Can the Knicks Win a Championship This Year?

We all know that New York is the best city in the world. But it feels like someone needs to tell our sports teams. We have the best nightlife, museums, food - and the list goes on. However, when it comes to sports – the great unifier of US culture – New York teams have been woefully underperforming for years.

The Giants and Jets are just plain woeful, the Mets flatter to deceive, the Rangers never seem to get things right, and even the Yankees haven’t won a World Series since 2009. It is fair to say that most of the best offshore sportsbooks have been offering long odds on a championship coming to New York for a while now. But is that all about to change?

The Knicks were one of the biggest jokes in the NBA for a while after the bruising days of the 1990s. Even that talented team didn’t win a championship though and entire generations have come and gone since the last time New York won the NBA Finals. The Garden is crackling once again, however, and Coach Thibs has put together an elite roster to challenge the very best. Could the 50-year-plus wait for a championship finally be coming to an end?

The Knicks have been improving for a while now and the most obvious difference in the last few years has been Jalen Brunson. He has remained the ever-present as some of the Garden’s favorites have been let go. The organization has not been sentimental in keeping good – but not great – players and replacing them with improvements.

The Knicks roster is about as good as it has been for years now but it only takes an injury to throw doubt into the mix. Last season ended in disappointment, as the Pacers reopened old wounds and dumped the team out in the Conference Semifinals. For all the trash talk and chokers jibes, the injury to Brunson was a key factor in the Knicks going further in the playoffs. The fact that he has just picked up another ankle injury at an important time of the season will not have escaped the doubters out there.

There has also been a marked drop-off after the All-Star break. This can probably be put down to a tough run of games and the kinds of losses that all teams experience at some point during the year. It is noticeable, however, that the talk of a championship has cooled off a little around MSG in recent weeks though.

The good news is that the team has improved on offense from last season. The acquisition of Karl-Anthony Towns in the offseason was a real statement of intent and would have had all the Knicks’ main rivals thinking twice about counting them out. Defense is still not a strong point but the Knicks seem very keen on the idea that scoring more points than the opposition will bring the wins – and the championships.

Scoring points has not been a particular problem for the Knicks this season, with a number of wins with 140+ points on the board. But a closer look at who those wins have come against does strike a more sobering note for any Knicks fans getting excited about a title drought possibly coming to an end. To get to the Finals, New York will have to get past Boston and Cleveland – and that has proven to be very difficult for this team this season.

The elite Eastern teams have won just about every game against the Knicks this year. As much as beating everyone else is obviously important, this kind of blind spot doesn’t bode well for the postseason. Fortunately, the days of the Knicks not even making the playoffs seem to have gone, but winning the Eastern Conference Championship also seems a way off, looking at the numbers.

That mood-dampening news might deflate a few Knicks fans and we have not even looked at which team might be waiting in the NBA Finals. The Knicks have also not fared well against the Lakers and OKC this year and would surely go into any championship series as the big underdog.

We don’t want to be striking a pessimistic note when it comes to this New York Knicks team, however. Confidence and general good feeling about the entire organization have gone through the roof thanks to the performances on the court in the last few years. Knicks fans have always been vocal about their support of the team but even the most partisan have left Madison Square Garden knowing the team is not good enough over the last 20 or so years.

If the Knicks are to win championship this year it is crucial that Brunson’s current injury is not serious – and that he doesn’t suffer any more before the end of the year. That is asking a lot when you consider how many minutes Thibs likes to give his go-to man – and all the big names for that matter.

It also feels as though the Knicks need at least one of the other top teams to fall away dramatically. This could well happen, of course, which would also boost the confidence of the players and fans alike. We will be in a better place to make predictions once the regular season is over, of course. Being able to track a route through the playoffs will tell us whether the dream really is still on. Anything can happen in the postseason and there isn’t a team that deserves a championship more than these New York Knicks. Maybe this will be the year, after all.