NBA Finals Tiers: Where are Knicks After All-Star Break?
The NBA All-Star break has come and gone. It's clear by this point that several teams have established themselves as championship contenders with varying chances at the Larry O'Brien Trophy.
ESPN's Kevin Pelton separated the lingering contenders into four tiers pertaining to their championship chances. The New York Knicks are the third grouping labeled "the hopefuls," one said to be "largely represented by newcomers to the contender ranks. They appear in that segment next to Cleveland, Minnesota, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, and Phoenix.
Brad Penner, USA TODAY SPORTS
"Given the importance of playoff experience, it's fair to be wary of this group, although only to a point," Bolton writes. "This tier boasts three of the top four teams in point differential this season (Cleveland, Minnesota, and Oklahoma City), while New York went a league-best 14-2 with a plus-15.4 differential in January before sagging due to injuries. Home-court advantage is still a massive factor in playoff success, and the odds are good that at least one of those four teams will reach the conference finals."
As it stands, the Knicks (33-22) sit in fourth place in the Eastern Conference but dropped four in a row and five of six entering the All-Star break. Several New York regulars were sidelined for those final stages and while some are expected back immediately, others like OG Anunoby and Julius Randle are still out indefinitely.
If the Knicks are able to bounce back from those injuries and play the way they did in January, they'll be able to climb the tiers in no time. Their moves at the trade deadline (acquiring Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks from the Detroit Pistons) made them one of the deeper teams in the NBA ... when all are healthy, of course.
Still shorthanded, the Knicks will play their first post-All-Star game on Thursday against the Philadelphia 76ers (7 p.m. ET, MSG).
