Warriors 110, Knicks 99: The 2024 Knicks are the 2013 Warriors
Depending how you read it, last night’s loss could be good news. Or bad.
A coastal team that hadn’t won a title since the 1970s cruised into the month of February on pace for a 50-win season, their best finish in 20 years. They stumbled, though, dropping 10 of 13 as the month turned to March. You may remember one of those losses.
Not many could have guessed what would blossom from such seeds; therein lies the hope for another coastal team that hasn’t won it all since the Vietnam War and saw February come in like a lamb and go out like a lion. The New York Knicks fell 110-99 last night to the Golden State Warriors, their eighth loss in 11 games, leaving them a whisker ahead of the eighth-seed.
You don’t have to like it. You’ve earned whatever disappointment you’re feeling, a disappointment I suspect is sharpest among Knicks fans 35 and under, the lost generation who’ve never seen their club be good two years in a row. Ever.
I imagine if I told any Knicks fans today that a decade from now they’ll have won four championships and cemented their status as one of the greatest dynasties in NBA history, they’d sign up for it. Be sure before you answer, though. The world is full of couples who moved in together and then un-coupled; all successes are built on a bed of failures, and not everybody has the strength to get up after getting knocked down. If you can’t stand the heat, you’ll never get anything out of your kitchen. Take the 2013 Warriors, for example, and see if any of this sounds familiar.
Those Warriors were run by a coach who instilled a culture and a defensive foundation. Mark Jackson probably had a definite ceiling as the head honcho, and we can all be grateful that Tom Thibodeau hasn’t made headlines for being shook down by the stripper he cheated on his (non-existent) wife with, nor having snake charmers and faith healers work on fixing Julius Randle’s shoulder. But there are similarities, including one Thibs has to hope doesn’t hold: Jackson was fired by Golden State after consecutive playoff eliminations and hasn’t been re-hired by anyone since. Maybe that’s more about the extracurricular stuff. But coaches are similar to players: some can make you better, but not take you all the way. The Warriors made the difficult decision to move on from the man who got them back on their feet, knowing he’d never teach them to fly. Would Leon Rose make the same call?
Draymond Green ranked eighth on the 2013 Warriors in minutes played. This was primordial Dray, before Golden State and then the league figured out the former second-round pick, stuck out of position mostly at small forward, was actually a better answer at the 4 or 5 than former Knick David Lee, despite Lee having more accolades, a more traditional skill set for the position and a much larger contract. Isaiah Hartenstein ranks ninth on the Knicks this year in minutes played. The former second-round pick may be a better answer at the 5 than Mitchell Robinson, despite Mitch having more accolades, a more traditional skill set for the center spot and a much larger contract. The Warriors valued help over hype. Would the Knicks make a similarly tough call to replace Robinson? Has their calculus changed any given Hartenstein’s nagging Achilles pain?
The 2013 Warriors faced the Denver Nuggets in the first round. Golden State came out on top then and the following summer, when Denver’s best player in the series, Andre Iguodala, signed with the team he’d lost to. Two years later, they were champions and Iguodala was Finals MVP. The Knicks acquired their Iguodala two months ago; they’re just waiting for OG Anunoby to return from elbow surgery. Iguodala was never the best, second-best or third-best player on Golden State, but his abilities on both ends gave them a skeleton key to unlock any and every opponent. Anunoby will probably (hopefully?) never be New York’s best, second- or third-best player. But a man who can from one possession to another lock down Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns is a human skeleton key. The Knicks probably won’t win it all this year, and maybe not next year. But if they do win anytime soon, bet OG is a big reason why.
I’m hesitant to make the last and most obvious comparison because I think it’s unfair to both parties. Saying Jalen Brunson is “like” Steph Curry because they’re both small-by-NBA-standards high-scoring guards is like saying Bojan Bogdanović is “like” Luka Dončić because he’s 6-foot-8, can shoot and hails from the Balkans. Bogie missed all seven of his shots last night. I’m not down on the man off of that, but as Lloyd Bentsen might have told Dan Quayle, “I served with Luka Dončić. I knew Luka Dončić. Luka Dončić was a friend of mine. Bojan Bogdanović, you are no Luka Dončić.”
