There’s no way to sugarcoat one of the worst weeks put together by the New York Knicks this season.
The ‘Bockers aimed at gearing up for their five-game road trip with a win against the Dubs but easily fumbled the rock in an ominous preview of what was to come—back-to-back Los Angeles losses to the Lakers first and the Clippers one day latter.
On top of everything, Jalen Brunson’s injury in Hollywood is making pundits wonder whether or not the Knicks have enough to navigate the next few weeks—we hope, months—even though they finally broke their three-game losing skid with a recent win against the Kings.
Here’s a roundup of all the power rankings posted at different outlets through Tuesday’s matchups, capturing the national perception of the Knicks among the basketball elite.
Note: I have included a +/- next to each rank, with a minus sign (-) meaning dropping down and a plus sign (+) meaning climbing up X spots compared to last week’s position on that outlet.
NBA — No. 7 — New York Knicks (-2)
John Schuhmann of NBA.com dropped the Knicks two spots after moving them up one into the top five last week, although it’s worth noting that these rankings didn’t include New York’s bounce-back win against the Kings.
The pundit covered the three consecutive losses by the Knicks since the last time he dropped an update, so the drop here makes sense, even more envisioning a murky short-term future while Jalen Bruson remains sidelined.
“The Knicks have scored just 106.3 points per 100 possessions (28th) since the All-Star break, down from 119.9 (second) before the break. That’s the league’s biggest drop by a healthy margin, with the losing streak being their worst three-game stretch of offense all season (101.7 per 100) and their loss to the Clippers on Friday without Brunson being just the second time they’ve scored less than a point per possession.
“Karl-Anthony Towns (from 59.6% to 49.6%) and Miles McBride (from 52.7% to 45.1%) have seen the seventh and 11th biggest post-break drops in effective field goal percentage among 126 players with at least 200 field goal attempts before the break and 75 since. Towns has seen a drop in the paint, but it’s mostly about 3-point percentage (43.8% vs. 30.8%). The Knicks have shot below 30% from beyond the arc in each of the last three games.
“The Knicks are 1-5 since the All-Star break (they were 11-11 before the break) against other teams currently with winning records.” — John Schuhmann
The most impactful move up the board with the Knicks dropping involved the Golden State Warriors’ rise all the way up from No. 11 to No. 5.
The Athletic — No. 9 — New York Knicks (-4)
Law Murray of The Athletic didn’t hide his intentions at all by going the distance and even mentioning the “Knicks fall” in the headline of his latest power rankings.
New York moved down four spots here, clearly outside of the top five and nearly off the top 10, which would have been massively unreasonable.
With all NBA teams having fewer than 20 games left in their regular-season schedules, Murray took on the task of handing out third-quarter (and third-quarter exclusively, not up to) grades. The Knicks got a B-.
“The Knicks didn’t exactly impress in the third quarter of the season, but they won games thanks to All-Star Jalen Brunson’s ability to drag his weary constituents to wins.
“But the Knicks botched a 13-point lead at the Lakers, and Brunson’s ankle was an overtime casualty that puts the rest of his March in jeopardy (I am sensing a theme).
“The player who may emerge with even more importance is small forward Josh Hart, who has compiled 5.6 assists and only 2.4 turnovers per game since late January. Hart isn’t a shoot-first player, but he does everything else, and he could probably handle more of the playmaking while New York’s other scorers step up in Brunson’s stead.” — Law Murray
The Knicks are no longer contenders in Murray’s tiers and rank fourth behind the Grizzlies, Rockets, and Warriors, in what he labels “Tier 2: In a Good Place.”
ESPN — No. 7 — New York Knicks (-2)
The ESPN panel got to their usual behavior and dropped the Knicks two spots one week after moving them up one. How surprising!
Falling off the top five allowed the Grizzlies and the Nuggets to overtake New York in ESPN’s pecking order, with the former moving up one place from seventh to sixth and the latter jumping all the way up from sixth to fourth.
This week, ESPN provided an injury outlook for each franchise, and after months of Mitchell Robinson talk the question now is when and how Jalen Brunson will make his return.
“As New York closes in on securing home-court advantage for the first round of the playoffs, it is without floor general Jalen Brunson, who’s slated to miss at least two weeks with an injured ankle.
“Brunson’s absence undoubtedly stifles the team’s ballhandling — he possesses the rock for an NBA-high 8.7 minutes per game — but it also gives the Knicks a chance to develop a better attack for the postseason when he’s not on the floor.” — Chris Herring
In another interesting move, the Warriors cracked the top 10, joining it from the outside as they climbed from No. 12 to No. 8 with less than 20 games left.
What are your thoughts on the ranks above? Where do you have the Knicks ranked after they split their first six games of the season? Drop your hot takes in the comments section below!