Okay, let’s talk about that Knicks period, around 2016 and 2017. I remember deciding to pay closer attention again back then. You know, you hear the names, you see the buzz.
They brought in Derrick Rose, who was a big name, MVP and all that, even with the injuries. Then there was Joakim Noah, another guy known for energy. Add them to Carmelo Anthony, who was still the main guy, and the young fella everyone was excited about, Kristaps Porziņģis. On paper, you look at that, and you think, maybe, just maybe, something interesting could happen. I got my notepad out, basically, started jotting things down after games, just impressions mostly.
My Own Tracking
So, I started watching the games when I could, keeping track of the scores, sure, but more like the feel of the games. My practice was simple: watch, make a few notes, see if a pattern emerged.
- Did they look like a team? Sometimes.
- Did they play hard consistently? Ehh, that was trickier.
- Could they close out games? Often felt like a struggle.
It felt like a lot of noise around the team that year. Talk about the offense, who should be shooting, stuff like that. It didn’t seem smooth. I remember thinking back to older Knicks teams, even the ones that didn’t win it all but felt tougher, more connected. Like those teams from the 90s, you knew what you were getting. This felt different, more fragile.
I kept comparing the hype from the summer to what I was actually seeing on the court. Porziņģis had flashes, definitely looked like the real deal sometimes. Melo could still score, obviously. But putting it all together? It just didn’t click often enough. Rose showed some bursts, but it wasn’t the old MVP level consistently. Noah was hampered by injuries, didn’t seem like the same player.
My notes from that time basically went from hopeful scribbles early on to more question marks and kinda shrugs later in the season. You saw the potential maybe one night, then the next few games it was just… frustrating. It wasn’t like that disaster a couple of years before, the record wasn’t that bad, but the hope fizzled out pretty fast for me.
By the end of that 2017 season run, my little tracking project just confirmed what most people saw: it was another year of trying something, getting some big names, and just not really getting anywhere solid. It wasn’t a total train wreck, but it sure wasn’t the step forward people hoped for. Just another chapter in the Knicks saga, I guess. That was my takeaway from keeping tabs that year.
