The New York Knicks have perhaps their best team in years and a very good chance of stealing a first-round playoff series.
The Knicks are currently the No. 5 seed and have not shown signs of dropping lower than that with the fact that the Nets may be sliding after trading Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Can they make it past the first round? Will they be able to beat the Cavs?
The Jalen Brunson signing is turning out to be the best move made by any team during the offseason (in terms of actually betting on a player to turn out). The All-Star snub is averaging 23 points per game on 48 percent shooting. Julius Randle is having a season similar to his second season with the team where he earned an All-NBA nod. The Knicks don’t have a star but they have a team of really good players.
Due to the fact that Joel Embild, Jayson Tatum, and Giannis Antetokounmpo all exist on the Sixers, Bucks, and Celtics respectively, it will be pretty tough for New York to beat the top three seeds in the East. The Knicks are currently lacking a star and they will not be a title contender until they acquire one.
New York has plenty of draft assets and a young player in R.J Barrett (and others) to trade in a deal for a superstar. But until they are able to trade for a star player they will be behind the top contenders in the East.
Yet, the Knicks could make the second round of the playoffs which would be a huge achievement for a team that hasn’t made it to that point in a decade. Not since the Melo Knicks was New York in the top four of the East.
How do the Knicks match up against the Cleveland Cavaliers?
As the playoffs drew closer, it seems very likely that the Knicks will face off against the Cavs in the first round of the playoffs. The Nets are cooling off due to the trade requests made by their respective former stars at the deadline, and no one in the play-in really has a good case to make up the needed ground to catch New York.
In a potential series against Cleveland, Donovan Mitchell is the best player in the series with Jalen Brunson on a hot streak being a close-ish second. While Julius Randle may have a case for being the third-best player in the series, in all likelihood, the Cavs would have the third/fourth, and fourth-best players in the series — Darius Garland and Evan Mobley.
After that, there is a huge dropoff in talent. While both teams are deep, neither team has any real game-changers after that on their roster. While both teams are good, in the playoff usually the best player in the series wins when the roster is mostly equal. Therefore it seems that the Cavs would be the favorite in the series.
With the difference in talent isn’t so deep, the difference in a potential series might be what teams have home-court advantage. If the Knicks were able to get a home-court advantage in any series against the Cavs, they could have a realistic chance of beating them in the first-round. You have to especially consider this when you realize that the Garden is the best arena in the world and gets electric when the Knicks are balling.
While it is not technically an upset if they are able to get a home-court advantage in the series, getting to the second round of the playoffs would certainly be a surprise if you asked even the most biased Knicks fans. One thing is for sure, the Knicks are certainly in a very great spot.
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