Back in 2020, the New York Knicks hired Leon Rose as the President of their basketball operations.
It was hoped that the man would bring a sense of forwarding momentum to the team. Since that point, he has had approximately one news conference in person. During that chat, he managed to underpin the three core ideas that would mark the Knick’s off-season activities.
Ultimately, Rose pointed to stability, continuity, and flexibility. The first two of those beliefs actually seemed to come true during the 2020 to 2021 season. The New York Knicks had a surprising amount of success during this period, which is quite remarkable, but unfortunately, instability began to creep in.
So, when we look at the beginning of the 2023 season, it’s generally understood that flexibility is going to be what gives the New York Knicks their ability to stay afloat and keeps New York bookies convinced they could have a good season.
No Big Gun, Yet
The biggest problem that the New York Knicks face at the moment is the lack of a big gun. They don’t seem to have any superstars in the wings waiting to join, which means they don’t have a team to build around. However, that isn’t necessarily a problem as such because there is still time to secure a new team member.
A pretty brutal examination of the Knicks as a whole point to a clear trend. The younger team members are fresh, upcoming talent, and they will do well. The problem begins with the veteran signings, who don’t seem to be pulling their weight in the same way. Furthermore, a lot of the veteran talent is seeing their contracts expire just in time for the 2023/2024 season, so the Knicks could be left with more than $60 million worth of expired contracts with not a lot of time to fill the gaps.
However, with that being said, it’s not all doom and gloom. Leon Rose was appointed for a very particular reason, and that was to build a cohesive direction.
Flexibility Breeds Success
Ultimately, it will be the flexibility of the team and their ability to bring in new talent that will determine whether or not they’re actually going to do well this season.
It’s important to recognise that there are plenty of different instances where teams have struggled, right up to the last minute, to secure the talent that they need.
However, it’s the flexibility of the New York Knicks to be able to consider pretty much any kind of avenue for success that might help them. If they’re prepared to adjust their lineup, learn from their mistakes, and change the way that they play, they might actually do really well.
Ultimately, it’s this characteristic of flexibility that will save the New York Knicks for the 2023-24 season, which is a long way away, so they have quite a bit of time to prepare for things, but at the end of the day, it’s not going to be easy when there are a lot of contracts winding down, and they don’t have any big hitters to replace them with.
Ideally, they need to start looking at superstars and heavy hitters now. If they’re going to successfully push on into the next season, they need to have a stronger team than they do going forward because there’s currently a massive lack of cohesive direction.
Final Thoughts
So, at this precise moment in time, it’s not the easiest of things to tell whether or not the New York Knicks will have a good 2023 to 2024 season. However, what can be said is that they have the potential to do well. Leon Rose was brought in to push the team in a brand-new direction, to set them up with a cohesive purpose that wasn’t present before. He’s beginning to do that, and it is showing dividends in places.
The New York Knicks will probably operate on a very slow basis for a bit. They’ll probably retreat inwards during the off-season, study game tapes, look at what went wrong, and try to improve. If they can do this, and they can learn to adapt, then that flexibility will put them in good stead for 2023.
