The New York Knicks saw their season come to a sudden and disappointing conclusion on Saturday night with a loss in Indiana to the Pacers in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semi-finals. Instead of writing an article about an exciting, decisive Game 7 tonight; I am writing about the end of this season and will look ahead to next season.
Game 6 – A Loss and Disappointment
The Knicks, their fans, and everyone involved in the organization cannot be happy with the way this series and this season ended. In Game 6, the Knicks dug themselves too deep a hole to climb out of, and when they did mount the 13 point comeback in the 3rd Quarter, it went steadily downhill from that point.
I know some fans want to blame Carmelo Anthony, and I really do not think that you can place all the blame on him. I find it hard to put the blame on a player that scored so many points in a close out game on the road, even though I know he disappeared again down the stretch in the 4th Quarter (2-7 shooting).
I think the entire team fell short in many different ways in this series. The Pacers are a very good defensive team, and the Knicks really struggled to score points, and that was the one major difference in the series.
We all thought this team would be in the Conference Finals against the Heat. I was really looking forward to that series, and I know my fellow Knicks fans were as well.
The Turning Point: Hibbert blocks Carmelo
The turning point in this game was the play where Roy Hibbert blocked the layup by Carmelo Anthony. The Knicks were not the same team from that point forward down the stretch in the 4th quarter.
You have to hand it to the Pacers for having a good solid game plan for how they would match up against the Knicks, and they executed it on both sides of the ball. You could also make the case that the Knicks lost this series by losing Game 1 because had that game gone in the Knicks favor, they would have held a 2 games to 0 advantage when the series shifted to Indianapolis, and it is a very different series at that point.
However, the Knicks did not win this series, and it is time to look ahead to next season. The Pacers will move forward to face the Miami Heat, which is going to be a tall order for the Pacers at this point.
What now? Offseason questions
The Knicks have several questions looming ahead this offseason. The team does not have much room under the salary cap for next year, and they have to make a decision on J.R. Smith (it is widely assumed he is going to decline the option on his contract and test free agency) or he could decide to negotiate a longer term deal with the Knicks.
I think the Knicks need to re-sign Smith because they will be hard pressed to find a free agent secondary scoring player like him on the open market with their current salary cap space.
The Knicks front office also has to make free agency decisions on Chris Copeland, Prigioni, and decide what to do with point guard Jason Kidd. The team has many key questions which will be answered in the months to come. It will be interesting.
One Perspective: My own
I have several opinions of what the Knicks need to do or should do in the offseason, as a fan of this team for many years. I think that they should bring back J.R. Smith, that they should use Amare more extensively either on the front line or as the primary scorer on the second unit, and that they need another big front court player.
Now, I know that front court player is going to be difficult to add given the variables I stated earlier in this post, but I think they should add someone and it is not Kenyon Martin. If they do not buy out Marcus Camby, then that role could conceivably be filled by him if they had no other options.
Furthermore, I think that the Knicks can bring back Prigioni and Copeland without an issue, and that they need to add a player or two to get a little bit younger.
In the end, the Knicks are going to return much the same team as the version we saw this year. My fear, and I think Knicks fans will agree, is that it will not be enough to compete with a revamped Eastern Conference featuring a fully healthy Chicago Bulls team, the ever present Heat, and some other improving teams. In that case, it will be another season where any progression in the playoffs for the Knicks could be a very difficult task.