But friends, I come not to bury Bojan, but to clarify that Brunson – as beautiful, wonderful and beloved as he is, and he is – is not Steph. Nobody is. Not Trae, not Dame, not Seth, not nobody. Everybody needs help sometimes, and while the league hasn’t “figured out” Brunson, the almost complete lack of offensive help outside of Donte DiVincenzo is why he’s scored 29 a game since the All-Star break but is shooting a sub-par 41% from the field and a sub-par 35% from deep. Brunson’s as driven and as tough as he ever was. That doesn’t change the fact that the team currently around him, the guys who are currently healthy, are not a playoff team. This shorthanded, the Knicks are more in Chicago/Atlanta territory.
Which brings us to the final possible symmetry between the long-ago Warriors and the present-day Knicks. Ever since they started winning titles in 2015, the Warriors have been unapologetically fixated on winning as many as they can with the current core. On the plus side, that and a one-time ballooning salary cap let them bring in Kevin Durant and be unbeatable for a few years. It’s also led them to not only excuse but enable Draymond doing everything short of beating up a child over those years.
The Knicks haven’t won anything of consequence — yet. Brunson needs help. Where does it come from? Could Donovan Mitchell be New York’s Iguodala: the piece they poach from a conference rival who lifts them to new heights? Is the help JB needs simply a matter of health? Even if it is, are we confident this team will ever get healthy?
Josh Hart played 47 minutes last night. Before the game, I was talking myself into a fit wondering why this team won’t simply forfeit a game here or there and let their entire injury-ravaged roster heal up. Late in the third quarter, with the Knicks down 17, I was mumbling about it again. When they cut the lead to six in the fourth, my heart was straining to escape my chest; all either of us wanted was for the Knicks to complete the comeback. Reader, I’ve no answers.
If anyone in the organization would actually ever talk to the public, it might be easier to have a sense of where they are and where they’re headed. We’ve already passed the dates by which Mitch, Randle and Anunoby were supposed to be re-evaluated, with zero updates from the club about any of them. Maybe the Knicks are keeping quiet because they figure there’s no advantage to letting the rest of the league know when they’ll be at full strength. Maybe they’re keeping quiet because there’s no good news to come, only bad, and they’re working out how they’re gonna spin it. I could see either one being true. But every answer being possible is no answer at all.
Let’s also be adults here: this isn’t all on the front office. Nor is it fair to expect the players to pull the plug on themselves. Why would Brunson or any other Knick hurry back from surgery or an injury, knowing they’ll be cheered the first time they check in and booed two minutes after. Four and half months ago they watched a two-time All-NBA and All-Star teammate who’d suited up for at least 95% of the games he could with the Knicks get crucified for not being in midseason form after losing his offseason conditioning and practice to ankle surgery — an ankle he injured twice and returned early from both times to help the Knicks. If you were one of the “Trade Randle for Tobias Harris or Zach LaVine” mob, ask yourself: why would any player admit to human normalcy when so many fans only see players as gods or monsters?
In the meantime, what of Brunson? We’ve seen scary ankle turns and most recently some neck pains that are clearly a pain in the neck.
Curry was 24 in 2013. Brunson is 27 now. Would the Warriors have traded some of the dynasty to come for a handful more wins in 2013? Nope. The Knicks are not guaranteed a championship anytime soon, much less several. It’s possible nights like last night are the dirty work that comes with building one – lesser teams may have seen the odds and cut their losses; perhaps New York was demonstrating that there is really, literally zero quit in this team. That will matter when they’re up against the league’s best come May and June. February, though? Ask last night’s winners how much February matters.
