Biggest Early-Season Storylines for New York Knicks
Cautious hope, followed by exhilaration, choked off instantly by agonizing frustration: probably the best way to describe the New York Knicks' season thus far.
Phil "Action" Jackson's thrill-filled offseason—trading away a chunk of last year's team and firing the entire coaching staff—has led to a regular-season record of 4-16 and counting, but that belies the fact that many of those drastic actions over the summer are starting to make sense. The Knicks have been so excruciatingly close to victory so many times that fans may be developing grave cardiac problems.
In case you've been in hiding until the record looks brighter, here are some of the highs and lows you've missed.
Calderon Injury
1 of 6Jose Calderon, the veteran point guard the Knicks were counting on to lead them through this time of great change, missed the first 14 games of the season because of an injury. The team went 4-10 without him and was very eager to have him back.
Calderon made his return Nov. 24 in Houston, showed no rust whatsoever and helped hold the team together after Carmelo Anthony left the game just before halftime with back spasms. Yet his efforts were not quite enough to secure a win.
Two days later, the Knicks were still without Anthony, and Calderon stepped up big time. He was lights-out behind the arc, hitting seven out of nine three-point attempts. Calderon was the team's lead scorer, with 21 points, four assists and 10 rebounds, and he helped force the Dallas Mavericks into overtime...though the team still lost the game.
Calderon has played well, but he alone is not the key to victory. Since his return, the Knicks are 0-6.
Surprising Lineups
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In the absence of Calderon and the injured center-forward Andrea Bargnani (who is still out indefinitely), head coach Derek Fisher had to look down the bench for replacements. In pursuit of lineups that could, collectively, be effective against every opponent for 48 minutes, Fisher has given important minutes to everyone on the roster. Two of the most surprising successes off the bench have been Shane Larkin and Travis Wear.
Larkin, the 5'11", 22-year-old second-year point guard who came over in the deal with the Dallas Mavericks, started in Calderon's place, ahead of veteran Pablo Prigioni. He went toe-to-toe with Derrick Rose, Kyrie Irving, John Wall and Kemba Walker and never looked intimidated. Since Calderon's return, Fisher has still given Larkin big minutes, and No. 0 keeps showing why in all sorts of exciting ways—whether it's keeping the team's triangle running, harassing Irving or launching his 5'11" frame into the air to beat 6'10" Anderson Varejao for a rebound.
Travis Wear, the 6'9" undrafted forward from UCLA, whom the Knicks picked up in the offseason, was not expected to make the roster at all. Yet his quick jump shot and calm demeanor in preseason won him a spot. He's played 16 of the Knicks' 20 games, averaged 9.9 minutes and done a shockingly effective job defending LeBron James.
Beating Cleveland
3 of 6After being crushed by the Chicago Bulls at the home opener Oct. 29, the Knicks headed to Cleveland and ruined the Cavaliers' debut (and LeBron James' precious homecoming) Oct. 30. The Knicks beat the Cavs 95-90 and looked good doing it.
Thursday night, LeBron and Co. came to the Garden for a rematch. It was an exhilarating contest and an impressive showing for everyone in blue and orange—except for No. 7. Carmelo Anthony struggled shooting from the tip. But the Knickerbockers led for most of the game, racking up 26 assists and inspiring bigger cheers from the Garden crowds than they've heard all year.
Yet New York somehow snatched defeat out of the claws of victory. A great game ended in a 90-87 loss. Nevertheless, both matchups against Cleveland, and its new gallery of All-Stars, showed what New York is made of.
Shooting Guards Struggling to Shoot
4 of 6For the first three weeks, Iman Shumpert looked like he was about to have the best season of his career. Through Nov. 18, he was thriving at both ends of the floor, frustrating shooters, forcing turnovers, averaging 14.5 points per game and shooting 52.2 percent from the field.
In the past eight games, however, Shump has struggled on offense, averaging 6.1 points and a dismal 26.3 percent from the field. He has stayed in the starting lineup and often been assigned to guard whoever the opponent's biggest weapon is. But if the Knicks are going to start winning, it would be awfully nice to have Shump shooting at least 40 percent.
Unfortunately, the team's other best options at the 2 spot, J.R. Smith and Tim Hardaway, Jr., have been having nearly as much trouble. Smith was superb against the Dallas Mavericks, and Hardaway was excellent Thursday night against the Cavaliers, but that has not been the norm. Smith is averaging 40.3 percent from the field and 28.6 percent from behind the arc, Hardaway 40.6 percent and 32.9 percent.
Sometimes the shooting guards have been so unreliable that Fisher's played two point guards together, looking to Pablo Prigioni or Shane Larkin, neither or whom is a high scorers, to pick up the slack.
STAT Is Back
5 of 6On the flip side, Amar'e Stoudemire is just getting better and better.
He's got the legs of 24-year-old STAT, leaping to the rim for powerful one-handed slams. He's taken to the triangle offense better than most, nearly always cutting to the right spot at the right time. He's behind only 'Melo in scoring (13.1 points per game) and free-throw attempts (3.8 per game). He's leading the team in rebounds, fighting for them like a 6'10" bulldog, and is always the first man throwing himself on the floor if there's a loose ball to grab.
Stoudemire has thrived whenever and wherever he's needed—power forward or center, as a starter or off the bench. Fisher made him the starting center for the first time in Thursday's near-win against Cleveland.
STAT has also become a vocal leader, taking his team to task when it hasn't shown the same grit he has. After a humiliating thrashing by Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder on Nov. 28, Stoudemire told reporters:
"They played like they want it more. At this point, I don't see how a team could want it more than we do. It's unacceptable. I mean, our team is in desperation mode. We're a team that's fighting to get a win. Right now, we got to have more of a higher sense of energy. ... We can't keep saying we're learning we're learning we're learning.
"
After a loss to the Miami Heat two days later, STAT said the overall effort was better, but he didn't let his teammates entirely off the hook.
"We gotta look ourselves in the mirror and see if we're putting forth the effort that we need to win, individually," he said.
Nobody on the team has argued with him.
16 Losses
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The 4-16 record makes the Knicks sound much worse than they are. The boys in blue and orange have shown brilliant examples of heart and teamwork. They've supplied hundreds of highlights that make fans leap off the couch and start dancing. Yet the W's are elusive. Why?
The key problem, as I said last week, is the disparity between the number of fouls the Knicks draw and the number they commit. They are one of the worst in the league at both drawing and committing fouls. If they had merely scored the same number of free throws as their competition, eight of those 16 losses would have been wins. The record would be 12-8, and they'd be ranked fifth in the league, not 14th.
Plus, as any exhilarated/frustrated fan will tell you, the Knicks are one of the worst teams in the clutch. Although they are quite brilliant in the first seven minutes of the fourth quarter, storming back to close up their opponents' wide leads, things fall apart in the last five minutes. Turnovers, stupid fouls and, most of all, inaccurate shooting, have killed them time and again. In Q4 overall, the Knicks' differential is plus-0.9—10th-best in the league. It would be an even better figure if they weren't minus-3.9 in the final five minutes—worst in the league.
Call me a starry-eyed optimist (or worse), but the Knicks are much closer to goodness (or at least a .500 record) than their 16 losses would indicate. The Knickerbockers' season could turn around at any moment. And I will graciously accept your apologies when it does.
All stats are from NBA.com. Follow Sara Peters on Twitter @3FromThe7.
