Five Things With Frank | ’24-25 #1 | Season Preview

Geoff tackles five big questions for the Knicks, Tom Thibodeau, Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart, and more as the 2024-25 season tips off in Boston.

Hello friends! Welcome to the debut edition of “Five Things with Frank.” Or, perhaps more appropriately, the pilot episode.

Oh, an NBA column with an extreme emphasis on one popular northeast team that will occasionally make pop culture references? How original. 

I figured with Zach Lowe on (hopefully temporary) hiatus, somebody had to try and fill a fraction of the void. So here I am, a guy named Geoff, writing articles for all of you, mostly Knick fans who thought until this moment my name is actually Frank. 

Before I dive into this week’s discussion points, I thought I’d do y’all a favor and just get any potential FAQ’s out of the way as a way to clear the air. 

What exactly is this?

For me? A therapeutic journal. For you? A weekly column where I discuss burning questions and topics surrounding the NBA’s most popular team.

Is it Knicks-centric?

Yes. Maybe I’ll dabble into themes related to a potential opponent of theirs but for the most part we’ll be focused on Spike Lee’s favorite NBA team.

Isn’t it time you change your pseudonym?

No, stop asking. 

Is the article starting soon?

Yes, shortly. I just need 48 more words to put a bow on this and naturally transition to the next section of the article that consists of the actual things. Without further ado, here are the five questions I have about the Knicks as they head into their most anticipated season of the millennium…

What will the rotations look like?

If I was smarter I would have buried this.

I would have opened with some cupcake question like “why is Jalen Brunson DEFINITELY the MVP?”, scored good fan points to suck y’all in, then pulled the rug out.

But anyone who knows me knows I was going to go there eventually. Whether it’s been in tweet form, on a Strickland podcast or postgame, or just yelling into the ether, this is something I’ve been harping on for over four seasons.

Why stop now?

There have already been small rumblings of tension from Josh Hart about potentially preferring to come off the bench. This writer thinks it’d be best for the team if he did. Moving Hart to the bench improves the bench unit by ensuring that Precious Achiuwa is the lone big off the bench, and it also gives head coach Tom Thibodeau a much more natural wing rotation that will make it easier to give Hart, Mikal Bridges, and OG Anunoby the majority of the minutes at small and power forward.

But assuming Hart starts, where does Thibodeau go from there? We know in all likelihood that Cam Payne and Achiuwa will join Deuce McBride as the mainstays off the bench. We also know Thibodeau prefers a nine-man rotation. So who will be the ninth man? Jericho Sims is a logical answer that carries weight because we’ve seen Thibodeau lean on a two-big frontcourt before. He could test the waters with a more natural wing like TJ Warren or impressive youngster Pacome Dadiet. He could also go really small with both Payne AND Tyler Kolek, another impressive rookie, joining McBride and Achiuwa off the bench.

The options are nuanced with each containing their own positive and negative trade-offs. I don’t have a feel for which direction Thibodeau is leaning. My gut tells me that Sims will get the first crack at it. But deep down I think we all know that whichever choice he makes will pale in comparison to the starting lineup. Thibodeau’s inclination will be to lean on the starters heavily.

It’s important that he fights that urge… at least somewhat. Yes, this team wants to have the best regular season possible, but the goal is to win a championship. And the Knicks have enough depth to spell their starters from lagging heavy minutes early in the season. Now is the time to build chemistry and experiment with lineup combinations, so when April rolls around, the Knicks will have the best feel possible for what works and what doesn’t.

Do the Knicks have enough offense outside of Brunson and Towns?

Absolutely… if deployed correctly.

In a weird way, the Towns trade that saw Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo depart was a gamble on team profiles. Traditional thinking says there are limits to a heliocentric style of team offense. With so much of the burden resting on one player you become too predictable. I guess Luka Doncic, James Harden, and Tyrese Haliburton, who have all had elite offenses built around them, didn’t get that memo.

