New York Knicks: 2017-18 season preview
Best-case scenario
Kristaps Porzingis is one of the best young players in the league, and he could make a leap at any point. Many expect that leap to occur this season, and if it does then the Knicks will take a corresponding step forward as well.
If he can become the top option on offense, Carmelo Anthony is perfectly equipped to be the second option for a good offense. If the Knicks are unable to move him and he buys into his role, then this offense could be better than expected.
Defensively Joakim Noah, albatross contract and all, can still be an impactful force. Lance Thomas, Courtney Lee, and Ron Baker all play with high effort levels and can keep this defense from being bottom of the pack.
Put these things together, and the Knicks could conceivably push into the postseason. It will take coaching from Jeff Hornacek that he has not yet shown in his head coaching career, it will take health from Porzingis, and it will take some luck too. But 38 wins and the 8-seed is not out of reach for this team.
Worst-case scenario
Of course we are talking about the New York Knicks, so the worst-case scenario becomes not just an exercise but a borderline prediction. Every season the Knicks begin the year amidst optimism, and every season they take hold of their fans’ dreams and crush them. Dysfunction and underachieving are this franchise’s core values.
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Last season the Knicks spent $72 million on a center who broke down throughout the season and then was suspended; had a point guard disappear and miss a game without telling the team; threw a franchise legend out of MSG and then got into a PR nightmare trying to justify their actions; had to backtrack from their team president calling a group of successful black businessmen a “posse”; and finally alienated their best player, kept their aging star on a yo-yo, and weren’t even relevant in the playoff race by midseason.
This year the worst-case scenario is seemingly unimaginable; how could anyone have foreseen the mess of last year? But a reasonable approach to the exercise would be that Carmelo is traded for future assets, making the team worse, and Tim Hardaway Jr. reverts to the player he was before last season. Porzingis’ development flat-lines, Hornacek is fired midseason, and this team again falls out of the playoff race early.
In this scenario the team not only fails to reach the playoffs, but they don’t even reach last season’s dismal win total. Twenty-five wins is low, but not out of the question if things fall apart…again.