2016-17 Finish: 62-20

Season Highlight:

Since the NLL began 15 years ago, the Knicks have made the playoffs every single year, except one. Despite being a perennial playoff contender, they had only reached the finals once. All the way back in the NLL’s inaugural season in 2003, New York battled San Antonio in a thrilling 7 game series. The Knicks ultimately found themselves on the losing end of that matchup.

Fast forward 15 years, and the Knicks found themselves once again facing the Spurs in the Finals. Through the first six games of the series, the home team had come out on top. And those games were not nailbiters. Game 1 was fairly close as New York won by 5. But in game 2, the Knicks crushed the Spurs by 18. When the series moved to San Antonio for games 3 and 4, the Spurs returned the favor, taking their two home games by 13 and 16 points. With game 5 back in New York, the Knicks again dominated, winning by 14. And back to San Antonio, the Spurs took their final home game by 10. This put the final game of the Championship in Madison Square Garden. Conventional wisdom would suggest that the Knicks would take the game (possibly convincingly), and the NLL Championship. But what ensued was an absolutely riveting final game that was the tightest of battles until the clock ran out. Sadly for the Knicks, the Spurs were once again the ones who’d defied the trend of the series and lifted the championship trophy. But as far as highlights go, you can ask for a much bigger one than that.    

Season Lowlight:

Not to beat a dead horse, but as much as it’s a highlight to make the finals and take it all the way to the final seconds of game 7, it would be difficult to top the disappointment that the Knicks must have felt to know that if they’d had one more stop here and another bucket there, the championship parade would be running through the streets of New York City. It may seem lazy to pick the same thing as both the highlight and lowlight. Instead, we could maybe talk about injuries decimating the team (not really - the Knicks didn’t suffer many injuries of any significance). Or maybe they had a particularly bad trade that left them kicking themselves (they didn’t). Or another possibility could be a star player that didn’t play as well as he should’ve over the course of the year (not really). Even if any, or all, of those things did occur, it still wouldn’t overcome the low of getting so close and coming up empty-handed.

Best Trade:

The Knicks didn’t participate in all that many trades last season. Coming into the season, they had a lineup that was built to win. The few trades they did were little swaps here and there that got them a bit stronger for last season’s Finals run. The one that likely benefitted New York the most was the three team deal that brought in Patty Mills, Nene, and Joe Ingles. They sent away Roy Hibbert, Marcus Thornton, and Sam Dekker. In the deal, New York also gave up their 2018 1st rounder and 2019 second rounder, and Utah’s 2018 2nd rounder. The trade beefed up their bench considerably. And the picks they gave up were relatively inconsequential.

Another good trade for the Knicks was moving John Henson in exchange for Zach Randolph. Z-Bo, at 35, still had some gas in the tank and was a perfect fit in the backup role that New York needed him to fill. Henson had youth on his side, which appealed to the rebuilding Raptors. So, again, New York improved their current lineup and moved a guy out who, in the NBA, seems like he’s struggling to find his place.

Worst Trade:

Uhh, hmm… There’s not much here. They traded Maurice Ndour and the WAS 2017 2nd rounder for Rodney McGruder. There’s no question that McGruder is the better player, but they did pick up Lance Stephenson a few days later (who they didn’t know they’d be getting at the time). So the Knicks sacrificed a draft pick for a relatively insignificant player. Maybe that’s bad? McGruder does contribute well in the minutes he does play, so it’s really reaching to try to find any fault with this.

The Star:

Toss-up

With most teams, this is a no-brainer. There’s almost always one player that emerges as the clear star of the team. And for the Knicks, over the past few years, it has been a no-brainer. The star of the team has been James Harden, without a doubt. But last season, it wasn’t so clear. This past year, Kyrie made a strong case as the new face of the Knicks franchise. And it appears that rather than creating a rivalry between the two star guards, it appears that Irving’s emergence has been embraced by The Beard. In the 2015-16 season, Harden averaged 32.4 points and 4.8 assists per game, while Kyrie averaged 17.1 points and 4.7 APG. Last season, however, Harden’s points per game dropped by 11, down to 21.4 PPG, while his assists ballooned to 8.8 per game. Additionally, he had 700 fewer shot attempts, despite the fact that he was more accurate than he’s even been. The beneficiary of Harden’s newfound joy for passing was, of course, Kyrie. Irving increased his points per game by more than seven, attempting 700 more shots than the previous season. Interestingly, Kyrie also increased his assists per game to 9.1. So, while Kyrie now has the better number totals, Harden was almost more valuable because of his willingness to share the spotlight and get more people incorporated into the Knicks offense.

Surprise:

In the 2014-15 season, Paul Millsap had 10.9 points and 9 rebounds per game. In 2015-16, it was down to 9.5 points with the rebounds up a bit to 9.6 per game. Though he was barely over 30, it seemed that Millsap’s better days may be well behind him. But the contract year magic must have been flowing this past season, as Millsap had a higher PPG than in any season in his career thus far. Last year, he averaged 18.6 points and 9.5 rebounds per game. It’s been five years since he’s approached numbers anywhere near that. Whichever team will be taking on his enormous salary in 2017-18 will be hoping that Millsap will show something similar in the coming seasons.

