Knicks are talented but there’s yearning for old tough guys squad

The Knicks problems are easy to point to and dissect right now. But maybe the biggest problem isn’t what you see now as the Knicks ready for the start of the postseason.

The problem is that fans, and perhaps the Knicks also, haven’t gotten over their ex.

Admit it. You still have a longing in your heart for the one that got away, the Knicks team that was in place last season once they swung the deal for OG Anunoby, when he joined Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo, along with the parts that still remain in place. And you knew that on any night you might end up like the New York nights you dreamed about, dancing in the streets, hugging people you’d never met before. What would you give to hear some overly-excited or inebriated fan screaming “bing bong” on 7th Avenue again?

Like someone checking Facebook to see what their old girlfriend is looking like now, you saw DiVincenzo in the middle of a fight with the Detroit Pistons, standing up to the hard-nosed young players trying to create Bad Boys 2.0 and you swooned. You were thinking about the good times that fell apart. First in a procession of injuries and then in a decision to go all-in on a talent upgrade in the offseason.

The decision was understandable. They were attempting to maximize the window for the prime of Brunson by surrounding him with more talent. But there was something about that old team that is easy to spot missing in this current squad. It is revealed as the record against the NBA’s best teams shows. They are 0-10 against Boston, Cleveland and Oklahoma City and only 15-23 against teams with winning records.

“Obviously, we have to be better,” Brunson said after the Knicks backed into securing the third seed in the East with their third straight loss Friday. “To make it short and sweet we have to be better.”

With the playoff seeding set, the Knicks know that they will face the Pistons in the opening round. Opposite them they will face a team with the same sort of overachieving toughness they used to possess before they went for the shiny new thing. Cade Cunningham is an All-NBA talent and around him there are role players, enforcers and hardworking players who brought the team from 14 wins a year ago to 44 with one game left. It’s sort of like what had Knicks fans celebrating as the Tom Thibodeau-led squad went from decades of misery to contender by outworking opponents every night.

It’s easy to point a finger at the coach, the fashionable thing as former championship or coach of the year winners like Mike Malone, Taylor Jenkins and Mike Brown have taken the hit for their team’s issues this season. But it’s also a reality that the toughest figures on the Knicks right now might be the coach and the point guard.

This incarnation of the Knicks is certainly more talented in the starting lineup, but they not only don’t outwork opponents every night, but rarely do it for 48 minutes in a single night. When the Pistons beat them up in Detroit Thursday it’s easy to point to the Knicks sitting three rotation pieces. But also hard to ignore how the Pistons played, the willingness to go nose-to-nose with the Knicks and challenge them.

“That’s a good young team,” Josh Hart said. “We know the type of brand of basketball that they play so we have to go out there and not just match their physicality, but we’ve got to exceed it.”

That is easier said than done. And it’s worth wondering if the Knicks actually have it in them.

“I’m always confident in this group,” Hart said. “At the end of the day, playoff basketball is totally different than the regular season. Everyone starts at 0-0. Everything else is outside noise. We’ve got to focus on the guys we have in this locker room. Doing what it takes to succeed as a team, not just as individuals, and execute it. And I think we have the character of guys to do that. Our character will be tested next week.”

The Knicks have lost three straight games to the Pistons and maybe that means nothing. Three rotation players sat out Thursday and you can point to schedule or whatever excuse you want. But you can’t deny that what the Pistons have done this season under J.B. Bickerstaff. It is not just echo the play of the old Bad Boys Pistons teams, but also the Knicks team that knocked his Cleveland Cavaliers squad out of the playoffs two years ago by outmuscling them in the opening round of the playoffs.

“Obviously Thibs is a great coach,” Bickerstaff said. “His strategy, the way that he gets his guys to compete, defend, all those things. His ability to take away your first strength and the first option of what you’re trying to do is high level.

“This team is a completely different team than we had in Cleveland. Just the stylistic thing. I like our chances, period, with anybody just because the way we compete, the way they scrap. Again, it’s going to take some time for our guys to experience things. But I think we’re built for playoff basketball. But you’ve still got to find that experience in all that.”

While the Pistons are in the postseason for the first time since 2019, they do have experience, not just with the playoffs, but with the Knicks. Bickerstaff coached that Cavs team against them two years ago. Tobias Harris and Paul Reed were part of the Philadelphia squad that the Knicks beat last season.

After they beat the Knicks this week, Pistons rookie Ron Holland, who triggered the fight with DiVincenzo and the Timberwolves, said, “I think whoever we play in the playoffs it’s going to be feisty. That’s just how we play. We bring that Detroit Bad Boys, that Detroit grit to every single game that we play, and if New York is the team that we end up playing we’re going to bring it every night.

“[Pistons basketball means] 48 minutes of playing hard and I feel like when we play hard we’re at our all-time high, and that’s if the ball is going in or not. If we are competing at a high level, all of the other stuff will work out. We know if we [are] guarding the ball, locked in on defense, eventually the offense will end up coming. We kind-of hang our hat on our defense for sure.”

The Knicks used to do that. Now they have to prove they can do it again or there may be another breakup on the way.

Towns gives back

Before the Knicks home finale, Towns met and surprised Calvin Mar, a Knicks fan affiliated with the Garden of Dreams partner, Children’s Village, with a $60,000 college scholarship. Mar’s father died, connecting with Towns, who lost his mother to COVID. Following the game Towns also presented him with a game-worn and signed jersey.

Knicks alum takes job

Kyle O’Quinn, who played three seasons for the Knicks, officially retired from pro basketball this week after playing in China most recently. He has accepted a job at his college, Norfolk State, to serve as Executive Director of Athletic Advancement.