The New York Knicks are off to a great 37-20 start, but they have fallen short of knocking off the top teams in the league. Following blowout losses to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics, many don’t believe the Knicks are legitimate contenders as they are 0-7 against the top three teams in the league.
Demarcus Cousins doesn’t believe the Knicks are true contenders
Former All-Star center Demarcus Cousins is one of those non-believers. He said that despite their talent on the roster, they are nothing more than an “average” team to him.
“We’ve been bamboozled,” Cousins said on FanDuel TV’s Run It Back. “We sat here and allowed the Knicks to put together a championship college team, and try to run it back in the NBA. When they initially did it, we thought it was a good idea. Now we look at it, and they look like an average team. I hate to be rude, upfront, or blunt about it, but that’s literally what it is.”
The Knicks have shown flashes of being a dominant team this season. They have blowout victories over the Nuggets twice, the Grizzlies, and the Timberwolves. However, with those being Western Conference teams, they’d only have to face them in the playoffs during the finals, and if they can’t figure it out against Cleveland or Boston, the finals will strictly become a dream.
The Knicks need to show that they can hang with the league’s best teams
This past weekend was nothing short of disastrous from New York. The loss against Cleveland was by 37 points, which is the largest margin of defeat in the Tom Thibodeau era for them, and they came out with the same lackadaisical effort against Boston on Sunday, trailing by as much as 27 at one point in the game.
The Knicks still have a lot to prove with their ultra-talented core led by their two All-Stars Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns. To change the narratives that are currently surrounding them, they have to show that they can hang with the league’s best.
If they continue to look overmatched against them, perhaps their expectations need to be adjusted this year.