What Is This Salty Discharge?
The Knicks are good, and I don't recognize the emotions I'm feeling about it.
Good morning everyone! I know I haven’t written in a while, but I’m on more of a regular schedule now. More importantly, the Knicks are playing basketball tonight, so I took the day off work and cranked up the Lana Del Rey. This is what came out.
I don’t do emotions good. Last year, someone at work was bringing around a card to sign for two people who were getting married at the same time. I said something like, “Mumble…mumble…can’t do it,” and nearly had a panic attack.
When the Jets beat the Titans, me and my brother celebrated like it was the Super Bowl. The Yankees just won 92 games and I want the entire front office and manager fired into the sun. It’s possible I’m being irrational.
But we all have our tiers of teams. The Knicks are, mercifully, my No. 1 team. At times, I’ve been more emotionally invested in my Knicks than anything else in my life and that’s probably taken its toll.
David Fizdale pushed me to the brink man. I brushed it off when the rest of NBA Twitter trashed my team because I was typically doing the same thing. I just didn’t have the energy. From Phil Jackson’s shapes to David Fizdale’s whiteboard, my basketball team has always been an easy target.
This year is different. I’m having emotions about this team that I don’t recognize.
I only ever felt this for a brief moment in 2012-13 - we really should have to take a shot every time we reference that season. I’m excited about this Knicks season. I have pride in my team and I am, dare I say it, positive about our chances.
New York’s over/under this season is 41.5. At the end of the last 82 game season, 2018-19, the Orlando Magic finished with 42 wins and the 7 seed and the Detroit Pistons finished with 41 wins and the 8 seed.
The East is a lot better now but there are still expectations that the Knicks will regress. The Knicks beat the odds last season - their over/under was 21.5 for 2020-21 - and they’ll do it again this season. The Knicks will finish with 45+ wins a top five seed. Miami and Boston are overrated.
Watching this Sixers shitshow has only made me feel more at ease. This must be how other team’s felt with us all those years. It’s nice to watch another team scramble to find a trade for a guy who’d rather be kicked out of practice like a child than play on your team.
It’s nice to watch another team’s GM have to do a desperate media tour to save face. I’m sure Daryl Morey is assuring everyone privately that he knows a lot about trades and various other tradings but man he got exposed on this one.
The Knicks are back. I don’t mean they’re back like Texas football is back. I just mean they’re playing real games again.
The Knicks won 41 games in a shortened 2020-21 season, which translates to 46 wins in a regular 82 game season.
Tom Thibodeau returned to form as a head coach after failing in a dual role with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Thibodeau became the first Knicks head coach to be named Coach of the Year since Pat Riley ('92-'93).
Thibodeau coaches every game like it’s his last game on earth which maximizes the efforts of his roster. Other teams treat the regular season like a Chris Brickley run, but the Knicks benefit from having a coach who would commit homicide if one of them tried that.
Thibodeau’s boss, Leon Rose, has done incredible work in a short time. Rads from The Strickland wrote better than I ever could about Leon setting up a positive culture in New York - something unique for a Knicks executive.
All Rose had to do to get on our good side was not be Steve Mills or Phil Jackson. The bar was low, but Rose still catapulted over it.
Ruling quietly from the shadows has made Rose an enigma. We figure he plans to go all-in on a star trade at some point, but we still aren’t sure of the who, what, when, where, and why. Is it Dame? Beal? KAT?
The important thing is that we never would’ve been asking these kinds of questions at all with prior GMs. Steve Mills may have thought he was the type of guy who could get shit done, but Leon Rose actually is.
Even Thibs has his naysayers - with the minutes police and whatnot. But Rose is bulletproof. Of course, it’s not without merit. The Derrick Rose trade and Kemba Walker signing are the types of shrewd moves that the Knicks just didn’t do before Rose, and his crew came along.
Julius Randle had one of the most impressive individual seasons in franchise history en route to making his first All-Star team, making All-NBA Second Team, and winning the Most Improved Player Award.
Immanuel Quickley was named All-Rookie Second Team, and RJ Barrett made incredible strides with his outside shooting.
All of that added up to Rodney Dangerfield. The Knicks got no respect at all once again this season.
Seriously, what’d RJ Barrett ever do to anyone? He went to Duke. Isn’t the media supposed to love him?
Julius Randle was listed way too low for my liking on various player rankings. He was objectively one of the 15-20 best players in the NBA last season. If you didn’t have him in your top 20, then you just hate the Knicks.
My favorite was the Evan Fournier is overrated/overpaid takes. Those Magic players and all the attention they get. It’s like, share some of the spotlight with the rest of the league Evan.
I’m still processing how happy I am about the Knicks being back. I just now know that I am. As much as I love Melo, the 2012-13 season (take a shot) always felt a little fluky, even to me.
These Knicks are building toward something. Suprisingly, I can’t wait to watch them.