Should the Heat-Celtics Series Grant the Knicks Peace?
Clarity. Serenity. Peace.
Such singe-word slogans likely found on motivational posters hung in both offices and wellness retreats alike could hardly apply to New York Knicks fans when the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat meet. Unless those supporters were encouraged by the endless onslaught of gambling advertisements to place a bet, the growing postseason rivalry brings them only anger. A New Yorker rooting against Boston hardly requires explanation and the unique basketball battle between Manhattan and the South Beach playground for the city's retirees has created a rare north-meets-south rivalry that has spanned NBA playoff brackets of the past and present.
The most recent Eastern Conference Finals thus produced a tricky conundrum for Knicks nation: even if New Yorkers could smirk at the Celtics squandering another semifinal trip, it'd come at the cost of watching the Heat, the latest Knicks' undertakers, join the 1999 edition as the only No. 8 seeds in NBA history to partake in the championship round. Miami, paced by the efforts of Jimmy Butler and Caleb Martin, created that latter brand of history by locking up the series win on Monday night's decisive Game 7 with a 103-84 win in Boston.
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Knicks fans' rooting interests now scale the Rockies, as the Denver Nuggets await the victorious Heat in Thursday night's NBA Finals opener (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC). Four-to-seven nights with the Nuggets are Miami's reward for avoiding NBA infamy, as they avoided becoming the first team to blow a 3-0 series lead.
This NBA postseason was anything but ordinary. Why shouldn't the Knicks be involved in one last uncanny chapter?
Leave it to the Knicks of the new century to complicate the legacy of a season that half of their NBA brethren would give their arm to experience. The thrills of this season, one that saw the Knicks reach landmarks (47 wins, a playoff series victory) they hadn't sniffed in a decade, won't be soon forgotten. Against all odds, the Knicks appeared to have created something that was not just exciting ... but sustainable as well, primarily thanks to the game-changing efforts of Jalen Brunson.
The real work, of course, now begins. Getting those 47 wins and the Eastern Conference's fifth seed was hard enough. Now the Knicks have to prove they were worthy of such accomplishments.
Enough uncertainty surfaced during the playoff coda against Miami to provide the (justified) pessimists in the realm of the Knicks' fandom plenty of offseason ammunition, even as Brunson further solidified his place among the Association's elite. Julius Randle struggled to live up to his All-Star billing. Depth stars Josh Hart and Immanuel Quickley dimmed. RJ Barrett marred his own comeback by shooting 1-of-10 in the final hours.
Whiffing on an opportunity to dispose of a No. 8 seed and sever one of the ugliest blemishes on the franchise's skin ... the 20-plus years bereft of conference final appearances ... is fuel to those who want the fire of a complete roster teardown, one that would, say, trade for an aging superstar (i.e. LeBron James, Damian Lillard) or a medical question mark like Karl-Anthony Towns.
The conference finals the Knicks were forced to watch, however, could let them know there's a path forward. It's one that will require adjustments and preparation, but the Knicks have some solid footing on the NBA map.
When it comes to success in the modern NBA, chemistry developed through continuity is king. The concept is best displayed through another green and red showdown between Boston and Miami: for the third time in the past four years, their spring fling determined the East's Finals combatant. Boston even overcame an unexpected coaching change to get there, while Miami (whose status as a "true" No. 8 seed will likely be debated for years to come) dealt with lasting injuries to regulars like Tyler Herro and Victor Oladipo.
Yet, they did battle for early-summer glory again thanks to veteran cores that populate the nightly statistical leaderboards and end-of-season award ballots. Boston's been lingering around the conference finals for nearly a decade and those trips (five appearances in the past seven years) have been blueprinted and built by Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart (Jayson Tatum missed only the first trip in 2017).
What has transpired in South Beach is perhaps even more impressive, as the Heat are now back in the Finals for the first time since the relative crapshoot that was the Walt Disney World bubble in 2020. Three major contributors from that team (Butler, Bam Adebayo, Duncan Robinson) will make the return trip, while another leftover (Gabe Vincent) made himself indispensable.
One more vital hanger-on (Herro) is too hurt to partake but one also can't deny the impact of head coach Erik Spoelstra. Once seen as a moocher of the James/Dwyane Wade/Chris Bosh-induced postseason jolts, Spoelstra has established himself as one of the greatest leaders in modern NBA history. Since he was granted the Heat's clipboard in 2008, the Knicks have gone through eight different bosses (including hapless interns like Kurt Rambis and Mike Miller).
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Now consider the fact that a group of fledgling metropolitan collaborators took three of four from the Celtics during the regular season and gave Miami a postseason handful that never fell behind by three games. Their efforts against the defending champions drastically outpaced those put forth by top-ranked Milwaukee in the opening round.
The modern New Yorkers did so with relatively little time to build chemistry: consider the fact that three total players (Barrett, Randle, Mitchell Robinson) linger from a Knicks team that was denied a Disney trip. Four seasons later, their worst-case scenario is either winning a season series against a late-spring staple like the Celtics or giving a South Beach group with insoluble chemistry a run for its money. No one's waltzing down the Canyon of Heroes with that accomplishment but it's at least enough to turn Pennsylvania Plaza into the city's hippest meeting spot for a few precious playoff hours.
Make no mistake: if the Knicks have an opportunity to land a star, they'll explore that possibility. It's naive to think that everyone from May's closer will return for October's opener (and some already know they're not staying aboard).
But there are ways for the Knicks to approach this coming offseason. One involves drastic adjustments, the other involves careful considerations and healthy attachments. With the way they conducted themselves against the Eastern finalists, there's at least room to explore the latter.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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