New York Knicks: Shortened Season Could be a Good Thing
By Evan Desai
The NBA and NBAPA agreed to a deal that will resume the 2019-20 NBA season, but the plan does not include the New York Knicks.
It’s been recently reported that some teams that were left out of the NBA’s 22-team restart in Orlando aren’t happy with the verdict.
It wasn’t the most surprising decision to not bring every team back, but it’s also not surprising that the bottom-tier organizations aren’t excited about cutting their season short.
The reports expand, however, to several teams talking about establishing organized team activities, training camp, and smaller summer league programs. Teams have discussed following through with some of these ideas regionally and even found ideas such as joint practices to participate in.
The New York Knicks would rather out there come July 31st, they have a lot of young players that could benefit from the full competitive game action they are promised in an 82-game season. Most of these teams do, and see these younger players that are currently on their roster as the future of their franchise, and are owed the chance to have a full season to develop.
However, this could actually be a good thing, the Knicks realistically had essentially no shot at making the playoffs, and it might be best at this point to continue the break and not jump back in to lose games and potentially harm the young players’ confidence.
Now that teams are trying to stand up and find ways to develop either together, or individually as teams, it provides the chance to not re-open the wounds of lost seasons, and focus on the best ways to get better for the next season. After all, the season could last until October 12th, and the 2020-21 season likely starts on December 1st. That’s a short offseason, anyways.
For teams that were clearly playing awful basketball and wouldn’t be playing for anything, taking the time to have longer offseasons to practice as a team and maybe even include other teams in their work doesn’t sound so bad after all.
More from New York Knicks
- New York Knicks Fall to Eighth After NBA Draft Lottery
- New York Knicks: Players to Draft in Worst-Case Lottery Scenario
- New York Knicks: Three Players Who Should Thrive Under Tom Thibodeau
- Is Devin Booker to the New York Knicks Realistic?
- New York Knicks: Tom Thibodeau Officially Hired as Head Coach
The Knicks want to start head coaching interviews soon, and they will be able to focus on those endeavors more now, and if they can then have the time to have an extra training camp or whatever extra team activities they can get, that would be huge for a team trying to gel with a new coach.
Right now, the NBA and NBA Player’s Association is looking over these plans and deciding. It seems as if their priority is ironing out the details of the restart for the 22 teams that will be competing, but there’s lots of time for them to figure out the plan for the remaining eight. The good news is, there’s no rush.
The Knicks have been improving their front office in the offseason, hiring three new executives in moves that have been gaining lots of positive traction.
Next. New York Knicks: Positives and Negatives of Drafting LaMelo Ball. dark
Nobody wants to be eliminated while 22 other teams get to finish out their years, but with the direction the team is going while also looking into new hires and not being in any contention for a postseason, the Knicks having what could be an extended offseason sure has its benefits.