Unofficial Preseason Period Has Ended for the Knicks

Disgruntled Knicks Fan: “I don’t care there’s no excuses for losing to a team like Toronto and Charlotte!!!!  This team is in total chaos and in a crisis mode!!”

Me:  “It’s way too early in the season to be jumping the gun and claiming Armageddon; especially in a year like this.”

Disgruntled Knicks Fan:  “I don’t care!!  You’re just making excuses!! “

..................................................................

Well.  Perhaps I am.    But if I’m guilty of anything, it’s seeing the big picture and in the process failing to give credence to “small picture” issues that could lead to problems down the road.    I'll gladly accept my "sickness".  

Everyone is well aware of the lockout, the shortened training camp and lack of a true preseason this year (each team with 2 preseason games apiece).  Combine this with the hectic schedules being faced with back –to-back games followed by travel days, and teams barely have enough time to practice.

The teams who face the biggest disadvantages in this scenario are those who:

1.  have some key turnover to their roster with new players stepping into their rotations 

2.  teams with new coaching staffs implementing new systems 

3.  teams with a lot of young players and rookies seeing prominent minutes, and of course

4.  teams with injuries.

Numbers 1, 3, and 4 all apply to the Knicks as the team adjusts to playing with a center who roams the paint area like Tyson Chandler (in particular Amare Stoudemire, who has to adjust his game as a PF without having the same spacing on offense that he's accustomed to having when playing the C position).  

Rookies Iman Shumpert and Josh Harrelson both have integral roles in the rotation.

And of course the team has been left shorthanded through the early part of the season with injuries to Shumpert, Mike Bibby, Jared Jefferies, and of course Baron Davis who's yet to suit up as a Knick.

With the victory Saturday night in Detroit against a very young (and predictably struggling) Pistons team, the Knicks have now played their 10^th game of this season; 8 regular season games, 2 preseason games.  

 Why is this significant?   Last season, the Knicks played 10 PRESEASON games.  And as Knick fans recall from the 3-8 start last season, it wasn’t until 22 total games were played that the Knicks started to finally gel as a unit and become the type of team that many expected to be. 

The unofficial preseason period has officially ended for this years version of the  ‘Bockers.

As the Knicks come off their most impressive all around win of the young season, I expect them to look sharper from this point forward.  Still way too early to get too high or too low after wins and losses.  The true evaluation period of where teams are shouldn’t come until at least 20 regular season games have been played by each team, but right now the typical preseason cobwebs should be all but gone. 

I’m all for analyzing what we’re watching and offering fair criticisms of the team from day to day (both coaches and players), but let’s not lose perspective and draw irrational conclusions this early into a lockout shortened campaign.