By Dan Golden, Staff Writer
The New York Knicks are in the midst of one of the most highly anticipated seasons in recent memory. The team looks very different from last year when they were bounced just before reaching the semi-finals and falling to the Indiana Pacers. Most notably, they traded Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo, who each contributed heavily during the season.
Jalen Brunson, the point guard and newly anointed Captain of the team made an extension on his contract this season instead of waiting until to test free agency next year, forfeiting the opportunity to make up to $113 million as a result.
Nathan Benjamin Chen, a senior at LIU and diehard basketball fan had this to say regarding Brunson’s decision.
“I think Brunson extending his contract overtaking a pay raise next season is a perfect example of why he’s the captain. It shows he’s putting others first because in order to get better players you have to pay a little bit more money and we saw that with the OG deal that happened this summer as well as just in the finances to trade for Mikal Bridges. This is Brunson’s team now, he has the respect of his teammates, coaching staff, and all of New York,” Chen said.
Tom Thibodeau has brought the Knicks to the postseason three times in his four years as head coach, yet he tends to receive a lot of flak for running his players into the ground. Despite the noise, his players have his back in the locker room and on the court. He does tend to play his starters a lot of minutes and usually runs an 8 to 9-man rotation throughout the regular season.
Nick Fioravanti, a senior broadcasting major at LIU and contributor to LIU Sports Radio’s radio daily sports talk show, “Sports Shark Tank,” shared his thoughts on Coach Thibodeau.
“I think that if you don’t want to play as many minutes as possible for your team, then you shouldn’t be playing for that team. Tom Thibodeau is a very old-school kind of guy. He wants the most out of his players and he will push you to your limit and guys like Josh Hart have responded positively to it. He plays almost every minute of every game,” Fioravanti said.
Some new faces have joined the Knicks starting lineup including Karl-Anthony Towns (KAT) from the Minnesota Timberwolves and Mikal Bridges from the Brooklyn Nets. Bridges was acquired from the Nets in exchange for bench depth and multiple 1st round picks and he is yet another infinity stone in the “Nova Knicks” gauntlet, reuniting Brunson, Hart, DiVencenzo, and Bridges, who were college teammates on the 2016-17 Villanova Wildcats championship-winning squad.
However, a stone was traded as DiVencenzo and teammate Julies Randle were traded for Towns just weeks ago.
Chen shared his thoughts on the KAT trade.
“At first I was very upset because I like Julius Randle, but KAT does have this iso tendency (ability to isolate an opponent and go one-on-one) and at the end of the day when it comes to who’s the better basketball player it is KAT and we did need improvements on the center position. He shot 52% from the field last season and a center who can hit free throws? Knicks fans will sign on for that,” Chen said.
Fioravanti had similar sentiments.
“I think he’s going to elevate the team to another level offensively and if you make some strides on defense, I think the Knicks can be a top-five team again this season.”
The Knicks began their season against the reigning champion Boston Celtics on Tuesday, Oct. 22nd, and fell short, losing 132-109. “No quit, all grit, close-knit,” is the motto for a new Knicks squad who is ready, hungry, and eager to win a championship for the city that loves them.
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