Count NBA coach Jeff Van Gundy among those who are optimistic about the future of the New York Knicks.
Van Gundy, the former Knicks head coach who just won a championship as an advisor to the Boston Celtics and now joins the LA Clippers as an assistant, praised the Knicks for their toughness.
While speaking on Sirius XM radio, Van Gundy called the Knicks, who are coming off a 50-win season and a second-round playoff appearance, a “handful.”
“The Knicks are not only an excellent team, but they have truly built a roster that competes at a high and tough level,” Van Gundy said. “And they’re going to be difficult for anyone in the future.”
“They will be a problem for anyone in the future”
Jeff Van Gundy talked about the success the Knicks had this season with Tom Thibodeau with @FrankIsola and @Scalabrine pic.twitter.com/S4QTQByDaf
– SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) June 19, 2024
Even in a league of 30 professional teams, the Knicks’ toughness, effort and togetherness set them apart last season. ESPN analyst (and potential Los Angeles Lakers head coach) JJ Redick had praised the Knicks during the playoffs as “everything that’s right in basketball.”
It’s been a somewhat notable turnaround for the Knicks. They spent much of the century stagnating, trading draft picks, making bad trades and signings in free agency, and changing the roster repeatedly.
Now national pundits are heralding them as a feel-good story: a team that drafts well, signs great contracts and competes harder than most others in the NBA.
The Knicks could have had a chance to face Van Gundy’s Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals if they had stayed healthy. In the Knicks’ second-round series loss to the Indiana Pacers, they were missing Julius Randle and Bojan Bogdanovic for the entire series and OG Anunoby and Mitchell Robinson for most of the series.
If the Knicks can re-sign Anunoby and Hartenstein and retain Bogdanovic, they should enter the 2024-25 NBA season as potential contenders. Randle recently said on ESPN that the Knicks will try to beat the Celtics next season.
Of course, there are plenty of unknowns between now and then, including the draft, free agency and potential trades. The Knicks have a great summer ahead of them to continue building and become the “handful” that Van Gundy praised.