After surprising everybody last campaign, the New York Knicks enter the 2021/22 NBA season trying to get better results. They ranked 4th in the Eastern Conference when nobody believed in them, and now it’s time to improve that result.
The Knickerbockers appear to be going in the right direction after several years of struggles. They had an entertaining offseason, keeping Julius Randle, Alec Burks, Nerlens Noel, and Derrick Rose.
Moreover, they added interesting pieces like Evan Fournier and Kemba Walker to create a dangerous team in the East. Knicks fans should be excited with this squad, but Max Kellerman doesn’t think they should aspire to something more than a second-round elimination.
According to the ESPN analyst, the Knicks didn’t do enough to create a championship-caliber team, and their ceiling is the Eastern semifinals. In the wake of the news of Kemba Walker signing with the New Yorkers, Kellerman explained his point of view (0:14):
“[The Knicks] are a team whose ceiling is the second round. We know they’re not getting to a conference finals with this team.”
Knicks fans are really excited for the future of the franchise. They had $70 million in cap space this year, but the free agency wasn’t as stacked as they wanted. Still, they added a couple of good pieces and kept their core.
You can argue that other teams built better than the New Yorkers, but they can keep getting better in the next seasons. Tom Thibodeau and co. have a done a great job with this team. Perhaps they need one or two more stars to be considered title contenders, but they have a clear picture now, which wasn’t the case in the past eight years.
