Wellp we did it Dub Nation, we took a look at the entire Atlantic divison to start the season. And we end it with the champions.
The Golden State Warriors went 1-1 against the New York Knicks last season, winning 126-113 at home in January and dropping a 110-107 game at the Garden in March. Those were two regular-season games in a long year, and you can set them aside, because the Knicks team Golden State saw back then hadn’t found the version of itself that ended up holding the trophy.
That version
showed up late. In April, the third-seeded Knicks were down 2-1 to the sixth-seeded Atlanta Hawks in the first round, and CJ McCollum was carving them up like a holiday ham. Russell Richardson at Posting and Toasting walked through the moment everything flipped:
“With their backs against the proverbial wall, coach Mike Brown recognized the need for a change. His central adjustment placed Karl-Anthony Towns in a facilitating role farther out from the basket. This reduced the creation load on Jalen Brunson, highlighted Towns’ vision as a passer, drew opposing bigs away from the rim, and created opportunities for the wings to cut and screen effectively.
New York’s overall scoring efficiency rose sharply, posting an offensive rating near 124 points per 100 possessions and a record-shattering point differential. Operating in high gear, they went on a 15-1 run that delivered them to the promised land. And there was great rejoicing.”
Fifteen and one, sheesh! Warriors fans remember the last playoff run that looked like that, because it was Golden State’s. The 2017 Warriors went 16-1, and Mike Brown was on that bench, running the team as acting head coach while Steve Kerr was out with his back issues. Brown went 11-0 in that stretch. So the man has now been in the building for a 16-1 run and a 15-1 run, and he was a Warriors assistant for the 2017 and 2018 titles too. When the Knicks talk about trying to repeat, they’ve got a guy in the front of the room who’s actually done it.
And that’s the part of this Knicks offseason that hits closest to home. ESPN’s Vincent Goodwillframed the whole season around that: “The last teams to repeat in 25 years were led by one-name supernovas: Steph and KD, LeBron, Kobe.”
Yes, Steph and KD are the last ones to do it. The Warriors’ back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018 are eight seasons old now, and every champion since has gone home empty the following June. New York is coming for that, and I’ll be honest, I like being the Dubs last team to pull it off. I’m sure they would like to keep it that way for a while.
This season the Knicks brought the band back on a budget. Fifty-three years without a title, and the first thing Dolan does after winning one is check the receipt.
To be fair to New York, they kept almost everything. All five starters are back. Jordan Clarkson, Jose Alvarado and Landry Shamet all took below-market deals to run it back. The one guy they couldn’t keep was Mitchell Robinson, who took more than $15 million a year from Boston. The replacement plan is Andre Drummond, who can rebound with anybody alive.
Mike Brown’s answer in camp is to lean harder into what won, per Posting and Toasting:
Early reports from training camp indicate that Towns’ hub role will remain a priority, as the coaching staff plans to increase elbow involvement for KAT and explore additional ways to involve the wings across the floor. Their options include testing new Knick Andre Drummond as a secondary facilitator and giving OG Anunoby more minutes at center. During the playoffs, OG in particular produced some of his strongest stretches by generating offense off the bounce. Moving him into a small-ball center role with more interior and mid-floor actions could help maximize his impact, especially with limited traditional center depth behind Towns.
The clock is ticking on this group too. Towns is up for a massive extension, and with the aprons where they are, this championship roster already has an expiration date. Oh, and remember LeBron? The guy we just spent a whole column on in Philly? He told Dave McMenamin this week that he would have signed with New York if they hadn’t won the title. He’d pictured finishing his career at the Garden, and once the Knicks beat San Antonio, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. But he brought himself to their division to immediately rain on their parade.
So the Knicks won a championship and lost LeBron in the same night. Somewhere Dolan is doing that math on a napkin.
That closes out the Atlantic, Dub Nation. The only place Golden State sees this team when it matters is June, with Mike Brown on the other bench trying to take the last back-to-back away from the franchise where he learned how to win one.
