\n<p>Chalmers\u2019 estimation clearly undermines the Knicks\u2019 run to the Eastern Conference finals last season and their offseason acquisitions.<\/p>\n<p>This summer, New York added Guerschon Yabusele, Jordan Clarkson and Malcolm Brogdon. Other East contenders such as Indiana and Boston took a step back, leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers and Knicks as favorites. Teams like the Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic also upgraded their rosters, but may not be as strong as a New York squad that won more than 50 games last season.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, new head coach Mike Brown will aim to establish a new identity as the Knicks chase their first NBA Finals appearance since 1999.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Knicks made several additions this offseason to shore up depth, making them one of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-141924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}