New York Knicks: 2017-18 season preview
Predictions
The first major point of business is whether Carmelo Anthony will be a Knick on opening night. If he has been traded, then the team can move on. If he has not, then the shadow of trade rumors will hang over the team until something changes. That situation has the power to alter the course of this Knicks season.
The prediction here is that Anthony will be moved before opening night, which will do two things. It will mean Kristaps Porzingis is officially this team’s star, and it will mean this team has a huge hole at small forward.
The Knicks will get a reasonable facsimile of Anthony’s production from Michael Beasley, and a combination of Mindaugas Kuzminskas and Lance Thomas will back Beasley up at the 3. This team will most likely start Ramon Sessions and Tim Hardaway Jr. in the backcourt to start the season, alongside Beasley, Porzingis and Hernangomez.
After Anthony is gone, Courtney Lee will be the next player on the trading block, the odd man out after Hardaway was brought in. He will be moved to a fringe contender by the trade deadline, with a team such as Charlotte or Portland bringing him in.
Porzingis will be great, averaging 21 points and nine rebounds per game — and a league-leading 2.3 blocks per game. He will be named to his first All-Star team, with New York fans inflating his vote total to push him alongside LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo as a starter.
By early March the Knicks will be just close enough to the playoff picture to keep playing their veterans, so it won’t be until the last few weeks of the season that the team accepts its fate and begins to start Frank Ntilikina. Ultimately, New York will finish in a morass of teams struggling to find their identity and be left out of the postseason.
Next: Los Angeles Lakers: 2017-18 NBA season preview
The New York Knicks will finish with a record of 32-50, good enough for fourth in the Atlantic Division and 11th in the Eastern Conference. Jeff Hornacek will be fired at the end of the season, as will Kurt Rambis, and the team will hire a high-profile coach to try and right the Knickerbocker ship.