National Basketball Association

Knicks face big-picture questions after collapse vs. Nets

Published Feb. 17, 2022 12:38 a.m. ET

By Yaron Weitzman
FOX Sports NBA Writer

NEW YORK — Should we start with the particulars of the collapse or with the big-picture stuff?

I think we should get the details out of the way first, so: On Wednesday, the New York Knicks lost to the Brooklyn Nets. The score was 111-106.

Under normal circumstances, this would not be a noteworthy event. The Nets, after all, are very good. The Knicks, on the other hand, are not.

However! This game took place at Madison Square Garden. And also: These were not the star-laden Brooklyn Nets, as neither Kevin Durant nor Kyrie Irving nor Ben Simmons played (Cam Thomas led the team in scoring). And also: The Knicks lost this game despite leading by 28 late in the second quarter. And also: The Knicks allowed the Nets to go on 15-0 run midway through the fourth quarter. And also: This was the third time in 11 days that the Knicks blew a 20-plus-point lead, which, I think, might be one of the most ludicrous statistics of this NBA season.

"I wish I had an answer for you, man," Julius Randle said after the game when asked if he had any explanation for the blown leads. "I don’t know."

"You have to play tough with a lead," head coach Tom Thibodeau said. "We didn’t do that."

The Knicks will now head into the All-Star break on a three-game losing streak, having dropped eight of their past 11. They’re 25-34, which, sure, means they’re just 3.5 games out of the play-in tournament, but focusing on such things would be silly. This team is bad. They can’t defend. They can’t protect leads. They can’t score late in games.

All of which leads us to the big-picture question, the one Knicks fan are forced to ask themselves once every two years: Where do we go from here?

"Everything's on the table now," Thibodeau said. "It has to be."

The obvious answer is that it’s time for the Knicks to focus on their future. Stop worrying about the playoffs (or the play-in). Cut the minutes of veterans such as Taj Gibson, Kemba Walker and Nerlens Noel. Ride the legs of RJ Barrett, Quentin Grimes, Obi Toppin, Immanuel Quickley and Mitchell Robinson. Maybe let Cam Reddish — you know, the 22-year-old you gave up a first-round pick to get — get some run, too.

This, of course, is a point the Knicks should have arrived at weeks ago. And that brings us back to the overarching concern with this team: The front office — led by president of basketball operations Leon Rose — and coaching staff are clearly not on the same page.

Or even in the same book.

Exhibit A: When was the last time you saw a team trade for a 23-year-old former first-round pick, only to have the coach refuse to play him?

Granted, none of this is new. In his first offseason with the Knicks, Thibodeau pushed for the team to sign veterans such as Gordon Hayward and clashed with members of the front office who wanted to pursue a more "Process"-like approach. (You can read more about this dynamic here). The only reason you didn’t hear more about these internal issues was that the Knicks won a bunch of games.

This season they have not, and now Thibodeau is under fire. Sure, you could blame him for failing to develop the team’s young players (Quickley has regressed, and Toppin has stalled) and for riding Randle, and all that would be fair. But the bigger issue is one of cohesion.

The Knicks can find a new coach. They can overhaul the roster. But all that would be like tending to a gash with a Band-aid.

How can Rose fix this mess? By making it clear to those who work for him what his plan is and how he envisions executing it — and making sure the people he hires are on board with that plan.

That, you’d think, would be the easy part.

Yaron Weitzman is an NBA writer for FOX Sports and the author of "Tanking to the Top: The Philadelphia 76ers and the Most Audacious Process in the History of Professional Sports." Follow him on Twitter @YaronWeitzman.