The Knicks traded a second creator for shooting gravity. Town’s can’t force collapses near as well as Randle can, but collapses are less necessary when the paint is wide open. The Knicks are set up to pump out lineups with five shooters who could make defenses pay if they dare help off of them.

Watching the Knicks in preseason, it often looked like a team that forgot why they made that trade. Or maybe (optimism!) they are SO confident in what they have with Brunson running the ship, they figured they’d use the preseason to test out other potential options. 

Regardless, Brunson needs to steer the ship. A LOT. After trading Randle it would be a mistake to try and replace his output by committee. Brunson should take a decent chunk of the leftover possessions for himself. Bridges should get some too. And whatever edge you think Randle has over Bridges as a primary initiator of possessions, it’s important to remember that the threshold for primacy goes down as space increases. 

So yes, the Knicks have plenty of weapons to leverage to become an elite half court offense. It’s just on them to remember it.

Is Karl-Anthony Towns a CHAMPIONSHIP center?

Imagine you were born in the ’70s or ’80s. You grew up on Patrick Ewing. A hard-nosed, defense-first center who gave the Knicks’ franchise every ounce of sweat he had to try to deliver them a championship. And he almost did too, getting his team within one game. What must it be like to go from that to a center once known as a defensive liability who mostly shoots 3-pointers?

As I mentioned above, I have few concerns about the offense. Even on nights when Towns’ shot isn’t falling, the positive impact he has on his teammates will remain.

Defensively… that’s another story. Towns struggled mightily when put in the pick-and-roll during the preseason, ceding pull-up three after pull-up three. It appears Thibodeau doesn’t want him hedging or blitzing at the level. But when Towns dropped he appeared unsure and opponents feasted. It’s hard enough to field a good defense with Brunson as a weak link. For this Knicks team to reach the heights it wants to, Towns needs to evolve on that side of the ball.

Of course, there are ways to mitigate this potential weakness. Thibodeau will deploy at least two and sometimes three of McBride, Hart, Bridges or Anunoby. That’s a versatile, pesky, tough-as-nails lineup that is switchable on the perimeter and can fight around screens with the best of them.

How the Knicks defend and attempt to cover their deficiencies will be a situation to monitor from Game 1 in Boston tonight.           

What about the depth?

With Mitchell Robinson out until January and Landry Shamet — a guy who looked like he’d be an important bench cog — now off the team, the Knicks’ bench got thin very quick. Despite what the meme masters think, we know Leon Rose isn’t asleep at the wheel. If an acquisition makes itself available that could benefit the team without further hamstringing them long-term, Rose should be trusted to pull the trigger.

But what do the Knicks do in the meantime?

The concern, as mentioned above, is that Thibodeau has a short leash with the bench. We know he wants to win each second, so what does he do the first time the bench fails to score? And, assuming he does go to the Achiuwa/Sims front court off the bench, isn’t this almost a self-fulfilling prophecy? That unit is extremely unlikely to score in the half court.

And then what happens when someone, god forbid one of the wings, needs a rest day? Where do those minutes go? All of these dominoes you see falling are the result of the first one; starting Hart. If Hart comes off the bench, we don’t see the double big lineup and the bench is less likely to get dismantled across short stretches, which in turn makes Thibodeau less likely to lean on his starters to an absurd degree in early November games.

We know what McBride and Achiuwa can do. Payne looked dependable on both ends of the court in the preseason. Dadiet showed flashes but might not be ready just yet. Same goes for Kolek who may be the next option as the backup point guard if Payne struggles. Regardless, there is enough here to get by. But they have to be given a fighting chance.

Is this finally the year?

The short and boring answer is: it depends.

Will the injury gods repay the franchise for last season and give the team solid health injury luck? When will they peak? The last two seasons saw the team peak months before the playoffs. Will this team take a different approach?

All of this is to be determined and unclear. But I know one thing that is unequivocally true: I feel very confident that the core players on this team WILL be around when the next championship banner is hung in the rafters of Madison Square Garden.