The Knicks will be dealing with much higher expectations than the franchise is accustomed to.
Most of the major sportsbooks expect Tom Thibodeau’s New York Yankees to finish the season in second place in the Eastern Conference, their best performance in the past decade. For example, BetMGM and Fanduel have the Yankees at 53.5 over/under for wins, behind only the Celtics (58.5) and Thunder (56.5) in the NBA.
To put it in perspective, the Knicks have only won more than 53 games in a season once since 1997.
They haven’t reached the conference finals since 2000, the third-longest drought in the East behind the bottom-ranked Hornets and Wizards.
The gambling world became enthralled with the Knicks after Mikal Bridges joined a team that won 50 games last season and reached Game 7 of the second round.
Another key addition is three-time All-Star Julius Randle, who missed the final three months of last season with a dislocated shoulder.
Jalen Brunson, who has already established himself as the Knicks’ best point guard since Clyde Frazier, acknowledged that the lofty goals are internal, too.
“What can we do to get out of the second round? That’s our goal,” Brunson said at his captaincy ceremony this month.
The Knicks open the season on Oct. 22 in Boston, where Celtics guard Kristaps Porzingis will receive his 2024 championship ring.
“It’s nice to hear we’re the favorites, but I think we have to go into training camp without saying that,” Brunson said. “Obviously, I said I want to get past the second round because we’ve been in the second round two years in a row, but you can’t go back to the second round so soon into the season. You’ve got to go back and do it again.”
“We have some new members and some familiar faces. What can we do with that? What kind of team do we want to be?”
The downside is that the higher the expectations, the harder they are to meet.
And the Knicks have question marks.
They traded starting center Isaiah Hartenstein to Oklahoma City in free agency but didn’t make a corresponding replacement.
The team has two injury-prone starters in Mitchell Robinson and OG Anunoby, as well as Randle, who is just returning from shoulder surgery.
Perhaps their biggest strength is their depth, with a strong bench top three in Josh Hart, Donte DiVincenzo and Miles McBride.
Still, the mandate to reach the conference finals or lose is a daunting hurdle.
Assuming the Celtics are a sure bet to return in the third round, the Knicks will have to beat either a rebuilt Sixers, Giannis Antetokounmpo-led Bucks, a pesky Heat, Kenny Atkinson’s Cavaliers, Tyrese Haliburton-led Pacers or an emerging Magic.
So far, the Knicks have far exceeded expectations under Thibodeau.
This was also because standards were generally low.
For example, in Thibodeau’s first season, the team was projected to be a lottery pick and finished fourth in the East.
As of now, they are expected to finish second.
And if they don’t make the conference finals, it will be a failure.
