Jmpasq wrote:

fwk00 wrote:My gut tells me 42 wins or more.

First, the Knicks are largely injury-proof. The depth of the roster affords the Knicks the luxury of both playing hard with pressure AND being relatively interchangeable when it comes to lineup composition. This needs some clarification though.

Randle, Porter, Dotson, RJ, Iggy, Ellington, Smith, Knox, and Bullock (once available) are all scorers requiring complementary players who don't need the ball. Peyton and Frankie define that role better than Trier and for that reason I think Trier will become trade bait. I'm not convinced his ISO-ball profile will complement this particular squad.

MR and Randle will be a force unto themselves this year. Morris and Gibson will quietly stabilize the bench.

One or both of RJ and Iggy will surprise.

Two of Dotson, Smith, Frankie, Peters, or Wooten will take their game to the next level.

By December or January, the rotation and bench will be stabilized and one or more of the redundant players on a one year deal will get dealt for a need or an upgrade. Teams who expected to compete and don't will be shedding big salary talent and teams looking to harden their rosters for the playoff run will be looking for vets. The Knicks are perfectly positioned to accommodate those scenarios.

I also think, assuming Fizdale is up to it, that the Knicks roster has the potential to really click in terms of chemistry and fit.

42 wins would be a fantastic year. I stil think this is a low 30 win team. For them to win 42 games RJ would have to be top 3 in rookie of the year, 2 of the younger players would have to make huge strides, and Mitchell Robinson would have to be a borderline All Star. Thats a lot going right

No not really. There are so many players on this team who could break out that, assuming MR and Randle are steady, having 3-5 of our other players have above average years is not a stretch at all. The talent is there and I think the first half informs the second half.

If the team gets off to a competitive start and gets lucky come trade deadline time, we could be in line for a nice playoff run. IMO, that's a reachable, stretch goal.

I realize its fool's gold but, based on that first Wizards scrimmage we have a team.

Papabear wrote:Papabear Says

Here we go again ready to trade half of the team and start all over again. Why can't we just keep this unit together for one season? Thais players have a negative feeling about the Knicks. We are too quick to criticize and just trade players away.

Oh, no criticism on my part. I like the make-up of this team. But it is obvious that many are on one year contracts - highly desirable as role players on a contender and expiring as well. This means if the right deal comes along at mid-season the Knicks can pounce. If not, hang onto the players and let them expire and come what may during the summer.

However, the silly article published a day or so ago advocating pointless - "let's tank again" - trades isn't worth reading. Knicks have both draft picks so trading for second-rounders makes zero sense except to round out a worthwhile contending transaction.

technomaster wrote:Anyone know how to go about betting on the Knicks through Vegas? I'm sooo in on 27+ wins.

The official Vegas line for Knick wins is still 26.5. We SURELY could get 27 wins with this roster, right? We have enough depth to do go full-on "Bomb Squad" Rick Pitino full court press for 48 minutes. We have the long defenders, shooters, and depth to do it.

The only way we fail to get to 27 wins is major injury to RJ or Randle and the team goes into full-on tank mode. The team is deep enough to handle their losses and still win games, but at that point it'd makes sense to sell off all of our 1-year FA's at the trade deadline and help our odds at a top pick for 2020-2021.

To me, we coulda/shoulda/woulda have had 25-ish wins *last year* had the season not been reserved for the pursuit of the lottery pick. In other words, last year's team was that good but was navigated toward finding ways to lose.

Assuming nothing changes about the roster we see today and no tanking is contemplated, I think adding ten wins to that 25 number is a reasonable expectation for the average Knicks fan. The roster has been considerably hardened and they'll be playing to win.

IFF (if and only if), the team performs along this trajectory the FO will be looking to sweeten the roster at mid-season to thrust them into the playoffs. There's always a team or two disappointed in their own records who will be looking to shed high-priced talent. If the trajectory is looking like 35 wins then any such recalibration of the team's talent pool will (presumably) add wins. Optimists such as myself like to think so.