These Jekyll-and-Hyde Knicks are running out of time to answer a critical question.
What is their identity?
Their first season under Mike Brown has been a roller-coaster filled with high highs and low lows. There are stretches where they look like bona fide contenders. There are other times — particularly against the Pistons, against whom they went 0-3 this year — where they alarmingly look like pretenders. Sometimes — like last week against the Rockets, when they made a season-high 18-point comeback — both forms emerge in the same game.
“We just gotta be the best version of ourselves come playoff time,” Karl-Anthony Towns said after the blowout loss in Cleveland on Tuesday night. “Right now, we’re all trying to figure it out. Still figuring out the system, we’re trying to figure out all the new things we’re doing, the nuances that go with it, the changes we’re trying to make. It’s still a work in progress.
“I know being in New York, everybody wants that finished product right now. You want instant gratification, but we’re still trying to figure out a lot. We still feel like a fresh team. We’ve still got a lot of things we’re trying to figure out in this system, I’m trying to figure out in this system, we’re all trying to figure out in this system so that we could impact winning the most.”
No, the Knicks don’t need to be a finished product right now. But by Game 59, they should be closer than where they currently are.
And it feels like every time the Knicks take a step forward in that regard, they follow it by taking a step backward.
“I think we’re still trying to figure it out,” Josh Hart said. “Just trying to figure out the style we want to play, the identity with which we want to play. I think that’s where some of those lulls [are]. And we have to collectively figure that out. Time is of the essence, so we gotta really spend the next 20 or so games in terms of really finding our identity and how we want to play, and execute better.”
It largely revolves around Jalen Brunson’s supporting cast. Coming out of the All-Star break, Towns was playing some of his best basketball of the year and it looked like he was finally starting to get comfortable in Brown’s offense — he averaged 24.7 points and 15.3 field goal attempts per game the first three games after the break. But then, like has happened too often this year, he completely disappeared in Tuesday’s loss, taking just five shots from the field — and only one in the second half.
OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges remain enigmas on both ends of the floor. Anunoby recorded 20 points (tied for a team high) in the win over the Rockets, but has failed to reach double digits in the three other games since the break. Bridges sometimes delivers clutch moments at the ends of games, but often goes long periods on the court where he’s hardly noticeable. Both have delivered mixed results defensively, their supposed calling cards. And recently Bridges has been benched at the ends of games in favor of Landry Shamet or Jose Alvarado.
That is also part of it — Brown is still tinkering with his rotation. The Knicks added Alvarado and Jeremy Sochan before the break, and given that they only lost Guerschon Yabusele, who was hardly playing, their additions mean fewer minutes for others. Brown is still learning who he likes to close games with, and it’s increasingly members of his bench.
“We’re still becoming a better team every single day,” Brunson said. “We’re not trying to be a final product by Game 60.”
The danger, though, is that while they’re working to become a final product, they could slip to the No. 4 seed — which would mean a likely matchup with the Pistons in the second round. This soul-searching could very well create a harder postseason path.
“I’ve seen teams come together pretty late and win a chip,” Towns said. “I think for us, we just gotta continue to have our head down, block out the noise and just continue to find ways to improve every single day. Because at the end of the day, when playoff time comes and the ball goes up, there ain’t no more time. We gotta have it figured out. Not hearing all the noise and having it distract us and we lose games trying to impress people or whatever the case may be or trying to please the noise. We just gotta keep our head down and focus on everyone in this locker room, this organization and how could we help each other win? And be the best version of ourselves so that when it comes playoff time, we have no regrets where we stand.”
That best version of themselves has been sporadic. The clock is ticking to cement it as their identity.
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