Count NBA coach Jeff Van Gundy among those who are optimistic about the New York Knicks' future.
Van Gundy, the former Knicks head coach who just won a championship as an advisor with the Boston Celtics and is now joining 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 second-round playoff appearance, a "handful."
"The Knicks are not only an excellent team, but they have really built a roster that competes at a high and hard level," Van Gundy said. "And they're going to be a handful for anybody going forward."
"They're going to be a handful for anybody going forward"
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) June 19, 2024
Jeff Van Gundy discussed the success the Knicks had this season under Tom Thibodeau with @TheFrankIsola and @Scalabrine pic.twitter.com/S4QTQByDaf
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 about basketball."
It's been a somewhat remarkable turnaround for the Knicks. They spent much of the century in the doldrums, trading away draft picks, making bad trades and free agency signings, and turning over the roster repeatedly.
Now they are heralded as a feel-good story by national pundits — a team that drafts well, signs great contracts, and competes harder than most others in the NBA.
The Knicks might have gotten a shot to face Van Gundy's Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals had they 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 a majority 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 take down the Celtics next season.
Of course, a lot of unknowns stand between now and then, including the draft, free agency, and potential trades. The Knicks have a big summer ahead of them to continue building toward being the "handful" that Van Gundy praised.
