2 Reasons The Knicks Contain Playoff Potential, But Won’t Execute 

Being a New York sports fan isn’t always an easy task. When you are a Jets and Knicks fan like myself, you count your lucky stars that the New York Yankees have a sense of potential at a postseason run.

I’ve come to expect an underwhelming season from the Jets on an annual basis. I don’t see a way out of the dark hole they’ve been stuck in for years, so I am able to emotionally prepare for what is to come during the regular season.

With that said, I am left consistently disappointed by the New York Knickerbockers. While I have come to expect a losing season, I’ve managed to make an argument for some type of optimism before each new season. The 2017-18 season doesn’t give me a reason to completely write off playoff hopes for the team, so here goes nothing:

Keys To Success

Depth/Potential:

All the Knicks have done this offseason is make some questionable under the table moves that made absolutely no sense, right? Not definitively.

While I wouldn’t stack the Knicks roster as the “upper tier”, or even within second tier teams in the league, they have been able to put together a roster that has potential to be solid.

At the center position, the Knicks have three capable starting centers in Kyle O’Quinn, Joakim Noah, and Willy Hermangomez. The position is imperative because if there is one weakness in the league, it’s that the center position isn’t as deep in talent as it has been in the past.

If you made a starting lineup of the Knicks bench, it’d look something like this: Noah, Quinn/Beasley, Thomas, Lee, and Ntlikina. That’d be a pretty terrible starting rotation, but it isn’t an awful bench. With that, the Knicks could be a few break out performances away from a cameo appearance in the playoffs.

Veteran/Young Core: 

I am of the belief that one of the most pivotal keys to success in any sport is having a mix of veterans and young stars.

The Knicks have an elite veteran in Carmelo Anthony, for now at least, and Kristaps Porziginis as the two captains leading the ship. The two go hand-in-hand off the court, and could become an eventual dynamic duo on the court if a mesh can be found that includes the rest of the squad.

The Knicks could have a dangerous lineup that goes four deep if everything meshes between Hermangomez, Porziginis, Melo, and Tim Hardaway Jr. if Ntlinka can catch fire and make the starting lineup over Ron Baker, we could even make that five.

Why It Likely Won’t Happen:

The two aforementioned points that would equate to success for the Knicks requires a lot of luck and magical dust for the team to experience some type of success.

The Knicks that I have witnessed in my lifetime have lead me to become accustomed to the franchise letting me down year-after-year, no matter what roster has been assembled on paper.

I am certainly behind the fact that the Knicks are likely hoping for a high draft pick and are looking to rebuild. That is necessary to do during this time, just because barring any catastrophic events that circulate throughout the league, there isn’t a deep playoff run in sight.

However, after suffering for so long as a Knicks and Jets fan, I wouldn’t mind at least a cameo in the playoffs for the team. After thinking it through, the possibility sounds insane, but is it completely impossible to make the eighth seed? Nope.

USA Today Images