Knicks Predicted to Fall Short of Historic Mark

The New York Knicks won 50 games last season, the most in a single year since the 2012-13 campaign.

To repeat that feat, this year’s Knicks squad would be doing something that hasn’t been done in 30 years in New York. The last time the Knicks won 50 games in consecutive years dates back from 1992-95.

While this year’s Knicks team has a chance to accomplish that with the addition of Mikal Bridges, Bleacher Report writer Andy Bailey believes that the team will fall just short of that goal, winning 49 games.

“With Bridges’ low-maintenance, three-and-D game, he’ll pull defensive attention away from Jalen Brunson’s drives and add to the switchability of lineups with Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo,” Bailey writes. “Getting Julius Randle back from injury should help, too, especially if coach Tom Thibodeau can figure out how to separate as many of his minutes as possible from Brunson’s (there’s just too much ball-dominance with both on the floor). But the loss of Isaiah Hartenstein is a big deal. His effort and passing did a lot to grease the wheels on both sides of the floor, and Mitchell Robinson has long had a hard time staying healthy.”

The Knicks will have to adjust to life without Hartenstein, and that could be the team’s biggest challenge going into the season. Hartenstein was one of the league’s best defensive centers, and while Robinson isn’t bad on that end of the floor, he would need some kind of awakening to play on the level his understudy did last season.

The Knicks don’t need Robinson to be Hartenstein, but he will have to fill in some of the gaps that he was able to fill last season. If he can do that while also showcasing some of his skills on top of that, the Knicks’ chances of winning 50 games again skyrockets.

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