{"id":123601,"date":"2025-02-13T14:57:08","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T19:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=123601"},"modified":"2025-02-13T14:57:08","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T19:57:08","slug":"4-takeaways-from-the-knicks-first-half-of-the-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/13\/4-takeaways-from-the-knicks-first-half-of-the-season\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Takeaways From the Knicks’ First Half of the Season\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Knicks closed out a terrific first half with a thrilling one-point win over the rival Atlanta Hawks at Madison Square Garden. A game the Knicks felt like they’d won several times still came down to a Georges Niang<\/a> missed three at the buzzer, sending New York to the break on a high note. Although the mistakes made down the stretch were alarming and the defense needs fixing, NY has to be happy with where they stand through 54 games. At 36-18, they have their best record after 54 contests since 1997, during the Patrick Ewing<\/a> days. However, there’s still much to be concerned about from a championship perspective. Here are some big takeaways from the Knicks’ season so far.<\/p>\n

4 Takeaways From the Knicks’ First Half of the Season<\/h2>\n

New York will enter the break with the fifth-best record<\/a> and net rating<\/a> in the league, which they’ve hovered around for the entire season. Tom Thibodeau’s poor squad has the league’s<\/a> second-rated offense and 18th-ranked defense, which epitomizes their imbalanced performance. So far, they’ve shown no indication that they can defend the better offenses, which has led to a 0-5 record<\/a> against the top three contenders. With that said, they’ve beaten many good teams and still have everything ahead of them as we enter the second half.<\/p>\n

Towns has Been an A+ Addition<\/strong><\/h3>\n

When Leon Rose traded for Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> on the eve of training camp, even he couldn’t have predicted how it would transform the offense. Towns has been the second-best offensive center in basketball, rightfully earning his All-Star starting spot next to Jalen Brunson<\/a>. Their pairing has been arguably the best pick-and-roll duo in the league, but the stellar offense goes far beyond that.<\/p>\n

Adding Towns into a pure five-out group with five guys who can all shoot, pass, and dribble has changed his career. Gone are the days when KAT’s spacing was ruined by Rudy Gobert<\/a> and Minnesota’s poor shooting, and he has thrived in his new home. With Brunson, Josh Hart<\/a>, Mikal Bridges<\/a>, and OG Anunoby<\/a> flanking him, opposing defenses must bring their rim protector out of the paint. New York has emulated the Boston Celtics’ championship formula to perfection on the offensive end, and it makes them an instant contender, regardless of their defensive struggles.<\/p>\n

Depth is an Issue, But Improved Health Could Fix Everything\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Perhaps the most-discussed aspect of the Knicks season has been the minutes debate. Thibodeau famously likes to play his best players heavy minutes, and this campaign has been no different. For months, New York had five of the top ten in minutes played before injuries removed Anunoby and Towns from the list. Although he’ll always be criticized for it, Thibs has done this in part because of their lack of depth beyond the starters. Miles ‘Deuce’ McBride<\/a>, Cameron Payne<\/a>, Landry Shamet<\/a>, and Precious Achiuwa<\/a> have all been injured or ineffective for long stretches of the season, forcing Thibodeau to lean on the top five. Mitchell Robinson<\/a>‘s season-long absence only exacerbates the issue.<\/p>\n

Luckily for New York, reinforcements should be coming. Both Anunoby and Robinson<\/a> appear ready to return shortly after the All-Star break, which would give Thibodeau a full 10-man rotation<\/a> he trusts. He has shown a willingness to extend his rotation when guys earn it, going with a nine-man group over the past few weeks. Spreading out the minutes amongst starters and the bench unit worked wonders for the team’s energy. If the Knicks can get through the rest of the year without cluster injuries, they should be a much better squad than they’ve even shown so far.<\/p>\n

Defensive Concerns May Doom NYK<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Another well-publicized Knicks story has been their struggles on defense. Last night’s win over Atlanta was a microcosm of their season: incredible offense, capped off by Brunson’s game-winner, saved a gruesome defensive performance. Now, this team was always going to undergo an identity shift away from defense upon acquiring Towns, but it’s been alarming how easily opponents can break them down. Trae Young<\/a> was getting into the paint for his own shot, easy lobs, or kick-outs to open shooters seemingly every possession down the stretch, and he’s nowhere near the first guy to do so.<\/p>\n

This roster has a ton of defensive talent, but it doesn’t matter much when the closing lineup has two black holes. Teams have relentlessly attacked Brunson and Towns in pick-and-rolls, terrorizing both guys with their quick ball-handlers. Jayson Tatum<\/a> picked on KAT all night in Boston’s recent blowout win, emphasizing once again that New York has no answers for it. Oftentimes, Thibodeau has sent double-teams anytime these switches happen, but those create automatic open looks for other players. It won’t work against Boston, Cleveland, or OKC.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, keeping with the theme of this season, the returning players should boost the defense. Anunoby has been present for all but five games, but he’s yet to reach the defensive level we’re confident he will come the postseason. New York’s real saving grace will be the return of Mitchell Robinson<\/a>. The seven-footer is the answer to many problems: he provides real rim protection,\u00a0 can switch on the perimeter, and makes NY the most dominant rebounding frontcourt in basketball. In general, Robinson will clean up messes for this defense, allowing Brunson and Towns to play more achievable roles on that end.<\/p>\n

New York is a Real Contender<\/h3>\n

Thibodeau has some choices to make regarding lineup combinations, but a healthy roster provides him with more than enough to craft a passable defense. It only needs to be around a top-ten unit, considering how great the offense is. Health is always an issue for players like Robinson and Anunoby, but if they’re lucky, this team has what it takes to hoist the trophy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo credit: \u00a9 John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Knicks closed out a terrific first half with a thrilling one-point win over the rival Atlanta Hawks at Madison Square Garden. A game the Knicks felt like they’d won several times still came down to a Georges Niang missed three at the buzzer, sending New York to the break on a high […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5412,"featured_media":123615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,12],"tags":[1417,213,1616,1082],"class_list":["post-123601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-knicks","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-mitchell-robinson","tag-og-anunoby"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5412"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123601"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123616,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123601\/revisions\/123616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}