This was a tough season as a fan. Weird to say that when your team surprised all expectations reaching the Easter Conference Finals, but whoever watched this team closely knows what I’m talking about.

The previous season, we had the kind of team we like: the underdogs who aren’t the most talented crew but fight hard, show that NY grit and get many unexpected wins. So easy to love a team like that.

When we made big moves in the offseason, expectations grew and we started thinking big things could finally happen. Then the season started and throughout it we saw a team that didn’t know who they were, where exactly they wanted to go and how to get there.

At times we were a running, exploding offensive machine that would humble mediocre-to-bad teams. At times we slowed things down and tried to win with a defensive that was mostly missing in action. At times we simply tried to “out-talent” the other team with one starter taking turns to lead the way.

But there was never any real consistency. Best representation was in the playoffs, where at the end of three rounds and 18 games, the Knicks showed a full 48-minute effort for a total of ONE game, coming before this elimination. One could consider Game 6 against Boston too, but that was mostly the second half where they played at their capacity.

I’ve loved this team for many, many years. The good years have been inspiring, the bad ones have been insufferable. This year, this team was a mixture of both, which made it really hard to fully love them as in other iterations. For me, at the end of the day, was the intangibles. This team exhibited an immaturity, a lack of consistent focus and effort that made them difficult to believe in. The talent was never in question, but the strategy, the focus and the effort was maddeningly inconsistent.

This was nonetheless a big step forward, but one I’m not sure we know how to handle, as proven by the whole season. The moves for Bridges and Towns gave us the real expectations of competing for a championship. We followed that by strongly struggling to find an identity, a clear offensive plan, a consistent defensive scheme and an alarming misuse of whoever was on the bench. We showed that from the beginning up to the very last game of the playoffs, where you mostly expect to have those issues already resolved.

This team still lacks an identity, a clear direction on the offense, a strong defensive strategy considering the pieces around and a plan on how to preserve the starters with the guys on the bench.

In the end, this team was so volatile that on the same playoff run they beat a tougher defending champion while also losing to a team they were superior on talent but never found a consistent way to prove it with their strategy and effort. The Pacers earned the win as much as the Knicks slacked their way out of a chance at winning.

The ending was truly disappointing, but consistent in the erratic nature of this team. Crucial things need to change for this team to truly compete in what could be the start of a dominant reign from a young western team.