New York Knicks: Four players who need a strong finish
If the season ever resumes, there are four New York Knicks who need to finish the season strong to continue their development.
It’s been about two months since we’ve all had live basketball. Owners, players, fans, pretty much everyone and their grandma is itching for the season to come back (just sports in general, really), and the league office is doing everything in their power to do so.
The NBA is currently doing its due diligence to restart the season and crown a champion. By completing the season, no one entirely misses out on their earnings, and it prevents a potential lockout from starting sooner rather than later.
Even with all the uncertainty with restoring the season, I’m confident the New York Knicks organization and fanbase want basketball to resume for specific players to continue their development (assuming everyone stays healthy).
Before the season stopped, the Knicks defeated the Atlanta Hawks and had won four of their last seven games. The young core, which includes players such as RJ Barrett, Mitchell Robinson, Frank Ntilikina, and Kevin Knox, were playing well and showing signs of progress (considering this season felt it was about the veteran’s development).
Orlando and Vegas were the two 'bubble' sites that Silver mentioned on the call, sources said. He said that there were a number of other cities that inquired about hosting the NBA. https://t.co/YTl2ocMCa4
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 9, 2020
To some extent, there was justification for playing the veterans more minutes than the young core. For the most part, Knox seemed out of rhythm. There were nights that Ntilikina just vanished. Barrett sometimes couldn’t hit the broad side of a mountain. And most of the time, Dennis Smith Jr. was just downright horrific.
There was an understanding the youth would struggle (minus Smith looking like a shell of himself), which is why it was nice to see them find their groove towards the end of the campaign.
It’s essential to see the youth get into a rhythm as the season winds down for a few reasons:
- Shows management who to keep
- Players ending the season on a good note shows development
- Gives fans some encouragement that the team is making progress.
So let’s review four players that need to end the season on a high note (if the season ever comes back).