The New York Knicks will have a different look in the 2016-17 season with the additions of Courtney Lee, Brandon Jennings, Joakim Noah, and most notably Derrick Rose. They already appeared to be turning the corner with the selection of Kristaps Porzingis in the 2015 NBA Draft, but with these additional moves over the summer, the future in New York suddenly appears to be getting brighter.
For the first time in his New York Knicks career, Carmelo Anthony actually has a supporting cast to be excited about, which in and of itself is a big deal. But considering that the Knicks went 32-50 last season, are these moves enough to actually make them a serious force in the Eastern Conference? How good will these Knicks be?
The short and simple answer is that how good the Knicks will be directly correlates to how healthy they will be. Joakim Noah (29 games) and Derrick Rose (66 games) both struggled to stay healthy last season, which is reason for Knicks fans to treat the addition of both players with a fair amount of skepticism. If those guys don't stay healthy and on the floor, the Knicks will still be hard pressed to crack 41 wins, let alone make a serious dent in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Plus, it isn't like it's only Noah and Rose who've been injured. Brandon Jennings played only 48 games last season and 41 games the season before due to rupturing his left Achilles.
The amount of injuries that these new additions to the Knicks have suffered is certainly a serious concern and it also makes you wonder why the Knicks were willing to roll the dice on Noah, Rose, and Jennings as opposed to one of them. Maybe the idea is that one of them will have to stay healthy, but even so, it's very risky to have your season riding on the health of fragile players who aren't what they used to be.
Joakim Noah's injury was a shoulder injury, which shouldn't be taken lightly, but I'm much more optimistic that he'll be able to return to form as one of the league's best rebounders and shot blockers. But Brandon Jennings (Achilles) and Derrick Rose (multiple ACLs) have had much more worrisome injuries that are very hard to bounce back from. Derrick Rose is a former league MVP who at his peak was perhaps the best player in the world. But now, he's at best a B-grade player who is only capable of showing flashes of the brilliance he once had. As for Brandon Jennings, he hasn't been able to have a scoring average in double figures since the Achilles injury, so in his case I'm even more skeptical of his ability to become a productive player again.
The only other noteworthy addition that I haven't mentioned is Courtney Lee, who has been more of a role player over the course of his career, playing good defense and knocking down some threes. Lee can't be expected to be anything better than what he's already been, which is to score around 10 points and shoot close to 40% from 3-point range. That's solid, but nothing to get super jazzed about.
At the end of the day, the additions to this New York Knicks team look a lot better on paper than they actually are. Carmelo Anthony will still need to carry the load and Kristaps Porzingis will have to continue to be the Great White Hope of the franchise and build upon his stellar rookie season. If Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, and Brandon Jennings all stay healthy and play better than they did last season, the Knicks will actually be pretty good and threaten to win a playoff series. The problem is that the odds of that happening are about as high as the odds of Cookie Monster switching to brownies. It could theoretically happen, but we all know it's not. In terms of a win total projection for this Knicks team, I'll say they improve by 10 wins, finishing with a 42-40 record, which might be good enough to make the playoffs.
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