New York Knicks: After Cavs loss, perspective is everything

The New York Knicks dropped a game to the Cavs on Monday night that they had no business losing. Despite the outcome, New York showed its on the right track

In the NBA, just like in life, perspective is everything. And just like in life, where we’re naturally inclined to get caught up in the moment – especially a negative one – in the NBA, we often lose sight of the forest for the trees.

Case in point: The New York Knicks lost a home game Monday night after blowing a 23-point lead to an under .500 team that looked disinterested (to put it lightly) for much of the first three quarters. Their franchise savior went 7 for 21 and their first-round draft pick had more turnovers than field goals, including a key one with under two minutes to go that would wind up sealing their fate.

Same old Knicks…is one perspective.

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Here’s another: The New York Knicks – a team already a quarter of their way to even the most generous projected win totals less than a month into the season – were a Kyle Korver B-A-N-A-N-A-S shooting streak away from going 2-0 against the three-time defending conference champs and sitting in third place in a more-competitive-than-anyone-thought East.

They also held the fifth highest scoring team in the NBA to 61 points through three quarters, thanks in large part to a rookie who became the second youngest player ever to get 6 steals in one game (LeBron, ironically, was the youngest).

However you chose to look at last night’s game, and however you want to see whatever it is that these Knicks are , one thing has become clear: the Knick faithful – the ones who have sat through almost two decades of basketball that’s been like watching classic Knicks teams in a funhouse mirror – finally have an argument.

An argument…not necessarily the correct one. It’s too early to tell on most fronts.

Tim Hardaway Jr. – who has 62 points against the Cavs on the year – could wind up being the perfect second-ish scoring option to Kristaps Porzingis…or he could just be a glorified, more expensive John Starks – someone who is a constant reminder of what he isn’t rather than what he is.

Enes Kanter, Courtney Lee, and Lance Thomas – three contracts thought to be onerous before the season that now might be (gasp!) valuable – could be keys either to the team’s resurgence or to a trade that opens up valuable cap space this summer. Or they’re a five game losing streak away from being viewed as dead weight.

Kristaps Porzingis is the second coming, the bringer of light, the arbiter of what is good and holy on the hardwood, and the possessor of the most dangerous combination of tools and ability the league has ever seen. He could be one organizational bonehead move away from “I don’t wanna be here” (and he has the clout to make it happen, financials and restricted free agency be damned).

Joakim Noah…is still Joakim Noah. FML.

And then there’s Frank.

The young Frenchman represents the dichotomy of perspectives better than perhaps anyone.

Frankie Smokes. Frankie Nicotine. Or as he became last night, “Our Guy.”

Listen…Dennis Smith Jr. is going to put up numbers. And highlights. God, will there be highlights. Those highlights will probably come in wins soon enough, because he’s part of a stable organization playing for one of three best coaches in the league. It makes life easy on the kid, because he didn’t need to step into a new environment and influence the culture from day one. Instead, the culture could influence him (which, from what you read about him last year, might not have been a bad thing).

Frank Ntilikina didn’t change the culture of these Knicks. There’s not a teenager in the world who could do that – walk into an entity that has been the pillar of disfunction for the better part of my lifetime and change things right away, or maybe ever. But what he showed last night is something Knicks fans haven’t seen since Charles Oakley was getting all up in guy’s mugs (while he was still in uniform, that is). He fought back.

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It seems like the New York Knicks won that battle but lost the war…but really, for team that still isn’t going anywhere this year despite their early season success, it might be the other way around. Last night could be looked at as a big step in the right direction for a team and a franchise that hasn’t had many. It could be the latest sign of evidence that it isn’t the same old Knicks. That maybe, just maybe, this is the start of something real.

It all depends on your perspective. But now at least both sides have an argument.

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