Top 5 Questions for the ‘24-25 Knicks

Plus, a special announcement.

Good morning!

The Knicks play their penultimate preseason game tonight, hosting the Charlotte Hornets in the Garden at 7:30. We’ll see if the starters finally see any fourth quarter minutes or if Thibs starts to ease off the gas as the regular season approaches (ha).

One more quick note: I’m EXTREMELY excited to announce that I’ve not only partnered up with Autograph for another season, but that this year will include me delivering exclusive content to the Autograph app on a weekly basis. For those unfamiliar, Autograph rewards fans for consuming and engaging with the content they already do, except this year, it’ll include exclusive creator content as well, all absolutely free of charge.

If you haven’t already downloaded the app, do so right here, and be sure to check out my special season preview pod & video, where I run through one stat I’m keeping an eye on for every key player on the Knicks.

Speaking of keys to this upcoming season…

Top 5 Questions for the ‘24-25 Knicks

The 2024-25 New York Knicks can win the NBA Championship.

This isn’t a controversial statement around these parts, and I’m not even sure how divisive it is amongst most NBA fans, for a few reasons.

First, there is no super team out there. Second, the Knicks’ biggest obstacle is arguably health, because if they can stay healthy, their depth in a playoff series probably won’t be an issue. Third, they have a bona fide postseason maven who just so happens to be a closer.

Most of all, their combination of high end two-way players and guys with elite skill sets for their positions / roles is as solid as any team in the league.

All of this makes today’s column both more fun and more challenging to write. Gone are the days when New York’s roster was filled with seventh, eighth and ninth men. Even the beloved #WeHere team, which fought like hell for their four seed but was severely limited in several areas nonetheless, is a distant memory. This team is stacked - maybe a hair below Boston and OKC in terms of how many players they can put on the floor over 48 minutes who don’t take anything off the table at either end of the court. Still, that’s pretty damn good.

But there are always areas of focus. Let’s go through some of them right now:

1. How will the Knicks rebound?

This question is intentionally ambiguous, because I want to know both how well they will rebound in addition to how they will come by the rebounds they grab.

The good news is that this has arguably been the most consistent strength of the Thibodeau era. Last year, the Knicks were the top rebounding team in the league by percentage of boards they grabbed. That was mostly on the back of their top-ranked offensive rebounding rate, but they were a very respectable sixth in defensive rebound rate as well. The previous year, they graded out second overall. The year before, fifth, and in Thibs’ first season, 12th. The trend arrow is going up.

Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson (who improved by leaps and bounds as a defensive rebounder over the years) were major parts of those teams, and I-Hart (an elite offensive rebounder who was respectable on the defensive glass) was here for the last two. Those are significant losses, but there are also reasons to be positive.

When I was talking to Alan Hahn last week, he wondered whether Josh Hart could make a run at averaging double digit rebounds. Last year he averaged 9.0 boards per 36 minutes, and many of those came when he was the second tallest Knick on the floor. That made it easier for opponents to slot bigger players on him, but it rarely mattered. According to Cleaning the Glass, Hart has ranked in the 97th percentile or higher for defensive rebounding at his position five years straight. There’s a good chance teams will often slot smaller players on him, so his path to rebounds might be easier than it ever has been.

The other asset is Towns, who ranked in the 83rd percentile or higher in defensive rebounding rate among big men for the first six years of his career before moving more towards power forward. He reminded us on Sunday night that he’s eminently capable of applying the Windex.

That leaves Mikal and OG, who have fluctuated between average and below average for their positions throughout their career. Their performance - Anunoby’s especially - will likely determine whether New York remains atop their perch as the best boarding team in the league or will merely be among the top 10.

Ultimately, there’s a few reasons I’m not worried, starting with Hart. Spo’s “70/30 balls” comment from last summer still rings true, and it’s why he remains the perfect 5th starter for this team. Second, a potentially significant uptick in efficiency should deflate the dependance on offensive boards to prop up the offense. Lastly, neither Boston or Milwaukee are particularly strong offensive rebounding teams, and while Philly ranked 10th last year, their offseason makeover has almost certainly made them worse in this respect.

My guess is Hart and KAT battle for the team lead, OG averages a career high 6+, and Mikal does his fair share. Can they lead the league again? Probably not. But top-10 should be a bare minimum expectation, with top-five being the goal.