The Knicks Are Ready for a Sequel. The Good Kind.

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The Knicks Are Ready for a Sequel. The Good Kind.

Now the Knicks have a new problem: to establish they’re not a fluke.

“Consistency and sustaining what manufactured you gain in the to start with area is always a obstacle,” explained Stan Van Gundy, a TNT analyst who has coached 4 N.B.A. groups. His brother, Jeff, was the mentor of the Knicks when they very last produced the finals, in 1999. “But I believe the way it demands to be finished, and undoubtedly the way Tom will do it, is you proceed to do all of all those issues that bought you there in the first position.”

There are a good deal of good reasons to think the Knicks’ ceiling is even greater this season: They’ve specified Randle much more offensive weapons (Walker, Fournier) to get the stress off him following the team struggled on that finish final yr. Mitchell Robinson, the 23-year-old heart, will, if wholesome, include a different dimension as a shot blocking rim-runner, which the Knicks skipped in the playoffs versus the Atlanta Hawks. And with two other Jap Conference contending groups in flux as a consequence of a probable trade (Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers) or an unvaccinated player (the Nets’ Kyrie Irving), there is a actual prospect for the Knicks to stage up.

However, as Ernie Grunfeld, the architect of the Knicks all through most of the 1990s, can attest, “You want to gain.”

“New York is about profitable. And they are executing that,” he added, “New York wishes a staff that plays challenging and leaves almost everything out on the flooring and plays with each other and performs basketball the correct way.”

That’s what his Dot Com Bubble-period Knicks teams gave the crowds at Madison Square Back garden, he reported.

“It was electrical. It was a great spot to be,” Grunfeld said. “We have been aggressive every single night. We had been a workforce that other teams feared actively playing against. They had been celebs just about everywhere. It was a taking place location in New York at the time.”

As a lot as quite a few N.B.A. observers pay out tribute to the blue-collar persona of Thibodeau’s teams, his coaching record is far more sophisticated. He’s experienced a record of rapidly putting on out his welcome and not remaining capable to construct off accomplishment.