Goat:

While you could look at Dwight Howard since his scoring average dropped from 15.8 in 2015/16 to 11.7 in 2016/17, the fact is that there are only so many shots to go around. And with prolific shooters like James Harden and Kyrie Irving, it’s no surprise that Howard’s not going to be putting up the same numbers that we’re used to seeing from him. Plus, you have to give him credit for staying healthy, playing in more games than he has since 2010-11. So we’re going to give Dwight Howard a pass.

Instead, we’ll go with a far less sexy choice, since he only sees limited minutes. But the choice is going to be Patty Mills. When the Knicks made that trade that included Mills, Nene, and Ingles, they were likely hoping that Mills would prove to be a reliable spark off the bench. But he ended up being a bit of a dud. In his time with New York last year, he shot just 31% from the field and only 25% from 3. This sits in stark contrast to what he was doing in the NBA last season, where he had a respectable 44% FG%, and 41% 3P%.   

Draft Report Card:

The Knicks ended up with two picks in the 2017 draft, both in the low end of each round. So the expectations weren’t very high. But since it was a deeper draft than most years, there was potential to land a serious talent even at the latter stage of the first round. And it looks like dunadan absolutely nailed it with his pick at #27.

With the 27th pick, the Knicks grabbed Caleb Swanigan, the Big 10 Player of the Year from Purdue. It’s common knowledge that you should take Summer League stats with a grain of salt. But nevertheless, Swanigan showed that he’s a beast and was one of top performers this summer, averaging 16 points and 10 rebounds per game. And that performance put him in the mix with the rest of the big men on the Portland Trailblazers competing for the starting spot at power forward. That’s a bit optimistic as he’ll probably just be fighting for playing time in this first season. But with Millsap on the way out, there’s little doubt that the Knicks are hoping they secured their power forward of the future with Caleb Swanigan.

The Knicks did also have the 59th pick and, with that, they chose Jabari Bird. He was signed to a two-way contract with the Celtics, so it’s possible that he’ll see some time and get an opportunity to prove himself. But expectations are low.

Upcoming Free Agents:

Paul Millsap – If the Knicks’ press releases are to be trusted, the next time Paul Millsap will be in Madison Square Garden, he’ll be suiting up in the visitor locker room. This is going to be a big loss for the Knicks. He’s been a Knick his entire career and a star of the franchise for several years. His departure is going to leave a big hole in that lineup. But they’re not going to miss that absurd salary of $30 million that he’ll be making this year.

Joe Ingles - After his trade to New York last season, Ingles saw more playing time than he has at any point in his career thus far. He was a decent contributor in that time, but this season he’s due for a payday and the expectations are going to be higher. Is he going to be able to live up to them?

Nene Hilario - At 35, Nene isn’t the powerhouse that he may have been back in 2010 when he was averaging 17 points, 10 rebounds, and 2 blocks per game. But he still has enough gas in the tank to contribute a solid 20 minutes per game. A lot of teams would be jumping at the chance to have him as a backup.

Zach Randolph - Randolph is another aging star who no longer has the legs to put in 30+ good minutes of play. But for 15-20 minutes, he’ll give you a double-double. He’s best suited playing backup minutes at this stage in his career. So, with Millsap likely heading out of town, it will be interesting to see if the Knicks will try to keep Z-Bo and, if so, who else will fill that hole?

Patty Mills - As mentioned above, Mills didn’t really live up to expectations in his 24 game stretch with New York. Granted, there’s not a lot expected of him in the limited minutes that he sees, but with Patty slated to make close to $11 million next season, he needs to contributing a hell of a lot more than he has thus far.

Luc Mbah a Moute - He’s 31, so you wouldn’t think he’s on the upswing. But he’s still got some solid skills and a relatively low price tag. A few teams will likely want to make a push for him in the free agent market.

Briante Weber - The Knicks extended a qualifying offer to Weber, so it seems that they’re counting on this being the year that his star really rises. It hasn’t looked too likely thus far, but maybe it’ll happen.

Looking to the Future:

For the final 24 games of the season, the Knicks’ lineup was pretty stacked with starters Dwight Howard, Paul Millsap, Luc Mbah a Moute, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving. Coming off the bench was Nene, Z-Bo, Joe Ingles, Lance Stephenson, and Patty Mills. That had all the looks of a dominant lineup and it wasn’t all that surprising that they made it all the way to the finals and almost won the whole thing. This year, it looks like Millsap will be on his way out, Howard is no longer the force of nature he used to be, Z-Bo and Nene are trying to hold off Father Time, and neither Mills nor Stephenson seem to be the super subs they’ve been in the past. But the Knicks still have the best backcourt in the game, and they have a tendency to land quite a few of the best available free agents. So, while it seems that they don’t have a lineup that can make a repeat trip to the Finals (and currently, they don’t), it shouldn’t be a surprise if they again look like the team to beat after FA Day 2.