Blast from the Past

Analyzing New York's first round opponent is like looking into a mirror from recent history.

Good morning! Before we get to today’s newsletter, some quick news items…

🏀 Tip off for Game 1 will be Saturday at 6pm on ESPN.

🏀 On SNY’s “The Putback,” Ian Begley and Steve Popper both offered some fresh reporting on the pressure facing the Knicks in this postseason. Please watch the whole episode (or at least the relevant clip), but in short, it sounds like both the head coach and members of the front office may not be safe if the playoffs don’t go as well as expected, with Popper also mentioning Mikal Bridges’ pending extension as something worth keeping an eye on.

Blast from the Past

82 games is a long freakin’ time.

What’s true at the beginning of November may not be true at the end of January, let alone the middle of April. Just look at our beloved Knicks.

Often times, teams go through multiple stages of development. This is especially true of teams who are young, or who have a new coach, or who need to adjust to an overhauled roster.

In the case of the Detroit Pistons, all three apply. Motown entered the season with the fourth youngest roster in the league, a brand new head coach, and two major additions in free agency plus a rotation rookie.

Interestingly enough, the Knicks have seen the Pistons at four different inflection points of their season:

• Game 1, November 1 - Knicks 128, Pistons 98: Detroit was coming off of their first win after an 0-4 start and looked very much like the Pistons of yesteryear, giving the ball away on 20.7 percent of their possessions, which remains the second highest forced turnover rate of New York’s season. They came out of this loss with the third worst net rating in the NBA, and things weren’t looking great.

• Game 2, December 7 - Pistons 120, Knicks 111: The results still weren’t showing up in the standings - at 9-14, Detroit entered this game in 11th place in the East - but the picture was getting a little brighter. The Pistons had clawed their way to having a league-average defense and Cade Cunningham was generating some All-Star buzz. Starting with this game, Detroit and New York each lost the same number of games (23) the rest of the way.

• Game 3, January 13 - Pistons 124, Knicks 119: This game came immediately after the biggest shift of Detroit’s season. Jaden Ivey, who had started every game he played, suffered a broken left fibula on January 1 that has kept him out ever since. Another young Piston, Ausar Thompson, returned to action in late November after missing the first month of the season. He essentially took Ivey’s place in the starting five four days before this game. From that moment on, the Pistons were one of five teams in the top 10 in both offense and defense for the remainder of the season.

• Game 4, April 10 - Pistons 115, Knicks 106: In what wound up being Detroit’s final win of the season, Cade Cunningham likely solidified his spot on one of the All-NBA teams. He finished the season as the first player ever to average 26 points and nine assists before his 24th birthday on a team that won at least 44 games.

Looking at the complete picture, it’s not hard to draw a comparison between these Pistons and another team we’re quite familiar with.