Pretenders or contenders, it seems like the Knicks are a surefire top-5 team.
The Knicks destroyed everybody on their path to the championship during the past week of play—until they didn’t.
New York slashed Philly, put Memphis to the sword, and dragged the Heat into a painfully delayed overtime death, but crumbled on Tuesday against the Warriors.
Good for the Knicks, however, is the fact that all power rankings released this week didn’t consider that loss except for ESPN’s, with all three factoring in the 3-0 record put together before that defeat.
Here’s a roundup of all the power rankings posted at different outlets through Tuesday’s matchups, capturing the national perception of the Knicks among the basketball elite.
Note: I have included a +/- next to each rank, with a minus sign (-) meaning dropping down and a plus sign (+) meaning climbing up X spots compared to last week’s position on that outlet.
NBA — No. 5 — New York Knicks (+1)
John Schuhmann of NBA.com dropped the Knicks one spot last week, but he made up for that mistake by moving them up to where they were two weeks ago and where they belong.
The pundit considered New York’s three-win run, which is probably the reason behind the move up the board. Expect a fall or no move at all next week after Steph Curry conquered MSG for the nth time through his career. Sheesh.
“The Knicks rank 24th offensively (108.5 points scored per 100 possessions) since the All-Star break, having seen pretty big drops in free throw rate and offensive rebounding percentage. The offense has been a little better (113.0 scored per 100) over this three-game winning streak, but it might be a good thing that all three wins were somewhat ugly and that they had to get serious defensively, especially in the second half in Miami on Sunday.
“They’ve still played the third fewest clutch games, but the Knicks are now 16-7 (second best) in games that were within five points in the last five minutes. That includes a 5-0 mark in overtime after some more Jalen Brunson heroics in Miami. Despite the lack of clutch games, Brunson (who’s played in all 23) ranks second in total clutch points (132) and is now 8-for-11 on shots to tie or take the lead in the final minute of the fourth quarter or overtime. Those eight buckets lead the league, with three players tied for second with six each.
“Mitchell Robinson made his season debut on Friday, playing 26 total minutes on the Knicks’ two-game trip. All of that was in relief of Karl-Anthony Towns, so the two bigs weren’t on the floor together. Robinson had a nice block on a Tyler Herro drive on Sunday, but the Knicks’ defensive rebounding wasn’t great in those 26 minutes.” — John Schuhmann
No new teams in the top four with only the Cleveland Cavs experiencing a massive rise from No. 3 all the way up to No. 1.
The Athletic — No. 5 — New York Knicks (-1)
Law Murray of The Athletic keeps everybody guessing with no rhyme nor reason to his ranking of the Knicks on a weekly basis.
Even though he only watched New York win, then win, then win once again, Murray thought the proper thing to do was to drop the Knicks a spot down his power rankings, placing them in fifth position… making way for the Los Angeles Lakers moving up from No. 6… to No. 3 on top of the Celtics. Yes, you read that right.
Murray highlighted the highest-stakes games remaining in each team’s schedule and pointed toward the clashes at Milwaukee (March 28) and against Boston (April 8) in the Knicks case.
“Mitchell Robinson is back, so we don’t have to keep wondering about that anymore. Jalen Brunson just earned East Player of the Week honors, and OG Anunoby’s game-winner at Memphis capped off one of the Knicks’ best road performances of the season. They haven’t played well against the Celtics, but they have a chance at passing them in the standings.” — Law Murray
Did I mention Lakers Exceptionalism? Luka Effect? Damn.
ESPN — No. 5 — New York Knicks (+1)
The ESPN panel made an interesting change in this week’s edition of the PW, moving Denver down two spots to No. 6 while making room in those places for the Knicks and the super-rising Lakers.
New York climbed up one spot while Los Angeles moved up three, from No. 7 to No. 4 and into the circle of contenders thanks to the game-changing arrival of Luka Doncic before the deadline.
No particular topic of discussion covered this week, with the folks from ESPN noting the need for an improvement in New York’s defense if they want to make it deep into the playoff as soon as this spring.
“If the Knicks are going to find a way to compete with teams like Boston, Cleveland and Oklahoma City — three contenders they’ve gone 0-7 against — they must play better defense. That’s where the return of center Mitchell Robinson, who rejoined the lineup Friday after rehabbing his surgically repaired ankle all season, could be vital.
“In particular, it will be fascinating to watch how he looks alongside fellow big Karl-Anthony Towns, who has struggled when New York uses drop coverage against high-powered offenses.” — Chris Herring
The other team losing a top-5 spot in this week’s power ranking was the Memphis Grizzlies, which dropped from that position to the No. 7 occupied by the Lakers a week ago.
What are your thoughts on the ranks above? Where do you have the Knicks ranked after they split their first six games of the season? Drop your hot takes in the comments section below!