Oct 20, 2015
GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- None of the preseason predictions have been particularly kind to the New York Knicks.
ESPN’s FiveThirtyEight projects the Knicks to win 27 games this season -- 10 more than they did last year.
The NBA’s annual GM survey left the Knicks out of the top five of its “Most Improved” category (though New York did receive votes).
Earlier in the summer, ESPN’s forecast pegged New York for 25 wins. Likewise, ESPN's Basketball Power Index (BPI) gives the Knicks just a 3.1 percent chance of making the playoffs.
Yuck.
These predictions might cause a stir among a fan base starving for a winner. But, truth be told, these projections mean little to the players.
"If people are predicting 27 wins, I laugh at that,” Carmelo Anthony said after practice on Tuesday. “We use that as kind of motivation. It’s a good thing to kind of be under the radar. I know what type of team we have. It’s just a matter of going out there and putting it together. ... I think we’ll be better than people predict.”
Expectations are modest for a Knicks team coming off of the worst season in franchise history.
Knicks boss Phil Jackson failed to land any of the top free agents on the market, but the Knicks so far have developed a quiet confidence during the preseason.
Just don’t expect them to make any predictions about the coming season. That backfired last season after Jackson said he thought the Knicks would be a playoff team.
“Right now, [we’re] 0-0 and it’s just talk,” Jose Calderon said. “It didn’t work last year so let’s keep doing it this way.”
Derek Fisher also shied away from making any win predictions or goals.
“This year our goal is the process of becoming good. However far that takes us, then we start to work from there,” Fisher said Tuesday. “But we have to build a foundation for success. Hopefully we’re in position to accomplish certain goals in terms of numbers of wins and postseason. But in October we’re kidding ourselves if we’re thinking that far ahead.”
NBA GMs unimpressed with Knicks
The Knicks didn't receive much recognition from NBA GMs.
Kristaps Porzingis received a vote for the “best player in five years” category but was not in the top five.
Anthony ranked fourth in voting for the player you want to take the final shot with the game hanging in the balance. But Anthony, who is coming off knee surgery, didn’t receive votes for best small forward or power forward.
“I know where I stand in this league. For somebody else to tell what I am and what I’m not, that’s way beyond me,” Anthony said. “That’s all he said, she said. Until you get on that court with me, that hardwood with me, a lot of things will be different. I don’t concern myself with what other people talk about.”
The feeling around the Knicks is that Anthony will have a big season after playing in a career-low 40 games in 2014-15 due to knee injuries.
“For sure, it will be [big],” he said. "My mentality is just to come out strong and want to get back to where I was before the injury. That’s just me motivating myself. As far as proving anything to anybody, I’m not trying to prove anything.
"I know what I can do. My teammates know what I can do. Guys in the NBA know what I can do. Teams know what I can do. So I’m not about going out there trying to prove anything."
http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york-knicks/...
This team needs some motivation.
