The New York Knicks made a big step towards being a competitive team once again, managing to make the playoffs after a stellar season from Julius Randle, where he made the All-NBA second team and won the Most Improved Player award. While making the playoffs shows the team is obviously going in the right direction, the New York Knicks did end up struggling in the postseason and got bounced by the Atlanta Hawks in 5 games.
Part of their struggles was due to the lack of scoring on the roster. Julius Randle didn’t have the best playoff series, and at least some of that can be attributed to the huge offensive load that he had. However, it is clear that the New York Knicks have addressed their offense as they signed two solid scorers in Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier.
It seems as though Julius Randle himself appreciates Walker and Fournier’s presence on their team. In a recent interview with Ashley Nicole Moss, Randle revealed that the duo would help them offensively, but noted that the main thing for the team would be to “play with tremendous energy and defend”.
🗣 NEW YORK WE HERE@J30_RANDLE tells @AshNicoleMoss how excited he is about the Knicks' additions of Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier
(Presented by @NBA) pic.twitter.com/6XMHIvts4V
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) September 22, 2021
Those guys are obviously very versatile players. They can do a lot of different things on the court. They can really shoot the ball. I’m excited about that. I think they’re obviously going to make us a lot more talented… They’re gonna add a lot offensively for us. But us as a team, our main thing has to be the main thing, and that’s we come in every night and play with tremendous energy and defend. So as long as we do that we’ll be fine, I think we’ll see great improvement. We just gotta make sure that we’re coming in, we’re locked in, we’re playing defense, getting stops cause the rest of the league doesn’t like doing that. Offensively, honestly, that’s the easy part.
There’s no question that Tom Thibodeau turned the New York Knicks into an elite defensive team, and that will always be something you can count on with any team coached by him. They have also improved on offense with their offseason acquisitions, and the 2021-22 season projects to be a positive one for the Knicks.
The New York Knicks will need the best out of their roster, as the Eastern Conference has become very competitive. It remains to be seen how they will compete against other top-tier teams, but it definitely looks as though the team has improved on paper.
