wanna be weird?Similarly, what strange level can only Chris Duhon’s 20-assist performance top? new york knicks can lead you there.
But first, let’s trek through the mundane.
Cliches offering advice on how to win titles are littered everywhere NBA Discourse. Defense wins. You need toughness. But you also have to be able to score when the game slows down. Oh, we need to recruit top 5 players too. If not, top 10 stuff he needs two. Or maybe 3 of them are in the top 20.
Putting all this advice together, what do you learn? The best teams in the NBA need great guards and defenses, and they need elite players. A good team is balanced.
Congratulations on your life lessons.
Such groundbreaking information led to common practice. Want to identify a team that can thrive this spring? Find good to excellent on both sides of the ball.
Until last season, being in the top 11 in both offensive and defensive efficiency (points per possession/points allowed) may have been a prerequisite to winning the title.
That cutoff sounds like gerrymandering (what are contrarians thinking with a base 11 system?), but it’s not. There’s something about being in the top 11 on both sides that puts the team in competitive position. When 2021-22 golden state warriors (whose offense was mediocre during the regular season) won it all, snapping a streak of 17 consecutive champions breaking into the top 11 for both offensive and defensive efficiency. In that nearly 20-year period, his team had four titles offensive or defensive, just as he finished 11th in his NBA.
However, the eventual champion never dropped to 12th place.
The Warriors are the exact type of team to make an exception. For example, los angeles lakers It repeated in 2001 despite a bottom-10 regular season defense. Golden State already had him three rings and one return. Klay ThompsonThey knew there was an on switch.
So live the same reality that has been proven true for nearly 20 years. If you want your jewelry chance, you’ll have to sneak into the top 11 on offense and defense.
And now we get to the weird part.
Heading into action Wednesday, only five teams finished in the top 11 on both offense and defense. boston celticswho has the best record in the NBA; brooklyn nets, who is second best.of cleveland cavaliers, to match elite scoring guards with the presence of physical paint.of new orleans pelicans, is one from the first game in the Western Conference. And the pesky Knicks battling for home-court advantage…
…in a play-in tournament.
League possession-by-possession data goes back to the 1996-97 season. Back then, the Knicks were never anywhere near the top 11 on either side of the ball.
So what is going on here?
One thing to be clear, this isn’t the first passive attempt since Patrick Ewing to whisper that the Knicks are in elite territory. Not that they are dominant on either side. They rank 11th in offensive efficiency and 7th in defensive efficiency. Forgettable teams have done this before. years ago, oklahoma city thunder They finished inside the top 11 on offense and defense, but didn’t win 50 games or even a playoff series. Historically, if a group was this balanced, it wouldn’t flicker like New York.
The Knicks are doing the most normal thing possible, winning about as many games as they lost. This means it’s time to ask another version of the same question I’ve been thinking about since the fall.
Who is Knicks? Because even if he holds on to eighth place in the Eastern Conference for the rest of the season, they’re not your normal midfield team.
Are they the team that gave the Oklahoma City Thunder 145 points at home? Are they on the heels of that home loss with wins in Utah and Denver? They blew that heartbreaking game is it? Dallas Mavericks (No, you don’t have to specify which one)?
Are they the ones who won eight games in a row? Or the one who lost 5 in a row? Or have you won two since then?
Are they, as expected, 20-18 and within play-in tournament bracket, a team around .500?
“That’s your effort. … You want to be strong on both sides of the ball,” said Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau. “From the start of training camp, if you look at the numbers every day and then watch the movie, you’ll see a lot of good things going on defensively. Offensively, it’s always been good. We’re screening the ball, so I think all those things are taken into account.”
But what does this mean for the last 44 games, or just the next five weeks? The trading deadline is almost a month away. How organizations interpret this trend will determine how they operate on February 9th.
This front office demonstrates that we do not make impulse trades that jeopardize our future.Precisely because we value draft picks and young players, they utah jazzBut there is a middle ground. Can the Knicks, for example, convince themselves that play-ins only need a few upgrades to ensure he outperforms the tournament, and if so, is that what they want? The East has a strong Top 5 that will be tough to beat no matter what moves they attempt during the season.
The next five weeks could go in many directions.
The Knicks could continue to win, as they did last month with a 10-5 record. In those 15 games, he was sixth in the NBA in points per possession and second in points per possession. Julius Randle was able to continue his All-Star level play. Mitchell Robinson You can rule the paint. The guards could keep pestering their surroundings. If so, you’ll have two months of proof that the team could be one of the five most balanced teams in the league.
The Knicks could also collapse. We’ve seen it before, like on a five-game losing streak. Young performers who appear to be up-and-coming right now are likely to level off as they perform more. Randle’s hot streak could prove to be just that. Despite recent injuries, they’re one of his healthiest teams in the NBA. January may not be so lucky. Below .500 certainly the front office knows they shouldn’t be trading like they are now.
But there’s another, less extreme way for the Knicks to get through January.
Even if they have no idea how they do it, they’re likely to keep hovering around .500.
I feel like they played multiple seasons in this. Evan Fournier had started.there was a time cam reddish had started. There were times when I couldn’t go out on the court. Maybe the fourth season will show up in a week, two or three.
The Knicks weren’t able to hold back defensive rebounds in November, but they grabbed the most rebounds of anyone in December. They used to play fast. Now they are Smashmouth. For his first month and a half of the season, they owned a bottom five defense. They’ve been in the top five for the past month.
Flipping and flopping may just be part of their personality. Perhaps the Knicks continue to be the most unpredictable yet predictable team in the NBA, as if they were going to put a 41-41 record into their GPS. It will continue to navigate the season and lead you down the service road.
Still, many of the peripherals can go on to say they’re better than mediocre.especially when the Knicks are in the top 11 on offense and defense in 38 games, 8 of the next 10 games are currently Why couldn’t they be there a few weeks from now given they’re going up against teams that are below .500?
How will that affect their deadline philosophy? Or how will it affect the offseason if they stay in the top half of the league on both sides of the ball for the rest of the season? Do you believe it’s better than it shows?
The team owns the NBA’s eighth-highest points differential per 100 possessions, directly ahead of the Mavericks. Denver Nuggets When milwaukee bucksIt’s an impressive company. The Knicks can convince themselves they are better than 20-18. Luka Doncic Failed at least one offensive rebound demar derozan If the jumper hits the back of the rim Jalen Brunson floater goes in reverse portland trailblazers — then they’re 23-15. Or you can just move on, knowing that this is life in the NBA.
Luckily for them, Leon Rose & Co. doesn’t have to make big decisions today. I mean, for now they can behave like we do, marveling at how unpredictable this predictable season has become.
(Photo of Mitchell Robinson and Julius Randle: Nathaniel S. Butler / NBAE via Getty Images)
