What Does Success Look Like For the Knicks?

Nifty Fifty

While the Knicks will more than likely land in the third spot on the Eastern Conference bracket — a spot below last season's second-place finish — they still have a realistic shot at getting half-a-hundred wins. The Knicks haven't reached such a landmark since getting in a row between 1992 and 1996.

Getting to 50 wins perhaps isn't the accomplishment it once was in the era of explosive offensive and superteams, but it's still a strong barometer for where a team stands on the NBA landscape. The Knicks would reach that plateau despite several hurdles they haven't fully cleared: the Brunson injury is one thing but the Knicks' defensive issues still aren't fully solved, and let's not even start on their record against the Association's elite.

But good teams know how to handle their business and do the ordinary things extraordinarily well. Former head coach Stan Van Gundy expounded on the value of a 50-spot en route to last year's tally in an interview with Steve Serby of the New York Post.

“I think that 50 games has always sort of been a marker in the league of a really good regular season team," Van Gundy, who led the 59-23 Orlando Magic to the 2009 NBA Finals, said. "I think, unfortunately, people discount the challenge of the regular season and the consistency it takes to go out and play high-level basketball every single night in the NBA."

Consistency in consistency is a strong first hurdle for the Knicks, even if they fall short of their larger aspirations. It won't be easy: the Knicks could well decide the top seed honors in the East thanks to three remaining meetings against Cleveland and Boston. Over the last eight, only two remaining opponents (Philadelphia and Brooklyn) are fully removed from the postseason conversation.

Break Out the Brooms

The most thankless task on the NBA postseason to-do list is likely what the Knicks face in the opening round of the postseason.

The current first-round set-up is the Knicks critic's dream: each of their likely potential opponents carries an argument if the Knicks prevail. Pound the Pacers? "Where was that last year?" Down Detroit? "Oh, the Pistons are a rebuilding team ahead of schedule." Best the Bucks? "Milwaukee is injury-prone and clearly shades removed from their championship group."

In one way, it's a step in the right direction that May games are viewed as a more assured staple of the Knicks' schedule. But that makes it more difficult to appreciate the undeniable steps forward the Knicks have made. There is a solution, however: a sweep.

If the Knicks thoroughly dominate one of their fellow automatic playoff qualifiers, that would at least lower the volume on some of the offseason chatter surrounding the Knicks' core and force the expected goal of winning in the first round to carry a little weight. The Knicks not been perfect in a best-of-seven set since besting the Atlanta Hawks in the 1999 conference semifinals en route to the Finals. Their last after a full regular season was three decades prior, when they bested the Baltimore Bullets in the same round.