With just one game separating the Knicks from a first-round meeting with the Detroit Pistons, there’s little time left to improve or innovate on the season. The last 81 games have served as all the preparation they’re going to get before a grueling postseason run through an improved East.
But despite the season nearly being over, plenty of questions remain about this squad, which are sure to be answered in due time. Here are three of the biggest ones as we enter the playoffs.
Can the Knicks shut down the East’s elite?
SNY’s Ian Begley wrote that Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby must step up defensively in the playoffs after struggling against the East’s best all season. New York will get an early test when they take on Cade Cunningham in the first round.
The former No. 1 overall pick has terrorized the Knicks this season to the tune of 30.8 points, five rebounds, and 8.3 assists on 56.3 percent shooting from the field and 52 percent from three. Shutting his offense down would cut the head off the snake for the Pistons, and all but ensure a first-round series victory.
But the defensive questions extend beyond the two wings, as teams will undoubtedly attack New York’s weak points -- Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns. The two will need to play the best defense of their respective seasons if the Knicks want to make it to a Conference Finals.
The Knicks were average to below average defensively for most of the season until Mitchell Robinson’s return -- it’s possible we see more of him in the playoffs. And if something isn’t working, will head coach Tom Thibodeau be able to adjust?
Will the Knicks make major adjustments?
Fans have long bemoaned the lack of experimentation by Thibodeau, who can stay locked into schemes and rotations long after they’ve done their damage. He believes in making a change only after his team is executing and still falling short, but the postseason doesn’t leave much room for error.
If New York falls behind in a series, will Thibodeau actually throw in a major shake up? Would he start Robinson with Towns, or bench Josh Hart for a shooter, after spending so few regular season minutes playing with these concepts?
He’s proven himself a capable tactician in the past two playoffs, with injuries cratering New York’s chances last year. But with a team that’s likely going to have to forge an identity through this postseason instead of coming in with an established one, he needs to be ready to make big moves before it’s too late.
What is the Knicks identity?
This isn’t the question you normally ask of a contending team going into the playoffs, which isn’t a good sign for the Knicks' chances. Unfortunately they’ve yet to settle on a cohesive or coherent gameplan other than score more points than the other team.
Look back on last year’s team, which knew exactly how it wanted to win games: defend physically, dominate the glass and keep pace and turnovers down to win the possession game, and run the offense through its core engines -- Brunson and Julius Randle, then Isaiah Hartenstein. What does this year’s team want to do?
Early on it seemed clear, blitz teams with their high-passing, high-movement and high-scoring offense, scrapping enough on the other end to give themselves the edge. But the offense devolved into hero ball and low assist rates as the year progressed.
New York regained some of its defensive identity when Robinson returned and Brunson got hurt, but haven’t looked connected in recent games.
The good news is plenty of teams have looked messy in the regular season and even the early parts of the playoffs and figured it out on their way. The 2021 Milwaukee Bucks were a shoe size from firing their coach and ended up winning the championship.
So no matter how many questions are open about these Knicks, they’ll soon find answers in the playoffs. For better or worse, we’re about to discover what this team is.
