The New York Knicks came into the 2024-25 season with a lot of excitement surrounding the squad. The new additions of Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges bolstered the Knicks’ core, consisting of Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart.
But there are many ups and downs during an NBA season, and this is something that the Knicks have proven all season. One of these low points has been the loss of Brunson, who went down with an ankle injury against the Los Angeles Lakers on March 6.
The Knicks have been treading water since their captain went down with a record of 7-5 without him, and have been on a two-game win streak, beating the Milwaukee Bucks and the Portland Trail Blazers. They have been able to keep their heads above water because of the performances of their starters Bridges and Anunoby, as well as Hart, who have all taken steps up.
But the Knicks have been struggling on the defensive side of the ball all season. Their defensive rating is 13th in the league, but there has been improvement ever since the return of center Mitchell Robinson.
This has played into the Knicks’ season many struggles against higher-end opponents. They have had a losing record against teams over .500, going just 12-18 this season. Head Coach Tom Thibodeau’s tight rotations expect a high number of minutes to be played by his starting five.
The Knicks’ starting five has the highest number of minutes played per game out of any starting five in the league, playing a combined 180 minutes per game. Some of their players are sounding off about their struggles with all of these minutes.
Earlier in the month, reports came out that Bridges was having some friction with Thibodeau with all of the minutes being played. Bridges has been known as an NBA iron man, and he hasn’t missed a game since his rookie season.
Bridges, when asked after a shootaround about the minutes, told the Athletic, “I’m on that side because I’m a starter and I’ll play a lot of minutes. Sometimes not fun on the body. But you want that as a coach, but also talk to him a little bit, knowing that we’ve got a good enough team where our bench guys can come in and we don’t need to play 48, 47 [minutes].”
During the long NBA season, these minutes can add up, especially when the playoffs are just around the corner. Fatigue can start to set in, especially when playing teams that aren’t very good and are taking you down to the wire.
The Knicks are playing teams like the Trail Blazers in March all the way down to the last minute and getting big performances out of Anunoby, Hart and Bridges. But when playing the Los Angeles Clippers in the same month, they were just getting outclassed in the effort department. The starting rotation is producing, but they aren’t getting much of anything from their bench.
Despite all of these issues that have been plaguing the Knicks, things have still managed to be okay. They have the fifth-best record in the league and have the seventh-highest overall rating around the league as well.
With the absence of Brunson, many other players have started to find their groove. One such player is Bridges, who has had some struggles throughout the season with his offensive output. Things changed from his role with the Brooklyn Nets when he was primarily getting all the touches, to now on the Knicks where he became more of an added piece along with the weapons they already have.
Since the Brunson injury, Bridges has excelled, averaging 22.2 points a game along with 5.2 assists and a true shooting percentage of 63.9%. He’s finally breaking out and showing Knicks fans his true potential.
On Sunday, Brunson was cleared for participation in basketball activities and told CBS News, “Realistically, I’m hoping to play before the playoffs. I think it’s good for me to get some game reps before we go into that type of stretch run. Most importantly, I want to make sure I’m 100% healthy.”
With Brunson hopefully back before the playoffs, the Knicks are hoping to get healthy enough before their run in the postseason. If they are able to maintain the three seed before the season ends, they will face the Bucks, who are the sixth seed and who the Knicks have beaten every time they faced them this season.
The Knicks are looking at going on a very long run this season, hopefully ending in a championship. But with all of the minutes, injuries and struggles they have had this season, it might be a little tougher of a run than they had originally thought.
