National Basketball Association

New York Knicks Are Painfully Close To Being A Winning Team

Updated Mar. 5, 2020 12:01 a.m. ET

Fansided, Maxwell Ogden/FanSided via Daily Knicks

The New York Knicks are in the midst of one of the most painful seasons in franchise history. Kristaps Porzingis summarized exactly what’s so frustrating.

The New York Knicks should be 23-22, but instead, they’re 19-26. New York held a lead with 32 seconds or less remaining in the fourth quarter during four of its past five losses, but somehow found a way to blow every single one of those leads.

Though that could be spun any number of ways, there’s one reality that isn’t being discussed quite enough: New York is painfully close to being a winning team.

Had New York preserved its leads during those four losses, it would be a game above .500 and a significant portion of the criticism would have effectively subsided. Instead, it’s in a seven-game hole that it’s struggling to climb out of.

According to Fred Kerber of The New York Post, power forward Kristaps Porzingis summarized what’s most frustrating about this team: they’re playing the right way, but simply can’t finish.

“Obviously it’s tough,” said forward Kristaps Porzingis. “It’s just we’re not there yet. We’re not that good. We’re not able to finish those games yet. But I think we’re playing the right way.”

Most frustrating of all is that the Knicks may be too close to start over.

New York has flaws that it must address, and a 23-22 record admittedly wouldn’t silence the critics entirely. It’s just 45 games into a season with a new head coach, however, as well as three new starters, a new sixth man, and 10 new players in total.

With that massive amount of turnover, a 23-22 record through 45 games would have been more than acceptable.

More importantly, it would have the Knicks slotted at No. 7 in the Eastern Conference.

The Knicks are still just 3.0 games back of the No. 8 seed and 4.0 games back of the No. 7 seed. Thus, while it may be fair to contemplate trade scenarios, a true overhaul would be criminal when victory is so close to being within reach.

Overall, the Knicks have lost two games on game-winning buzzer-beaters, two games in overtime, six games by one possession, and 10 games by five points or less.

When games are ending as closely as the Knicks’ losses have been, one can’t help but feel as though there’s still upside to tap into.