Knicks 2020-21 Season Primer - New York Sports Nation

Training camp is well underway for the New York Knicks.

The team will begin its preseason slate on Friday in Detroit against the Pistons.

A few days ago, the team announced its training camp roster and the first half of the schedule.

It starts here.
Our 2020-21 Training Camp roster ? pic.twitter.com/owmdm6qrPZ
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) December 6, 2020

.@nyknicks Announce First Half of 2020-21 Schedule pic.twitter.com/2xfCwoK8zs
— NY_KnicksPR (@NY_KnicksPR) December 4, 2020

Now everyone is entitled to their own assumption as to what the Knicks’ record will be, but if you believe the Knicks will win anything more than 25 games, you are delusional. A discussion was had in a group chat in which a friend said he believes the Knicks will be the dark horse of the East and will make the playoffs. He was ridiculed by everyone else.

My friend reminded us that the 10-seed would mean the Knicks are playoff-bound. Great.

This team has been so putrid for so long, the fan base will now hope for a 10th seed when a 10th seed wouldn’t do us any favors during a normal season.

There will be a paucity of wins for the Knicks this season. Reading the first schedule of the first half of the season, I generously believe the Knicks will go 4-34 in the first half of the season, with wins against Cleveland (twice), Detroit, and Charlotte. Maybe the team can duplicate something from last year and beat a good team once or twice as they did against the Mavericks. Maybe, somehow, they can beat the Spurs or the Warriors.

There is simply no way Leon Rose signed these players with aspirations to make it to a playoff spot. The Knicks are playing the salary cap game again in hopes that a free agent superstar could come to New York and make The Garden Eden again (or ruin the rest of his career). Given the Knicks have an abundance of team options for next year, the team could certainly decline multiple to free up even more cap space.

The following players are entering the final year of their contract:

Frank Ntilikina
Alec Burks
Dennis Smith, Jr.
Nerlens Noel
Elfrid Payton
Reggie Bullock

The following players have a team option for next year:

RJ Barrett
Kevin Knox
Jacob Evans
Omari Spellman
Mitchell Robinson
Ignas Brazdeikis

Leon Rose and the Knicks are certainly also putting their chips in to find a gem in the upcoming 2021 NBA Draft, a draft class experts believe is loaded and headlined by Oklahoma State’s PG Cade Cunningham. In the four games, the Oklahoma State Cowboys have played thus far this season, the 6’8”, 220 lbs. point guard is averaging 18.0 PPG, 4.5 APG, 6.0 RPG on 49% shooting from the floor, and 46% from behind the arc. Cunningham has also converted 16 of his 19 free throws. The Cowboys are 4-0.

I think it’s going to be another long, tough and frustrating year for Knicks fans around the world. With yet another new regime, the team continues its long, eternal rebuild.