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A summer of franchise-altering trades later, the 2024-25 Knicks are set to play basketball in a matter of days, and fans are eagerly awaiting a first look at this newly configured roster.
After swapping out most of their starting five for Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges, this incoming rotation looks nothing like prior years and offers a fresh range of new possibilities and challenges.
With that in mind, here are the five biggest questions about this Knicks team going into the preseason…
How will the Knicks defend with Towns at center?
Perhaps the biggest question that will weigh on this team from preseason to the playoffs is if they’ll be able to maintain a competitive defense centered around Towns in the middle. For all his upside as well as head coach Tom Thibodeau‘s magic and surrounding help, Towns’ rim protection and defensive instincts have been poor throughout his career.
Can a Knicks defense that thrived on its strong personnel, schemes and buy-in remain elite in a lineup featuring Jalen Brunson and now Towns as its interior anchor?
It’ll be a work in progress, and we won’t get a definitive answer until the postseason, but New York is betting on the answer being “yes.”
Thibodeau will need to pull out creative looks and maximize his defensive wings — Bridges and OG Anunoby. He’ll also need career performances from Towns on that end, but coming off a great showing against Nikola Jokic in the playoffs, there’s some warranted optimism.
Where will the depth come from?
One silver lining of preseason basketball is getting to see players who normally wouldn’t get an opportunity to play in the regular season unless injuries slammed the roster. The Knicks can use these handful of games for experimentation with their deep bench options in search of a diamond in the rough that can help fill out the rotation.
After last year was completely derailed by injuries, New York reloaded in the draft and picked up a bunch of reliable veterans in free agency in hopes of avoiding a similar fate. They’ve since lost an extra piece in the Towns trade, further emphasizing the need for somebody to step up as a…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/5-knicks-questions-entering-2024-140201429.html
Author : SNY
Publish date : 2024-10-04 14:02:01
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