The Knicks are still a move or three away from joining the NBA’s high-stakes table. They are still a move or three away from being in the conversation about being where the Heat are now, Eastern Conference champs, three higher-seeded pelts in their bag already and taking aim at the Nuggets, who were the No. 1 seed in the West.
But the Knicks find themselves in a unique place as the calendar clicks to June and begins its bell lap toward July 1, when the real business of building the 2022-23 season begins. You look around the East, and the Knicks have one thing hardly anyone else can enjoy.
They have a modicum of stability.
The Bucks will be the No. 1 bullies of the East for as long as they have Giannis Antetokounmpo anchoring their roster, but they have a new coach, Adrian Griffin, who has yet to serve as a head coach for even one game at any level. Maybe he’s Steve Kerr, who won a title his first year in the job. Maybe he’s Joe Mazzulla, who was exposed time and again in the playoffs in his first year. Maybe he falls in between, which is most likely and could still be an issue as the Bucks try to add a bookend to their 2021 title.
The Sixers will have a new coach, too, and Nick Nurse arrives with championship chops, but what team will he be coaching? Will James Harden be back? And if Harden departs, will that make Joel Embiid antsy (Knicks fans can only hope it does)? The Celtics still have the most talent in the conference but they also face a key decision about whether to max out Jaylen Brown, who was brutal in the Heat series. And if Mazzulla is back, that will be Year 2 of learning on the job.
Cleveland? The Knicks exposed them as being paper tigers in the playoffs. Atlanta? Quin Snyder will demand a level of professionalism that’s been absent the past few years, and there’s rumblings that they may shop Trae Young. Chicago? Washington? Both teams ought to be better given their talent levels, but then both ought to have been better this year, too. The Nets? Their ceiling right now looks like sixth place.
Even the Heat face some uncertainty once this run is over, but with the tandem of Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, and the best coach in the sport in Erik Spoelstra, they’ll find a way to be fine.
So it is a moment of flux for the East, and the Knicks are in position to take advantage of that. It would help if they do not behave as they did the last two times they experienced a taste of prosperity. Most egregiously was in 2013, when fresh off a 54-win season James Dolan whacked the GM, Glen Grunwald (ushering in the Steve Mills Error, which led to the Phil Jackson Abomination), somehow approved the ridiculous Andrea Bargnani acquisition and completely tore the heart out of his team.
But even two years ago, coming off a surprising 41-31 season and a playoff bid, Leon Rose had a regrettable hiccup. Though he did acquire two useful (and increasingly important) pieces in the draft in Quentin Grimes and Deuce McBride, his big free-agent play was for Evan Fournier (a disaster from Day 1), he engineered the Kemba Walker experiment (which was an even bigger fail) and he also extended Nerlens Noel and Derrick Rose, two more disappointing transactions.
It does seem that Leon has built the foundation of the kind of team he wants, which is mainly the result of last season’s home-run play for Jalen Brunson. And when he made an in-season move it was for Josh Hart, who had a distinct impact on the team the moment he showed up. Hart becomes a free agent next month, so that is one imperative for Rose.
From there?
Look, the Knicks can be competitive next year with the bones of the team they’ll be able to bring back, so Rose doesn’t have to be reckless in identifying the One Big Piece or Several Lesser Pieces that’s missing from the mosaic still. But you expect him to be aggressive. The East isn’t in complete revolution but there’s enough upheaval where even a moderate upgrade might yield another building-block year. He needs another good summer in order to make good on another good winter next year.