Derrick Rose is not alone in his belief that the New York Knicks are ready to contend for an NBA title, perhaps as this quasi-superteam, or whatever else he might be thinking these days.
Courtney Lee is right there with him.
Here’s what the Knicks’ three-and-D specialist said of his expectations for the team leading into 2016-17, per Basketball Insiders’ Alex Kennedy:
“We’re contenders, man. They didn’t make the playoffs last year, but we’re looking to change that and win big. The ring is the ultimate goal for everybody on the team; I know it is for me. When they talked to me and told me about the pieces they were adding alongside the players who were already there, I didn’t think anything less than a championship [was the goal]. We’re trying to get the Knicks back into the playoffs and win big. … Everybody is hungry and everybody has their own motivation or chip on their shoulder. We just need to come together, get that chemistry and see it click. Once everybody is together and everybody is hungry, I think we can be very scary.”
At times, it can be pretty easy to talk yourself into a big year for the Knicks. What if Rose remains healthy? What if Joakim Noah remains healthy? What if Carmelo Anthony gets to play off the ball more, as a spot-up shooter? What if Kristaps Porzingis makes the leap? And so on and so forth.
But the Knicks are the rare team with a low floor and low ceiling. Even if everything goes right, even if anything goes according to plan, you can easily see them falling well short of a top-four playoff berth. The Eastern Conference’s middle class, below the Cleveland Cavaliers, is once again super crowded, and the Knicks’ pieces don’t necessarily fit together on the offensive end, in large part because Rose, while a driver, isn’t a pass-first floor general.
Rose’s upcoming trial doesn’t do the Knicks any favors on the court, either. He and two friends are being accused of rape in a civil lawsuit. While he doesn’t face jail time as of now, since this isn’t a criminal case at the moment, the trial is bound to be a distraction for the team and its point guard. There, of course, is no need for sympathy. There are things bigger than basketball games at stake here—the victim’s well-being, for starters—and the Knicks had to know about these accusations when they traded for Rose. This mess is, as per usual, their own.
Bake in all the on-court issues, and you have one of the most fragile prospective championship contenders in recent memory—a potential title-chaser that, frankly, may not even prove worthy of pretender status.
